Crossing the border
Profits going out of state, sports betting supporters say
While Massachusetts lawmakers have been slowwalking proposals to legalize sports betting for the last three years, a host of other states have scooped up the money and jobs that could have come the Bay State’s way, supporters said in a hearing Thursday.
“In my mind, this decision is not dissimilar to discussions that were had in the past on cannabis … this is something that’s already happening in our state illegally or it’s something that residents of our state are just going just over the border and taking care of and are participating in,” said Plainville Select Board Chair Brian Kelly, whose town borders Rhode Island.
Up north, near the New Hampshire border, the story is the same, Ipswich Rep. Brad Hill said.
“They’re going right by our mom and pop stores, our restaurants, and they’re staying in New Hampshire. They’re shopping in New Hampshire and all that revenue, unfortunately, is going to New Hampshire, not Massachusetts,”
Hill said at a Joint Committee on Economic Development hearing.
While 30 states, including neighboring Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and New York, have authorized gamblers to place legal bets on sports in some fashion, Massachusetts has been considering whether to similarly expand gambling here since the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2018 ruled that the nearly nationwide prohibition on sports wagering was unconstitutional and gave states the ability to legalize the activity.
For DraftKings, 30% of the company’s sports betting business in New Hampshire comes from Massachusetts residents, company officials said.
The sports betting giant told lawmakers that Massachusetts’ prohibition was limiting its growth in the state.
The company was founded in Watertown and keeps a headquarters in Boston. In testimony Thursday, cofounder and CEO Jason Robins told lawmakers he would like to expand here, but legally cannot base certain sports-betting employees in Massachusetts unless the activity is legal.
“We are hopeful to have the opportunity to operate in every state and, in order to do so, until Massachusetts authorizes sports betting, we will continue to locate certain teams and functions outside of the Commonwealth,” he wrote in his prepared remarks. “We urge the legislature to move swiftly so that the Commonwealth can more quickly realize the economic benefits — and consumers can realize the safeguards and protections — of a robust, legal sports wagering market.”
Though there were 19 sports betting bills on the agenda, the committee is likely to assemble its own omnibus sports betting bill drawing aspects from the various different proposals, members said Thursday.