Report: Legal Sports Betting Big For Massachusetts Economy

Massachusetts Online Sports Betting First Year

The Massachusetts Online Sports Betting First Year turned out to be a huge success, showing major growth in the area among state residents and tourists as well as providing much-needed financial help to the state-wide budget. Online sports betting officially opened up in Massachusetts at the start of 2023 and so far, so good. With six online operators and three in-person retail locations, Massachusetts has plenty of betting options for bettors to choose from which certainly helps matters.

Since January 2023, more than $600 million in online betting revenue has been produced, leading to nearly $120 million in tax revenue for the commonwealth. It’s almost equally impressive that over 1.6 million residents have created online sports betting accounts, which is a rather significant amount for a state that has just over 7 million residents. Things will get even better once NFL betting lines open up with the 2024 season starting soon.

This success has all been with just one full NFL season in the books. So, the 2024 campaign should be a truly massive one after all the growth that has gone on in the state over the past 18 months or so. Right now, Massachusetts is a top-10 market in the country for online sports betting and there’s no reason to think that will slow down any time soon.

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Numbers Are Impressive

Based on the information released by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in its “Year One At A Glance” report, the Massachusetts Online Sports Betting First Year created hundreds of jobs in addition to generating a ton of tax revenue for the state government. This was true even as two major operators — Betr and WynnBet — ceased their operations there in February of this year.

The six active online betting operators in the state seem to be doing just fine as Massachusetts has compiled the ninth-largest total betting handle of any state in the U.S. since betting became operational in early 2023. This is despite Massachusetts having just the 16th-highest population in the country. What it means is that Massachusetts has a very high per-capita betting total, not to mention how a very large percentage of the state’s gambling age-population has opened up at least one online betting account.

While the betting odds calculators may not be resulting in tons of betting wins for residents — clearly, the books are doing well with so much tax revenue going to the state’s coffers — customers must be either winning enough to stay in the game or enjoying betting so much that they keep doing it. That’s why it’ll be interesting to see how, or if, those numbers adjust between 2023 and 2024. Things looked good in 2023 but we can expect 2024 to be much bigger because the online sports betting operation is already well-established in the state and because of simply compound growth. More accounts begets more revenue.

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Good Work With Responsible Betting Efforts

Another positive side result of the Massachusetts Online Sports Betting First Year is that there has been significant adoption of the responsible gaming tools pushed by the state in conjunction with the rollout of legal online sports betting. This is always a tricky subject for states and operators because they are obviously incentivized for customers to bet, and lose, as much money as possible because that’s what leads to the most revenue. However, governments also have an obligation to do what’s best for their citizens. Plus, operators want customers to keep betting and not stop fully because they’ve lost too much.

So, it’s great news that almost 90,000 inquiries were made to the state’s responsible online sports betting resources, and, currently, over 38,000 customers have put some kind of limitations on their betting activities. Of course, it’s questionable how effective these tools actually are, especially if they involve bettors trying to self-police their own activities. It’s still better for them to put some kind of limits on their play than to not do so, especially if they recognize that they tend to problem gambling.

It’s also refreshing to see a state actually have statistical evidence to support the idea that their efforts to get people to somewhat control their betting are actually working — even if such a small segment of the overall betting population is actually using those controls. It’s hard enough to enforce such measures so the fact that people are choosing them on their own prerogative could be a sign that they are taking hold in some small shape or form at the very least.

For gambling news, betting analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.


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