Online betting starts on Friday at Mass; seven phone apps for live launch
With the launch of legalized online gambling in Massachusetts on Friday, a local betting analyst says the state is ready for the big day.
“The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has done a great job preparing for this,” said Bet Massachusetts betting analyst Lou Monaco. “It was planned in great detail.”
So what does it all mean?
In short, online gambling gives people the option to place a variety of bets using phone apps instead of visiting one of the state’s three big casinos in person. — Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville.
“Retail Gambling” — as Monaco calls it — started on January 31st in Massachusetts, one week before Super Bowl LVII.
“However, betting online is much easier because you can just do it on your phone instead of going somewhere,” Monaco said.
One way to bet online is DraftKings Sports Betting, created by DraftKings, a daily fantasy sports tournament and sports betting company based in Boston.
DraftKings co-founder and CEO Jason Robins said in a written statement, “It’s been just over 10 years since we started DraftKings out of a spare bedroom in Watertown, and now we’re proud to have the opportunity to provide a safe and legal sports betting product more million die-hard sports fans in Massachusetts. This launch will be a significant milestone for our company and we are proud to become the hometown sportsbook for customers in the Commonwealth.”
According to Monaco, Massachusetts is at the right time to launch online gambling for two reasons. One is that it occurs just as the NCAA basketball tournament is about to begin.
“States want to launch (online betting) around certain events, and this is one of those events,” he said, noting that the retail launch came right before the Super Bowl.
Monaco says another reason now is a good time to get into online gambling is that March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month. He said it means people are paying more attention to the issue.
“Many of these (retail and online gambling operators) have already agreed to invest in gambling warning programs, PSAs (public safety announcements) and other initiatives in case punters get caught,” Monaco said.
He said Massachusetts has also introduced a “self-exclusion option” for problem gambling.
Monaco said people can check themselves if they choose to “self-exclude” with any online sports betting app. This means that they can put themselves on a list that prevents them from gambling for a certain period of time.
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However, Monaco stressed that online gambling “will bring a good amount of tax revenue to the Commonwealth”, adding that he said people had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.
“I think you’re going to see there’s going to be a huge amount of interest on opening weekend,” he said. “It’s a good thing, no matter what. If you lose (online gambling), the government gets the tax revenue. But if you win, you make extra money and have great fun.”
Online betting apps available Friday include Barstool Sportsbook, BetMGM, WynnBET, betr, Caesars Sportsbook, FanDuel and DraftKings, Monaco said. He said three more are expected — BallyBET and Fanatics Sportsbook in May and Betway early next year.
The violations were reported in February
When Massachusetts lawmakers legalized sports betting last August, they specifically excluded bets on events involving most Massachusetts colleges and universities. Betting on an event involving a Massachusetts school is only permitted if the team competes in at least four schools.
This rule has been violated.
Encore Boston Harbor accepted bets on a Boston College women’s basketball game and Plainridge Park Casino accepted bets on a Merrimack College men’s basketball game during the first week of legal sports betting, both in violation of state betting laws, the Gaming Commission reported.
Encore hosted Boston College women’s basketball games for about five hours, and Plainridge hosted Merrimack College men’s basketball games for about seven hours, Chief Enforcement Counsel Heather Hall said in early February. Both cases were reported to the commission by the operators themselves.
“Due to a data entry error by one of our vendors, we notified the (Massachusetts Gaming Commission) of the violation and self-reported the violation,” Plainridge Park General Manager North Grounsell said at the time. “We regret that this error occurred, take full responsibility, and have implemented a number of corrective actions in our compliance process to prevent this from happening again.”
For additional problem gambling support or services, customers in the Commonwealth may call (800) 327-5050 or visit GameSenseMA.com.
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