The state Senate is poised to debate laws to legalize sports activities betting, however the invoice that emerged Friday afternoon from a Senate committee differs in a number of vital methods from the sports activities betting invoice that has already cleared the House.
The vote may come Thursday.
The long-awaited wagering invoice was superior favorably out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee late Friday afternoon, in accordance with a Senate supply. If it passes the Senate subsequent week, lawmakers would have about three months to reconcile their differing approaches and get a invoice to Gov. Charlie Baker, who has supported legalizing sports activities wagering for years.
“I am pleased to see the committee has come to agreement on a strong proposal and I look forward to discussing it with my colleagues next week,” Senate President Karen Spilka, who for months resisted calls to debate sports activities betting whereas citing a want to first solidify consensus amongst senators, stated Friday.
The House handed a sports activities betting invoice 156-3 final summer season and accepted sports activities betting legalization as a part of an financial improvement invoice the yr earlier than, however the Senate has been far much less enthusiastic about tackling the problem because the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 gave states the power to legalize sports activities wagering.
More than 30 states — together with neighboring Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York — have taken motion to permit betting on sports activities contests since May 2018.
There seem like various important variations between the invoice the Senate Ways and Means Committee superior Friday and the laws that simply handed the House in July, most notably the Senate invoice’s prohibition on wagers on collegiate athletics.
Even earlier than the House took its vote, House Speaker Ronald Mariano drew a line within the sand on Bloomberg Baystate Business and declared that leaving collegiate betting out of any invoice “probably would be” a dealbreaker for him.
“I find myself having a tough time trying to justify going through all of this to not include probably the main driver of betting in the Commonwealth,” Mariano stated final summer season.
The Senate’s strategy of banning betting on school sports activities is consistent with a request from the presidents and athletic administrators of the eight Massachusetts faculties and universities which have Division I sports activities packages.
Officials from Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, Northeastern University, The College of the Holy Cross, Merrimack College and the University of Massachusetts (Amherst and Lowell) in 2020 urged lawmakers to go away school betting out of any legalization invoice.
Legal betting on school athletics, the presidents and athletic administrators stated, will result in “unnecessary and unacceptable risks to student athletes, their campus peers, and the integrity and culture of colleges and universities in the Commonwealth.”
If the House invoice have been to change into regulation, the chamber’s management estimated it may produce about $60 million in annual income for the state. But Mariano stated the income estimate would drop to between $25 million and $35 million yearly with out school betting.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee estimated that its model of the sports activities betting laws would produce $35 million in annual income for the state.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”