The long-awaited rollout of sports betting in Massachusetts has slowed to a crawl due to an language issue in the legislation.
The problem is the language around the issuing of temporary licenses, which was confirmed by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission late last week. In the bill that legalized sports betting in the state there is no limit on how many temporary sports betting licenses can be issued.
The only requirements to apply for a temporary license is that the applicant be qualified gaming entity and it pays a $1 million temporary license fee.
More than three dozen companies contacted the Gaming Commission prior to the August 31 deadline to inform the Commission they were interested in one of the state’s open online sportsbook licenses. The state has approved allocating 15 licenses, but eight of them are connected to retail licenses. This means only seven are open for competitive bid.
With no limit on temporary licenses this means that dozens of sportsbooks could be granted a temporary license only to be left out and forced to shut down when the seven full licenses are awarded.
Fixing the issue could be as easy as amending the bill in the state legislature. Luckily the Massachusetts legislature remains in an informal session until January 2, 2023. However, since it is an informal sitting that also means as legislator can object to a bill and potentially kill it. This is not expected to happen, but it is a possibility.