WITH ALL THREE of the state’s legal sportsbooks now having already owned up to accepting bets on games that were not legally permitted, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Tuesday began to “set the goalposts” as to how it will handle this type of matter with the industry it newly oversees. Legal sports betting has only […]
Gambling
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Encore allowed to expand its gaming footprint
THE MASSACHUSETTS Gaming Commission voted 4-1 on Wednesday to allow Encore Boston Harbor to expand its gambling operations in Everett to a new property under development across the street from the company’s existing casino. The commission bent over backwards to accommodate the expansion, interpreting a 2013 vote by Everett voters as a mandate for extending […]
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Encore posts record-high gambling revenues
THE ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR casino in Everett posted record-high gambling revenues in December, propelled by money spent at the facility’s gaming tables. The large haul at Encore, combined with fairly strong revenues at MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, yielded nearly $28.8 million in state tax revenues for December — $138,000 more than […]
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Start dates for in-person sports betting set
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE GAMING COMMISSION on Thursday narrowed the launch date for  in-person sports betting in Massachusetts and it appears as if the first bets could be placed during a “soft launch” on Monday, January 30 by people hand-picked by the commission and the betting companies. The rollout that the commission discussed but […]
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Can casinos expand gaming beyond their original footprint?
IN FEBRUARY, Wynn Resorts proposed an entertainment complex across the street from its existing Everett casino, complete with a theater, bars and restaurants, a parking garage, and eventually additional hotels. At the time, Wynn urged the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to consider the entertainment complex as something separate and apart from its existing casino, and therefore […]
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Free sports bets? How to tax them?
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GAMING REGULATORS have reached no conclusions  as to how they will treat, for tax purposes, the promotional betting offers that sports wagering companies dangle to attract customers, or whether they might seek to put responsible gaming guardrails around their use in Massachusetts. The primary question before the Gaming Commission  was how to […]
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Sports betting needs sound guardrails against problem gambling
THE PATS’ FOOTBALL season isn’t the only thing that kicked off recently in Bay State sports. Gov. Baker signed sports betting into law in August, launching a series of regulatory discussions over the coming months. To date, 42 companies, from big sports books to local entities, have filed notices of intent for operating licenses. As […]
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Sports betting could start in late Jan., maybe
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AN EMERGENCY MEETING called Friday was still not enough for the members of the Gaming Commission to agree on actual dates for the potential launch of sports wagering here, but they were at least able to agree on broad windows of time for the start of in-person and mobile betting next […]
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Gaming Commission struggling with when to launch sports betting
ONE ADVANTAGE Massachusetts has in being late to legalize sports betting – 36th according to the American Gaming Commission – is it can learn from other states on how to stand up the industry. Research compiled by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission made clear that state regulators are looking closely at other states’ operations. One initial […]
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Lottery facing headwinds, sales down
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY and an expanding menu of gambling options send lottery sales into a slide in Massachusetts and across the country, Massachusetts officials are thinking about making changes to “adjust to the current market structure” according to the head of the Lottery. Lottery sales in August were down $35.9 million, […]