BOSTON – The companies that have invested millions of dollars and hired thousands of employees to work at Massachusetts gaming facilities should be the ones to control the sports wagering world here if lawmakers legalize the activity, two of the state’s three casino operators told Beacon Hill leaders.
The House authorized legal sports betting in its economic development bill but the Senate did not authorize any betting, leaving the decision of whether or not to legalize sports betting in the final jobs bill up to a panel of three representatives and three senators. That conference committee has been privately negotiating a compromise economic development bill for more than three months.
Plainridge Park Casino and Encore Boston Harbor, operated by Penn National Gaming and Wynn Resorts, respectively, suggested late last month that lawmakers should allow each of the three expanded gaming licensees the ability to take bets on sporting events in person and online, and that each licensee be allowed to partner with up to three online or mobile sports books. The companies argued that they have been working to establish a “robust brick and mortar gaming industry” in Massachusetts that would be undercut if the state allows online-only operators to flood the marketplace.
“Those that make actual investments in Massachusetts, assume legitimate risk, and incur costs to provide a service or benefit in the Commonwealth should be enfranchised under this legislation. Conversely, automatic windfalls to industries or interests which assume no new costs, risks or obligations as a result of this type of expansion are not only harmful to the gaming industry’s interests but even more so to overall public interest,” PPC General Manager Lance George and Encore Boston Harbor President Brian Gullbrants wrote in the joint letter.
Penn National spent $250 million to build its Plainville slots parlor and has invested $7 million into capital projects since opening in June 2015. Wynn Resorts spent $2.6 billion to build its Everett casino.
Though PPC and Encore made the case for the current gaming licensees to control sports betting, the companies said they could support giving the Gaming Commission the power to grant an additional license for online sports betting to “an online sports betting operator that is headquartered in Massachusetts and has a majority of their employees located in the Commonwealth,” which would appear to describe Boston-based DraftKings. The House’s proposal would allow casinos and online operators to take bets.
When the economic development bill and the House’s sports betting proposal went into conference committee negotiations in late July, the Senate appeared far less interested in the idea than the House. Senate leaders omitted the legalization of sports wagering from its version of the jobs bill and suggested they thought it would be more appropriately dealt with on its own, but didn’t offer a timeline for action as the 2019-2020 session winds to a close.
If Massachusetts lawmakers are considering leaving sports betting until a future session, PPC and Encore offered a word of caution: states around Massachusetts are adopting sports betting, and sooner or later it could sap money from Massachusetts casinos.
“Sports wagering expansion by our neighboring states substantially affects the competitive posture of the gaming industry here in the Commonwealth and places us at a strong disadvantage, with Massachusetts jobs, revenues and economic activity at stake. It is imperative that sports wagering expansion in the Commonwealth be done responsibly, with consideration of the framework in place in the existing 22 states that currently allow for legalized sports betting,” George and Gullbrants wrote. “A robust brick and mortar gaming industry is just beginning to emerge in Massachusetts. As previously noted, its viability is affected by neighboring state competitive advantages. The public interest, and the jobs and taxes that our facilities support, depends upon a sensible regulatory approach.”
While amenable to reconciling different approaches to the same topic or line item, conference committees over the years have often ditched proposals embraced by one branch but not the other in their final
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November 12, 2020 at 09:30PM
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Massachusetts’ casinos aiming to control sports betting market - Lowell Sun
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