Massachusetts On My Mind
Massachusetts is a hotbed of gambling news. A roundtable on limiting bettors, a potential sports betting tax increase, RFPs for an online casino study, and more.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: New Jersey’s revenue reports are a case of good news-bad news for online gambling supporters.
WEEKEND CATCHUP: New NIGC Acting Chair; Mobile betting in Wisconsin; Prophet Exchange leaving New Jersey.
NEWS: Massachusetts puts out an RFP for online casino gambling study.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: MGC Roundtable on limiting and banning bettors.
WAY BEYOND the HEADLINE: How much have calls to helplines increased since Massachusetts legalized sports betting?
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Another state is considering raising sports betting tax rates.
STRAY THOUGHTS: The trouble with election-year politics.
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New Jersey Revenue Reports Provide Plenty of Fodder
On the surface, the latest revenue reports from New Jersey look fantastic, with online gambling recording its second-best month to date at $188 million and the gambling industry as a whole eclipsing $500 million.
But once you dig a little deeper, it becomes very apparent why the cannibalization debate will never die — You can read my feature column from March on cannibalization here.
“New Jersey’s casinos, horse tracks that accept sports bets and their online partners won more than half a billion dollars from gamblers in April, an increase of 10.4% from a year earlier, state gambling regulators said Thursday... The industry’s key business — money won from in-person gamblers — continued to sag, down 6.3% from a year ago.”
“Six of the nine casinos won less from in-person gamblers in April than they did a year earlier. And six of nine casinos also won less in-person money this April than they did in April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.”
All the studies in the world aren’t going to change these trends.
Parry also picked up on something I have drawn attention to: Online gambling revenue is shared with tech partners, with the casino’s cut often in the 5-15% range.
“Online deals are universally structured in favor of the online operator, who supplies the product and takes on all the risk. The license holder is, in most instances, just an access point, the holder of the key that lets you into the kingdom. The casino will typically get 5%-10% of the revenue share, maybe a bit more in some cases.”
Weekend Catchup: New NIGC Chair; Mobile Betting in Wisconsin; Prophet Exchange Leaving New Jersey
Avery appointed as NIGC Acting Chair: The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) announced the President’s appointment of Sharon M. Avery as Acting Chair, effective May 15, 2024. Avery was appointed to the NIGC as an Associate Commissioner on May 6. As CDC Gaming Reports noted, “Avery will serve as Associate Commissioner and Acting Chair until a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed Chair is in place.” E. Sequoyah Simermeyer resigned as the Chair of the NIGC after eight years to take a role at FanDuel.
Mobile sports betting in Wisconsin (sort of): The Forest County Potawatomi Tribe held a ribbon-cutting for its new, permanent sportsbook at its Milwaukee casino earlier this month. Now, it is prepping the launch of an on-premise mobile app. The tribe signed a multi-channel sports betting deal with Kambi in March 2023.
Another one down: Prophet Exchange is exiting (temporarily?) New Jersey, effective May 28. Prophet Exchange is one of two exchange betting platforms operating in New Jersey (newsletter sponsor Sporttrade is the other “exchange betting” site). The company is terming the exit as a reset, with Jake Benzaquen, its co-founder and COO, saying it will be “back in more states soon.”
Full story from Jeff Edelstein at Sports Handle
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Massachusetts Revisiting Online Casino Legalization
The first of several Massachusetts stories in today’s newsletter is a look at two requests for proposals from the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
The first RFP is for a study on the potential public health impact of online casino gambling:
“The Massachusetts Gaming Commission seeks the services of at least one qualified entity to conduct a study on the impact of iGaming on public health, with particular focus on comparison of participants with participants in other forms of gaming, comorbidity with problem gambling, and impacts on youth under the age of 25 in the Commonwealth.”
This would be the second time Massachusetts studied online gambling. In 2017, Massachusetts created a special commission to investigate, study, and make recommendations on the issue of online gaming and daily fantasy sports. The commission recommended legalizing and regulating DFS, but:
“the Special Commission recommends not legalizing more expansive online gaming at present, particularly in consideration of the fact that two resort casinos are not yet open, but urges re-evaluation in the near future and legislative oversight to continue to evaluate online gaming and activity at state and federal levels. The Special Commission acknowledges that there is opportunity in these areas, and expects that legalization of additional online gaming is inevitable.”
The second RFP will examine AI usage in gambling, one of the key policy points of Rep. Paul Tonko’s federal sports betting bill, The Safe Bet Act.
“The Massachusetts Gaming Commission seeks the services of at least one qualified entity to conduct a study on current and future possible uses of artificial intelligence in the gaming industry, with a particular focus on marketing, player acquisition, and responsible gaming functionality /player health in the Commonwealth.”
Beyond the Headline: MGC to Discuss Limiting Bettors
As reported last week, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will host a public roundtable tomorrow at 11 a.m. to discuss the industry practice of limiting sports bettors.
The roundtable will include representatives from Massachusetts licensed sports betting operators, patron representatives, and responsible gaming representatives who will discuss the following points:
Please detail how and why a patron may be limited on your platform, including how you may limit patrons on an individual basis.
Please explain the experience of a patron once they become limited.
What are the responsible gaming implications if patron limits are more heavily regulated?
What would be the impacts to the industry if allowing limits on individual patrons was prohibited or limited by law or regulation?
What are other jurisdictions and/or other sportsbooks doing?
The issue is a touchy subject on Sports Betting Twitter, and as I recently wrote, the practice runs counter to the industry’s stated black market concerns:
“However, the industry also has self-imposed policies that push customers offshore, such as banning and limiting bettors, non-competitive lines (which are also influenced by tax rates), and lackluster customer service.
“I’m curious if the industry would compromise with regulators if the deal were the industry could offer college prop bets, award shows, and even election betting but isn’t allowed to limit or ban bettors; everyone can get the same action down on every market offered.”
Way Beyond the Headline: Calls to Problem Gambling Helplines
In what is becoming a familiar trend, The Massachusetts Department of Public Health said the state’s gambling helpline “received 3,050 calls in fiscal year 2023. That is an increase of 1,672 calls or a 121% increase compared to FY 2022. FY 2023 includes the state’s first five months of legal sports betting.
However, one-third of the calls were “non-helpline calls,” meaning they were from bettors looking for help with their accounts.
“These are calls for those who are looking for technical support or assistance for their sports wagering mobile applications or platforms,” Victor Ortiz, director of DPH’s Office of Problem Gambling Services, said.
Problem gambling calls rose by 41%. Sports betting-specific calls rose from six to 73.
DPH cautioned that the increase in call volume could be “the result of improvement in helpline services in coordination with public awareness campaigns, community efforts to provide individuals and families with education and resources, and sports wagering advertisements.”
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
More from Massachusetts!
According to Legal Sports Report’s Mike Mazzeo, Massachusetts is considering raising its sports betting tax rate, which is already a healthy 20% (with no promotional deduction allowed).
Stray Thoughts
I’ve mentioned several times that passing gambling legislation in election years is even more challenging, and the situation in Minnesota (where sports betting failed to pass before the end of the session) is an excellent example of this:
