MA lottery warns legislature: "We’re dead ducks” without online sales
Senior executives call for immediate action or risk losing business to neighboring New Hampshire
Massachusetts lottery executives have urged the state legislature to legalize online lottery sales or risk losing revenues to neighboring New Hampshire which recently passed ilottery legislation of its own.
Several online lottery bills have been filed in MA this year, but none have made significant process, unlike the state’s neighbour to the north
Lottery executive director Michael Sweeney told the Massachusetts Lottery Commission on Tuesday: “We’re facing a lot of different types of pressure as a lottery and New Hampshire being more aggressive and receiving more empowerment from their state legislature will have an impact on us, and clearly a negative impact as revenue goes.”
State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who introduced on of the ilottery bills earlier this year, also called for the introduction of online Keno games, adding: “To have (New Hampshire) be able to do a double hit – which is online and Keno – and we’re sitting here like dead ducks.”
New Hampshire passed online lottery legislation in late June, but will likely not be online for several months as its sets up the infrastructure including choosing an online lottery vendor, launching a website, and establishing regulations.
MA Lottery Comptroller Thomas Shack also spoke at the meeting on Tuesday, telling lawmakers: “I don’t know how much clearer a message we need to send the Legislature relative to this issue. It’s become one of those things that we’ve said ad nauseum at this point and now we’re starting to see, literally, the troops on the borders of Massachusetts.
“This has a potential devastating effect on the Lottery, and it’s going to be profound, and cities and towns are going to be the ultimate recipients of that downturn. I hope the Legislature is listening.”