Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
A March 13 forum held by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission discussed the increasing popularity of Internet gaming and its implications for land-based options such as lotteries and casinos.
Commission Chair Steve Crosby identified the primary questions driving the agenda of the Internet Gaming Forum: Will Massachusetts have Internet gaming? And if so, how would it be organized and regulated?
Internet gaming was not considered legal under federal law until 2011, when a Department of Justice memorandum indicated that the two laws previously believed to block Internet gaming – the 1961 Wire Act and the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Act – had more narrow applications and did not preclude certain forms of online gaming.
Three states – Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada – have already legalized online casino or poker gambling, and three other states – Georgia, Illinois and Minnesota – have begun selling lottery tickets online. Massachusetts is among the states considering legislation to legalize Internet gaming.
At the forum, the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers cited a study of New Jersey’s Internet gambling market, which found that two-thirds of online gamblers are male, with an average age of 46. The vast majority – 97 percent – also gamble at land-based facilities, though at a relatively low rate of a couple visits per year. Four out of five online gamblers, however, said they were as likely or more likely to visit a land-based casino as before they began gambling online.
The forum included discussions of topics such as responsible Internet gambling standards, self-exclusion policies, problem gambling, social gaming, money laundering, identity verification and geo-location technology.
Crosby indicated that the commission would not move forward with policy development around Internet gaming until the state’s casino licenses were awarded, so that the licensees could be at the table for the discussions.
The forum came during a busy period for the Gaming Commission. On Feb. 27, by a 3-2 vote, the commission selected Penn National to receive the state’s sole slots parlor license, for a facility in Plainville. The $225 million facility is scheduled to open next spring.
The other contenders for the slots parlor license included Raynham Park in Raynham and Cordish Companies in Leominster. Each applicant submitted a 236-page application and was evaluated on five key criteria, including an overview of the project, finance, economic development, building and site design, and mitigation.
After its selection, Penn National paid a $25 million licensing fee to the Gaming Commission.
The commission is next expected to award resort-casino licenses in Regions A (Greater Boston) and B (western Massachusetts) by June 30.