After a long-awaited report was released last year, it seemed that online poker and casino games would not be on the table for several years. The commission examined and researched various forms of online betting potential for Massachusetts and concluded that only daily fantasy sports (DFS) was in the cards for the immediate future.
Nevertheless, in the first month of 2018, a bill appeared in the state legislature to regulate DFS, online sports betting, and internet gambling.
Commission Report Results
The group was assembled in 2016 and delivered a final report in July 2017. The Massachusetts Special Commission on Online Gaming, Fantasy Sports Gaming and Daily Fantasy Sports included a number of legislators and experts, notably pro-online gambling Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby.
The end result of the year-long effort was a recommendation to the state legislature to regulate DFS with a larger online gambling picture to be addressed in the future. They indicated the goal for the state’s gambling industry should be to “permanently legalize daily fantasy sports but hold off on allowing other forms of online gambling for now.”
Fast Forward Six Months
A new year brought new goals, at least for one of the members of the aforementioned commission. Massachusetts State Senator Eileen Donoghue was the co-chairperson of that commission that recommended only DFS be legalized, and she is now the sponsor of a shiny new comprehensive online gambling bill.
Source: GMB / legaluspokersites
On January 17, 2018, Donoghue introduced SD.2480, otherwise known as “An Act to Regulate Online Gaming, Daily Fantasy Sports, and Online Sports Betting.” It was immediately referred to the Joint Committee on Rules.
