A year ago, Nevada was the only state in the country where you could place a legal bet on the Super Bowl.
This year, sports books and online outfits in seven other states, included Rhode Island, are taking sports bets wagers for (or against) the Patriots or on proposition bets like the coin flip or whether a halftime dancer will take a tumble.
And while it’s a bit too soon to say if the Patriots will make it to their fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance next year, it’s not a longshot any more to predict that Massachusetts will have legalized sports betting by then.
“We are at the beginning of a two-year session and it is my personal sense that because this issue involves revenues and given that the Governor has just filed with the Legislature a budget that includes revenues that would be realized from sports betting, then I think in consideration of those actions and thoughts that we should perhaps look at this sooner rather than later,” said State Rep. Joseph Wagner, who served as the House chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies for the past eight years, on Friday. “I do think as other states get into this and we see some early experiences associated with sports betting, it gives us more information and it informs us about things that we should perhaps look at or not look at. Is that a possibility that that would be a reasonable time-line between now and the next Super Bowl? Yes. And I would think that if we were going to do something with this issue of sports betting that we would do it in the current legislative session. That would make some sense to me.”
Other state senators have filed sports wagering bills but Gov. Baker’s shared desire to start collecting taxes on sports wagering revenues is a significant motivating factor for action. Committee assignments for the current legislative session have yet to be made, but considering that Baker’s bill has been assigned to the House committee where Wagner has been a point man since the state has explored expanded gaming opportunities, Wagner’s personal optimism about swift action on sports betting carries weight.
What is happening in those “other states” should also lend some degree of urgency to implement a framework for bringing in the new revenue by next year.
The proliferation of Super Bowl betting makes it a convenient launching point for what Massachusetts could be missing out on.
According to Nevada Gaming Control Board figures, just over $5 billion was bet on sports – both online and in casinos – in the state last year. Roughly $158.6 million, or 3.16 percent, was bet on last February’s Super Bowl in Nevada.
Gov. Baker’s office has estimated that the Commonwealth could generate $35 million in annual tax revenues from sports betting. Revenues from online betting and casino betting would be taxed at different rates but based on Baker’s annual projections, bettors in Massachusetts would bet roughly $300 million a year on sports in a year.
New Jersey embraced sports betting just a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May that states could determine their own sports betting laws. Soon enough we will learn what the state’s take on their first go at Super Bowl betting. Signs point to a healthy figure. In the last seven months of 2018, the Garden State took in $1.246 billion in sports betting.
Boston-based daily fantasy sports company DraftKings was quick to the New Jersey market and along with FanDuel and others, mobile operators captured 63 percent of that $1.246 billion New Jersey handle.
Whether or not a Massachusetts bill would allow DraftKings and other mobile operators to be independent of or tethered to a land-based casino, the Massachusetts company has its fingers crossed it can be helping Massachusetts bettors a year from now.
“I think ultimately Massachusetts should feel some sense of pressure to get it done by football season because if not, what you’ll have is, what we see in New Jersey, for example, where like 70 percent of the betting comes within 10 miles of the state borders,” said Jamie Chisholm, director of global public affairs for DraftKings on Thursday. “What you have is people come in from New York City or Philly, they cross over, make their bets, maybe hang out at a restaurant and then eventually go home – but that money stays in New Jersey. It doesn’t go back to Philadelphia or New York. I think in Massachusetts, if you have New Hampshire and Rhode Island and Connecticut, if they all have mobile sports betting, well, why wouldn’t you drive 20 minutes, get over the border, place your bets and come home? There are all the reasons in the world to get it done and get it done quickly (in Massachusetts).”
