Massachusetts Sen. John Keenan said he is sorry for voting yes on sports betting and wants to add more ways to protect bettors.
Keenan discussed his legislation to add more sports betting guardrails, S 302, at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies Thursday. It looks to change the Massachusetts sports betting industry drastically with tax increases and fewer bet types allowed.
“When I voted to legalize sports betting I never thought it would become what it is,” Keenan said. “We unleashed an industry that now promotes betting on anything and everything imaginable and unimaginable all over the world, 24 hours a day, every single day.
“I deeply regret my vote and I want to publicly apologize to those who have lost the opportunity to sit and watch a game just for the enjoyment of the game. I want to apologize to those who find themselves in the dark spaces of betting addiction and to those working through recovery, and to their families and friends. I want to apologize to those who have lost loved ones to suicide because of gambling issues.”
Big changes in sports betting bill
The bill would make a number of significant changes to the Massachusetts sports betting industry:
- End betting advertisements during televised sports events.
- End prop bets and in-play bets.
- Institute bet limits of no more than $1,000 daily and $10,000 monthly unless an operator has conducted an affordability study to determine that daily or monthly wagering amounts do not exceed 15% of that bettor’s bank account.
- No longer allow any employee, affiliate or subcontractor to earn compensation from bets or deposits.
- Raise the tax paid by MA sportsbooks to 51% from 20%, with Keenan mentioning the operators already pay such a rate in New York.
“This bill is an opportunity to put guardrails in place to fix what is so obviously wrong with sports betting and to prevent more of the harms that we have already seen,” Keenan said.
Keenan: Sports betting controversies could come to Massachusetts
Keenan is worried that sports betting controversies, like those seen recently in the MLB and in the NBA, could come to the Commonwealth and elsewhere.
“Um, yes,” he said. “I foresee those issues happening all across the country and if we don’t think that they’re already happening and haven’t been discovered, then we’re pretty naïve.
” … To think it’s not happening in other sports is again, I think, naïve. It’s only going to get worse. And remember that these are athletes who have made or are making millions of dollars and they still find themselves drawn to this and willing to fix their performances for bettors.
“It’s absolutely mind-boggling, but I think it goes to show you the reach of all this and how addictive it can be. Nobody is immune from this.”
