Massachusetts Seeks to Raise Sports Betting Tax to 51%

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00:00Massachusetts, the next state here in the United States that wants to raise sports betting

00:04taxes, and ironically, they're choosing the same exact number that New York has.

00:09We predicted this last year.

00:10You and I talked about this a ton, that once New York got that 51%, we didn't know that

00:16every other state would get to 51%, and certainly the revenue of New York is different than

00:20a lot of the other states for sure, but Massachusetts is the next one on deck.

00:24You think they get this all the way up from 20 to 51%?

00:28I don't.

00:29And you're right, I mean, besides us, the whole industry's been looking at states looking

00:34to raise their taxes.

00:35So this is not a surprise.

00:36In fact, Senator John Keenan, the person who introduced this massive bill in Massachusetts,

00:41actually tried to raise the taxes through a budget amendment last year to 51%, and it

00:46quickly was voted against by many of the other lawmakers in Massachusetts.

00:51This bill, along with raising it to 51%, the tax rate, includes many of the other parts

00:57that the Safe Bet Act at the federal level includes, including banning prop bets and

01:02in-play bets, setting wagering limits so you can't wager more than $1,000 in a day or $10,000

01:09in a month.

01:10It prohibits sports betting ads during sports events.

01:14It adds bonuses and single-game parlays to unfair and deceptive practices by sportsbooks.

01:20So it's a really big limiting bill to the industry.

01:23So of course, the industry is not a big fan of it.

01:26Again, it replicates the Safe Bet Act at the federal level, which we've seen the scrutiny

01:32at the federal level last month, starting with the U.S. Senate hearing, which we can

01:36assume there's going to be more because they hinted at more.

01:39And in that hearing, they talked a lot about the Safe Bet Act and how this is stuff we

01:43need to focus on and put into a national framework for the industry.

01:49And so there are lawmakers out there, certainly at the federal level and clearly at the state

01:54level that are trying to do this.

01:55I mean, this is fairly similar to the bill that we've talked about in Minnesota, which

01:59of course they're trying to just simply legalize, but we've got the opponents who are also trying

02:05to make sure responsible gambling, maybe to a bad extent, are trying to get this in.

02:11So based on Keenan's success last year, which wasn't, he had his amendment to 51% tax rate

02:18voted against, with this, along with 51% and everything else, seems like an even bigger

02:24breach.

02:25But maybe that's his goal is to say, hey, maybe we take some of these other things off

02:29and just get bigger tax rate, maybe not 51%, maybe 40%, whatever it ends up through discussions.

02:36But it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of appetite, but we'll see.

02:41But Massachusetts, certainly a big discussion state.

02:45We talk about the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which meets multiple times a month, a lot

02:50because they're very active.

02:53Just today we saw some online casino bills come through in Massachusetts.

02:57So Massachusetts is going to be a very active state this session, I think.

03:01So we'll be talking about it a lot this coming couple months.

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