Massachusetts Legislators Pave Way for iLottery
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After years of discussion, Massachusetts legislators have paved the way for the commonwealth to legalize iLottery this budget season.
On Friday, July 19, the Massachusetts House of Representative and Senate approved the state’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget by a wide margin, which includes the legalization of iLottery.
Massachusetts lottery officials have argued for its legalization over the last several years as a way to counteract users who have turned their attention to online sports betting.
Waiting For Governor Approval
The House of Representatives approved the $58 billion FY 2025 budget by a 154-3 vote on Friday afternoon. The Senate, which initially passed a budget in May that did not include an iLottery element, unanimously approved the legislation by a 40-0 vote.
The document now heads to Gov. Maura Healey’s (D) desk for her approval. If Healey signs the budget into law, Massachusetts will become the 13th state to offer some form of iLottery.
The approved budget allows the state to offer “lottery tickets, games or shares online, over the internet, through the use of a mobile application” to individuals who are 21 years of age or older.
Massachusetts will continue to allow individuals 18 years of age or older to continue to buy lottery tickets from retail locations, but will bar them from online game sales.
The State Treasury Department will be tasked with the iLottery rollout. Revenue from iLottery will fund various childcare services throughout the state.
Mass Lottery Officials Support iLottery
Massachusetts Lottery officials have long supported the idea of allowing lottery games to be sold online and stepped up their efforts after the commonwealth successfully legalized sports betting in August 2022.
Lottery Director Mark William Bracken told Mass Live after the FY 2025 budget adoption that the lottery is excited to begin offering the service to its customers.
“Our team is excited to implement an online Lottery. We are ready and prepared to offer our players a modern lottery experience in a safe and accessible environment,” he said.
Earlier this year, Bracken also told Mass Live that the state’s lottery sales in February 2024 decreased by nearly 7% over the February 2023 totals. Additionally, the lottery projected to see a decrease of nearly $29 million in revenues this year compared with 2023 totals.
One big reason for the slowdown? Legalized online sports betting. Bracken told Mass Live the lottery has had to compete with an industry that does billions in sales each year.
“We couldn’t control that all of a sudden we had sports betting as a competitor that was doing $6 billion, $5 billion in sales,” he said.
Robert Linnehan
Covering regulatory developments in online gambling. Editing/writing/creating a newsletter for readers across all formats.
