MARCH WAS “Problem Gambling Awareness Month” in Massachusetts, but for those in charge of the state lottery the gambling problem coming into the new year was that people weren’t doing […]
Rolling the Dice
Coverage of casino licensing and the gambling referendum
Posted inGambling
Gaming Commission asks feds to shut down illegal gambling
GAMBLERS IN MASSACHUSETTS have a full menu of wagering options to choose from these days: physical casinos, sports betting in person or online, and the state lottery, which some officials […]
Posted inEconomy, Gambling, Opinion
An online lottery will hurt Main Street retailers
LOCALLY OWNED retail stores are rightfully up in arms about inclusion of an online lottery in the House fiscal 2024 budget. As demonstrated through testimony before the Legislature’s Joint Committee […]
Posted inGambling
Mass. residents placed $568m in sports bets in March
MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS placed $568 million in legal sports bets in March, with 77 percent of the money wagered with DraftKings and FanDuel. March was the first month where the state’s […]
Posted inGambling
Healey backs moving Lottery games online
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. MAURA HEALEY is on board with the House’s push to legalize online Massachusetts Lottery sales, a stance that could ramp up pressure on the Senate […]
Posted inGambling
Gaming Commission rejects bid to bet on Boston Marathon
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LEGAL BETTING will not be allowed in Massachusetts on this year’s Boston Marathon after a request from DraftKings to take wagers was met with opposition from […]
Posted inGambling
Sports betting opens with big bang
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MORE THAN 400,000 mobile sports betting accounts were active during the first three days online was available in Massachusetts and more than 8 million transactions took place, […]
Posted inGambling
Online sports betting launches in Massachusetts
SIX OPERATORS started taking online sports bets at 10 a.m. Friday, launching a new era of Massachusetts gambling one day after gaming officials and the attorney general worried about how […]
Posted inGambling
Encore allowed to expand its gaming footprint
THE MASSACHUSETTS Gaming Commission voted 4-1 on Wednesday to allow Encore Boston Harbor to expand its gambling operations in Everett to a new property under development across the street from […]
Posted inGambling
Encore posts record-high gambling revenues
THE ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR casino in Everett posted record-high gambling revenues in December, propelled by money spent at the facility’s gaming tables. The large haul at Encore, combined with fairly […]
Posted inGambling
Start dates for in-person sports betting set
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE GAMING COMMISSION on Thursday narrowed the launch date for in-person sports betting in Massachusetts and it appears as if the first bets could be placed […]
Posted inGambling
Can casinos expand gaming beyond their original footprint?
IN FEBRUARY, Wynn Resorts proposed an entertainment complex across the street from its existing Everett casino, complete with a theater, bars and restaurants, a parking garage, and eventually additional hotels. […]
Posted inGambling
Free sports bets? How to tax them?
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GAMING REGULATORS have reached no conclusions as to how they will treat, for tax purposes, the promotional betting offers that sports wagering companies dangle to attract customers, […]
Posted inGambling
Sports betting could start in late Jan., maybe
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AN EMERGENCY MEETING called Friday was still not enough for the members of the Gaming Commission to agree on actual dates for the potential launch of […]
Posted inGambling
Gaming Commission struggling with when to launch sports betting
ONE ADVANTAGE Massachusetts has in being late to legalize sports betting – 36th according to the American Gaming Commission – is it can learn from other states on how to […]
Posted inGambling
Lottery facing headwinds, sales down
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY and an expanding menu of gambling options send lottery sales into a slide in Massachusetts and across the country, Massachusetts officials are thinking […]
Posted inGambling
Sports betting regulators confront licensing quirks
THERE’S AN ODD quirk in the law legalizing sports betting in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is allowed to license seven mobile sports betting apps, in addition to mobile apps […]
Posted inGambling
Casinos ready to go on sports betting
AT A MEETING a meeting of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Thursday, the message from the state’s three casinos was clear: We’re ready to roll. To roll out sports betting, […]
Posted inGambling
A loud lament over the latest gambling embrace by state leaders
THERE WERE WHOOPS AND HOLLERS from DraftKings, the state’s casinos, and lawmakers as the state legalized sports betting earlier this month. For Les Bernal, it was not a moment to […]
Posted inGambling
Nightclub at Encore hit with $25,000 fine
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER FIVE separate incidents in which patrons at Encore Boston Harbor’s Memoire nightclub, some of them underage, were served more alcohol than they should have been, […]
Posted inGambling
Let the betting begin – in a number of months
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Wednesday signed a law legalizing sports betting in Massachusetts, joining more than 30 other states that have authorized sports betting since the US Supreme Court overturned […]
Posted inGambling
Leominster group pursuing fourth casino region
A GROUP of Leominster business officials, with the help of former Senate president and now lobbyist Stan Rosenberg, is pursuing a long-shot, end-of-the-legislative-session bid to create a fourth casino region […]
Posted inOpinion
Roadmap to go on sports betting
MAY 14 MARKED the four-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s decision that struck down the federal ban on state-authorized sports betting. For four years, Massachusetts – home to one […]
Posted inCourts, Gambling, State House News Service
SJC orders discovery into Everett casino land deal
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICES THE ACTIONS OF the Massachusetts Gaming Commission almost a decade ago could be put under a new microscope after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Monday that […]