Massachusetts Senate passes sports betting bill

With 32 states fully licensed to offer sports betting in the United States, Massachusetts has taken a key step to make sports betting legal in the state. In the history of the Massachusetts Senate, this is the first time it’s approved a bill in favour of sports betting.

The House of Representatives now has the final role to play by voting in favour of the bill or not. Once signed into law, sports betting can generate over $35m in yearly state taxes.

During the review of the bill, the Senate rejected several parts of the bill, notably among them is that the bettors cannot place wagers on college sports. Only Illinois has such a measure in place among the 32 states offering sports betting.

Senate Chairman Michael Rodrigues commented: “This bill maximises benefits to the Commonwealth and minimises harm to consumers and the general public. We are bringing sports betting into the light of day.

“We in the Senate spent a lot of time thinking about a bill that achieves those three overarching goals of maximising revenue, promoting economic development and establishing the strongest consumer protection measures. I think we hit it on the head.”

The bill passed by the House of representatives previously included college sports betting, majority of the House members voted for it. The new Senate bill will go back to the House and could face serious setbacks and rejections.

The senate rejects several measures in the bill from the House such measures include:
• Forbidding the use of credit cards to wager on sports betting
• Rejecting payment to mental health professionals working in schools.
• They also propose how bettors can take control of their gambling activities by setting limits on how much they can gamble and how frequently they can gamble.

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