Sports betting will be legal in Mass. next week
BOSTON − Sports betting will become legal in Massachusetts on Tuesday, and companies are preparing to cash in on it.
That eventually will include Raynham Park, which will offer sports betting when it opens in the spring.
Caesars Sportsbook has announced a deal to open a large betting hub at the former racetrack. The permanent facility won't be ready until summer, but a temporary betting parlor will open.
Caesars said the permanent Raynham facility will be one of the largest in the country.
In-person betting is scheduled to begin Jan. 31 at the three facilities that secured so-called Category 1 licenses: Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor.
Mobile betting will follow in early March. The state Gaming Commission approved mobile licenses for Bally's Interactive, FanDuel, Betr, DraftKings, Digital Gaming and PointsBet Massachusetts.
One thing state residents will not be able to wager on: Any athletic events involving in-state NCAA colleges and universities. The Legislature, however, did approve betting on college sports involving teams from out-of-state schools.
While the state initially expected about $60 million in tax revenue from sports wagering, in a recent WCVB-TV interview state Treasurer Deb Goldberg said the tax revenue could be more in the range of $30 million to $50 million a year, plus about $80 million in application and licensing fees.
Of that, 15% will be allocated to the state Department of Public Health for research into and mitigation of gambling-related harm. The state will charge in-person gambling operators an excise tax of 15% on anticipated gambling revenues and a 20% tax on anticipated revenues for mobile or online wagers.
As sports betting is about to begin, athletes' representatives are concerned about the safety of the players and their families, and have asked the state Gaming Commission to step in.
The Players' Association, a collective that includes representatives from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and Major League Soccer players' associations, has asked the commission to include language in its regulations to outline safety measures for players, family members and game officials, and the penalties for fans and bettors who make threats against them.
The group said it was open to a host of options, from prohibiting people who make threats from betting in Massachusetts to shutting down all betting here on a particular game or sport.
"... This industry, the sports betting industry, is built on the backs of the players. Quite literally the revenue is generated entirely by the performance of the players," Steve Fehr, special counsel to the National Hockey League Players Association, said. "And yet, we are not here today with our hand out asking for money. All we are asking for today in this process is that you consider some things that will make things safer, and make sports betting better and more fair."
In a September letter in which it gave examples of specific language it would like to see included in Massachusetts regulations, the group said the players it represents "know that they will be targeted by potential losing sports bettors, and importantly, know that their family members will also be targeted. These instances have already occurred in different parts of the U.S. and other countries, and they and their families should be protected by Massachusetts regulations."
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In the letter and during Monday's commission meeting, the player representatives cited situations of unruly fan behavior "in which players' safety has been at risk including one at the TD Garden." The group cited a 2018 incident in which a fan threw a beer at Tyreek Hill during a Patriots game, and a handful of other incidents around the country.
In 2019, as state lawmakers were considering legalizing sports betting here, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts announced charges against a 23-year-old former Babson College soccer player from California who posted death threats to the Instagram accounts of at least 45 professional and college athletes. The man pleaded guilty in 2019 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
"There's always a thought that the leagues or the teams are best suited to handle some of these issues, for example, when it comes to safety. I think we're in a unique position to explain that oftentimes they actually are not, and need a gentle or forceful nudge from government bodies," David Foster, deputy general counsel to the National Basketball Players Association, said. "When you have more betting, you have increased tension, increased anxiety and increased anger. Oftentimes, the teams and the leagues they struggle a little bit when it comes to enforcing discipline on fans because fans are the ones that are driving the revenue."
Matt Nussbaum, general counsel for the Major League Baseball Players Association, said a regulation allowing the Gaming Commission to disqualify certain people from betting in Massachusetts if they threaten players or their families "is going to encourage players to come forward" when they are targeted.
Fehr said he wanted the commissioners to keep in mind that "the gaming company has no relationship whatsoever with the players. So we have to rely on you and ourselves to do the best things we can."
Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein said the commission is "going to work on the regulation language to make sure that we can address the safety and well-being of the players" and suggested that it might put some of the onus on the sports betting companies awarded licenses here.
Staff writer Kinga Borondy, of the Telegram & Gazette, contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Sports betting will be legal in Mass. next week
