Massachusetts has collected a “much-bigger-than-expected” bucket of sports betting tax revenue, collecting "more than $108M" in its first year, according to Michael Silverman of the BOSTON GLOBE. Mass. House Speaker Ron Mariano said, “It’s been hugely successful, much bigger than we anticipated.” Taxes generated are “about twice as much as the initial estimates” of $30M to $60M a year and they come at a time when the state’s actual tax collections “keep lagging behind projections.” Retail sports betting at the state’s three casinos began last Jan. 31, but 97% of the money bet on sports is “bet over the phone.” Since its launch on March 10, 2023, online sports betting has taken in $5.45B of the $5.6B bet, and that is before February’s numbers, which “include Super Bowl betting,” are revealed March 15. According to the American Gaming Association, the $4.82B online handle generated in Massachusetts in the first 10 months “ranked seventh in the country” and was the “third-highest of any state in its first 10 months,” exceeded only by N.Y. ($13B) and Ohio ($5.8B). Silverman wrote there have been "hiccups, for sure,” among all the online sports operators as well as at the state’s three casino sportsbooks. The majority “involved glitches that allowed bets to be taken on Massachusetts college teams” -- a “no-no unless those teams are playing in an NCAA tournament -- with a few pending cases of allowing single-player collegiate prop bets, also not allowed" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/8).
