The deadline for the Massachusetts Special Commission on Online Gaming, Fantasy Sports Gaming, and Daily Fantasy Sports in six weeks. A release on an official Massachusetts website suggested the commission will recommend online gambling.
The State House News Service posted on June 6 that the commission “has been studying the ever-changing world of online gaming and gambling (and) may be poised to recommend an all-inclusive approach to regulating the multifaceted industry.”
The nine-member panel consists of lawmakers, regulatory officials, and gaming industry experts. Though the report will not be released until near the July 31 deadline, the group seems to have formed a consensus that regulated online gambling is the way for the commonwealth to go.
Joseph Wagner on iGaming Report
Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Wagner (pictured), who serves as the co-chairman of the Special Commission on Online Gaming, Fantasy Sports Gaming, and Daily Fantasy Sports, told the State News House Service that his commission agrees that the positives of iGaming legalization and regulation outweigh the negatives. Massachusetts officials made a fateful choice when it approved land-based gambling over the past few years, so online gambling is the logical extension of the original decision.
At this point, says Wagner, the question is how regulated online gambling should be implemented in Massachusetts. Rep. Wagner, who is also the chairman of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, said that the government has three choices.
Three Options for Massachusetts Online Gambling
Those choices involve the gaming statute option, the omnibus regulation commission option, and the wait-and-see approach. In the gaming option, the Special Commission would recommend the Massachusetts Legislature passing a series of fine-tuned gaming laws, including separate regulations for online casinos, poker, and lottery sites, as well as daily fantasy sports and other types of fantasy sports gaming.
In the omnibus solution, lawmakers would opt to form an over-arching gaming commission to oversee implementation. That commission would be given wide-ranging authority to set policies and regulations as it saw fit.
The third option would be, in Joseph Wagner’s words, “to just simply let it play out for some time or more going forward.”
How that might play out in a real world setting is unknown, but it sounds like the commissioner is suggesting a rules-lite approach, with the bare minimum of regulations. Officials and lawmakers later would adapt to the evolving online gambling and DFS industry as more information became available.
Stephen Crosby’s Stance on Online Gambling
Stephen Crosby, a member of the Special Commission and Chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, is pushing for the omnibus approach.
Crosby told the State House News Service, “Our view is that the Legislature’s job is to determine whether or not we want gambling online to be legal, and if the answer to that is yes — which it sort of presumptively appears to be – then come up with a regulatory environment that can deal with all of these things as they come down the pike and not have to try to be in a reactive mode.”
Crosby described his vision for how government oversight should be enacted. He said, “It could be the Gaming Commission, that makes a lot of sense. Though if it goes to somebody else, it’s totally fine with us; we’re not invested in it one way or another. Then give that agency really clear parameters of protection, what needs to be attended to for all these new gambling processes online, give them the ability to regulate and with the nimbleness and speed that is required.”
Thus, Stephen Crosby is calling for the creation for a gaming commission to oversee the new activity, or for those duties to be added to his own commission’s list of responsibilities. Stephen Crosby’s leadership on the brick-and-mortar casino licensing process has been questioned by a variety of people inside and outside of government. Crosby had to recuse himself from the licensing process at a point, then later was censured for his condust, so it is uncertain whether that option would be feasible.
Special Commission on Online Gaming’s Membership
Not all of the commissioners have given a public statement on their 9-month deliberations on the issue. The remaining 7 members of the Special Commission are State Sen. Eileen Donoghue, a Democrat from Lowell; State Sen. Jennifer Flanagan, a Democrat from Worcester and Middlesex; Rep. Mark Cusack, a Democrat Norfolk; Rep. James Kelcourse, a Republican from Essex; Assistant Attorney General Dan Krockmalnic (D); senatorial legal counsel Hirak Shah; and Peter Schoenke, the chairman of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA).
When the Special Commission’s recommendation is released on or before July 31, one can expect the group to speak with one voice. Given the early release of the general findings, it is possible the commission releases their recommendations sometime well before the end of July. Either way, the legislature would have the late-summer legislative session to pass online gambling and daily fantasy sports laws.
