First Year of Massachusetts Legalized Sports Betting Hardly Put a Dent in Local Bookie Businesses

The first year of legalized sports betting is in the books for Massachusetts. 

The verdict? 

The state made inroads but didn’t substantially redirect much of the revenue from illegal sports wagering into its coffers, according to new research from the University of Massachusetts.

According to a survey conducted by the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences in both 2022 and 2023, there was no change in the proportion of monthly gamblers who engaged in illegal sports betting between the two years. But there was an increase in the proportion of monthly gamblers who engaged in online legal sports betting between 2022 and 2023, even as illegal sports betting stayed stagnant.

Among the biggest obstacle for sportsbooks regulated in the state: Customers can't register new betting accounts using a Mastercard or Visa.  This has long been the preferred means of setting up wagering account at offshore sportsbooks and now with regulated betting sites in other U.S. states.

Local bookies using Pay Per Head software more often than not extend credit to gamblers.

Another deterrent impacting the Massachusetts regulated market, sportsbook operators limiting winning players.

This was the central theme of an hours long hearing Wednesday whereby representatives from the likes of BetMGM, DraftKings, Caesars, Fanatics and FanDuel insisted the practice targeted only 1 percent of gamblers in the state.

One commissioner posed the following question:

"Is it a mere coincidence that an individual who bets the same way and is under and is then limited after they've won significantly, what about that behavior, that pattern there that raises eyebrows for the operators?  In the scenario I am describing, it's a losing pattern.  And that one wager hits and they win, it's a big payout.  Is that a scenario that is concerning to the risk management team?"

Kenneth Fuchs of Caesars insisted: "This is not the type of situation where we would limit someone with a big win.  We are looking at a pattern of behavior over time."

One only needs to type in "DraftKings Limits Reddit" to find out how prevalent the practice is throughout the U.S.  Maybe these companies will think twice before limiting Massachusetts residents.

Massachusetts legalized sports betting in August 2022 and it first launched in January 2023, with online betting becoming available in March 2023.