Today may be the day to fire your bookie, since tomorrow the state’s three casinos will be more than happy to take your bets on most professional and some college sports.
“The Encore Boston Harbor first-ever sports bets will be taken in the WynnBET Kiosk Room at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, January 31,” a casino spokesperson wrote ahead of the long-awaited opening. “Thirty-two lucky guests will be chosen to place the historic bets. Immediately following, guests can witness Boston championship-winning athletes simultaneously place the first bets at the windows inside the WynnBET Sportsbook.”
This week, Encore will join MGMSpringfield and Plainridge Park Casino, in Plainville, in offering the state’s first — legal — in-person bets on most professional and out-of-state college sports. With the first wagers, Massachusetts will join the over half of U.S. states that license and regulate sports betting in their jurisdictions.
After the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2018, overturned a 1992 law barring states except Nevada from making their own rules around sports betting, it took less than a year for half a dozen states to legalize betting or begin the process for doing so.
Signed at the end of the summer by former Gov. Charlie Baker, an Act regulating sports wagering caught Massachusetts up to neighboring Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New York in legalizing a practice which proponents had for years claimed was occurring anyway, albeit unlawfully.
The difference, according to lawmakers, will be a gambling market with protections in place for players like voluntary self exclusion and self established deposit limits.
“There is no bookie that I know that will check you into a rehab to help you beat your gambling addiction,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said ahead of the law’s passage. “There is no bookie in the world that is going to give you an extension on what you owe because you have a gambling problem.”
In addition, the state gets a cut of 15% for bets at the casino and 20% for those made online when that market goes live in March.
Tax revenue estimates have ranged as high as $70 million annually, though State Treasurer Deb Goldberg has said those estimates could be more than twice what is actually brought in.
Betting will be allowed on athletics, Australian rules football, badminton, baseball/softball, basketball, biathlon, billiards, bowling, bowls, bull riding/rodeo, boxing, cricket, cycling, darts, disc, floorball, football, futsal, golf, handball, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, mixed martial arts, racing, netball, pesapallo, rowing, rugby league, rugby union, sailing, snooker, soccer, beach soccer, special events, swimming, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, and water polo.
Betting on college contests involving Massachusetts based teams, Olympic sports, or any event under the decision of a judge, is out. There will be no wagering on Jai alai, due to a league betting contract with a company not approved by the state’s Gaming Commission, or cornhole, following a cheating scandal.
Herald wire service contributed.