There are now 17 states in the United States that have legalized sports betting with New Hampshire being the latest state in the list. Out of the 17 states, 9 of them have their sports betting markets up and running.
Sports betting enthusiasts in Massachusetts were quite confident at the start of the year that sports betting would be soon legalized given the fact that there were more than 10 bills concerning sports betting legalization being discussed. However, not a lot of progress has been made in the last six months and it does not look like Massachusetts is in a rush to legalize sports betting.
One politician who is not happy with the delay is Republican representative Brad Hill. He recently went on record to say that Massachusetts is missing out on a lot of revenue by delaying sports betting legalization.
Hill pointed out that residents of Massachusetts love their sports and are very keen on placing bets on their favourite teams but cannot do so at the moment as sports betting is illegal. This will force them to cross the border and go into nearby states like New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to place their bets and cause those states to benefit.
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Massachusetts is the home of the current NFL champions the New England Patriots, the Boston Red Sox who are the defending champions of the World Series and DraftKings which is one of the biggest Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) companies in the United States.
Hill believes that legislators have missed a trick by delaying the process and have not capitalized on the lucrative sports betting market in the state.
The new NFL season starts in September and a few weeks later the NBA and the NHL seasons for 2019-2020 will commence. Massachusetts is going to miss out on another season of sports betting if legislators do not get on the same page and approve one of the many sports betting bills that have been introduced.
Hill has two Bill on the table with H 376 outlining how revenues generated by sports betting will be utilized and H 377 which discusses the regulations that need to be put in place to govern sports betting and DFS. Hill believes that state legislators will most likely create an omnibus bill based on the ten plus bills that have been tabled and will then be sent to the chamber for votes. However, he has no estimate as to how long this will take.
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