THE COLORS ARE bright, the ads are popping, and promises of free money encourage you to just try out a bit of online gambling. Welcome to a vision of the online state lottery, which is making serious strides toward becoming reality in Massachusetts with the blessing of one legislative chamber and the new governor.
Don’t look to the state’s top prosecutor to break ranks.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office is giving the side eye to the online lottery for almost the same reasons she called for stricter regulation of online sports betting, but the attorney general stops short of saying the state shouldn’t take the plunge into online lottery sales.
“AG Campbell’s office does not oppose online gaming, but we demand safe and responsible conduct of all operators, including the Lottery,” a spokeswoman for Campbell said in a statement.
Campbell’s recent warnings about mobile sports betting, which launched in the Commonwealth last month, had a dire ring to them.
“We already know it can be an area that can lead to addiction, and of course addictive use, which can lead to mental health concerns, substance use disorder, you name it,” Campbell said last month. “And so our job is to protect the consumers.”
Put the office’s list of concerns about mobile sports betting up against the concerns about the online lottery, and you may think you’re seeing double.
Campbell’s deputies waved red flags before the Massachusetts Gaming Commission about sports betting platform designs, user data collection, push alerts that could encourage habitual and harmful gambling, targeted advertising, and the risks of attracting young people who cannot legally place bets. Her office is looking at those same risk factors in the “iLottery.”
“Safety and responsibility is a priority for our office and we look forward to hearing details on what types of games an online lottery proposes to offer, how it will be marketed to consumers, and how responsible use can be encouraged and addictive elements mitigated,” the spokeswoman said.
Unlike mobile sports betting, however, the online lottery is not yet the law of the land. If Campbell wanted to wade in and oppose its legalization while still enforcing whatever law passes, she could take a leaf from then-AG Healey’s playbook on recreational cannabis.
That would mean bucking the governor, who has been a close political ally and backed Campbell as her successor to the attorney general post in 2022. And Healey thinks an online lottery will help make the state more competitive.
“We have casinos in the state. We also have DraftKings here in the state, and a lot of money is being spent there by a lot of people,” Healey said to GBH’s Jim Braude. “What we also have is a lottery system that right now isn’t able to compete against a DraftKings. Nothing against DraftKings, but the Lottery, that’s money coming back to cities and towns. The money spent on DraftKings is going to DraftKings.”
The Massachusetts lottery is a massive revenue driver for the state, bringing in $1.1 billion in net profit in Fiscal Year 2022, according to the state treasurer’s office. The Bay State has the distinction of its lottery revenues making up the highest proportion of its gross domestic product of any US state.
If the explosive start to online sports betting in Massachusetts was any indicator, there is a profound appetite for gambling on mobile platforms. The Lottery had been raring to move online, worrying that it would be left behind in the mobile gambling space.
Mark Bracken, the interim Massachusetts State Lottery director, told MassLive that the state lottery app has functionality built in to incorporate an online lottery if lawmakers approve the gambling expansion.
After fizzling out in an economic development package last session, a renewed push for a Massachusetts iLottery found a friendly audience in the House of Representatives and Healey. The House’s budget proposal, passed Wednesday and on its way to the Senate, would legalize online Lottery sales with an expected $200 million in new revenue directed toward early education and child care grants.
