A bill had aimed to legalize sports betting at Massachusetts restaurants, bars, and other small businesses found its way to the legislature last week. Senator Adam Gomez’s legislation is one among the sports betting bills last weeks that are doing the rounds, including one from Governor Charlie Baker.
Unlike many other neighboring states, Massachusetts decided not to rush into introducing sports betting instantly after the rejection of the U.S. Supreme Court of federal sports betting restriction laws. Though Massachusetts has a desire to prevent any harm projected by the new competition to its newly built casino market, the state chose to take meticulous measures to sports betting.
Now the market is trying to catch up while losing its share of tax revenue and casino to New York and Rhode Island. In January, the sports betting bill was removed for its massive budget, which amounted to around $627 million, considering that such an amount might hinder the emergency Covid-19 relief in the legislation.
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Gomez and his co-sponsor Orlando Ramos think that sports betting should not become a monopoly for the two casinos: Encore Boston Harbor and MGM Springfield, and Plainridge Park should not be the only parlor for showcasing the slots.
He is advising to create an inclusive market that could boost small businesses struggling to hold them over the surface during the pandemic. In a recently given statement, Ramos told MassLive that considering all the challenges that restaurants, bars, and other small endeavors had been through during the pandemic and it had been important to him that they had been included in the presented bill.
In addition, he also said that he thought they also had to ensure the minority-owned endeavors and businesses have sufficient opportunity to become successful in the new market. Hence, they included explicit language for equity, diversity, and inclusion.
The bill might also create a Distressed Restaurant Fund to be financed by a revenue share from the Massachusetts sports betting. The fund would facilitate and help pandemic impacted restaurants and bars in the state. According to Gomez, for him, it had become a no-brainer to realize the fact that patrons of local sports restaurants should have the scope to bet at least $25 safely and legally on the Celtics.
