There is a new push being made to let the Massachusetts Lottery sell its products online.
With the launch of online sports betting in Massachusetts earlier this year there should be a new “sense of urgency” about finally letting the Lottery online to compete, said Mark Bracken, the interim Executive Director of the Massachusetts Lottery.
“In order for the Lottery to continue to meet and exceed its goals, we need to operate like any other 21st century company – we need to make our products available online,” he said.
Testifying at a hearing of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, Bracken argued repeatedly for the Lottery to get a level playing field with the other gambling ventures in the state.
“ Every single penny of the Lottery’s profits are distributed to communities throughout the state for the benefit of those who live there,” he said. “Sports betting and casinos, meanwhile, are for-profit business.”
The Lottery raised $1.1 billion last year with the money earmarked as local aid for cities and towns.
Bracken said online Lottery games would not hurt sales by brick-and-mortar retailers, but representatives for package stores and for convenience stores questioned that. Peter Brennan, with the New England Convenience Store and Energy Marketers Association, said the stores count on the Lottery for sales and to generate foot traffic.
“It is inevitable there will be some harm to the brick-and-mortar retails stores is an online Lottery is implemented,” he said.
Since sports betting became legal in Massachusetts, calls to problem gambling helplines have increased and the number of people voluntarily excluding themselves from betting has doubled, said Chelsea Turner of the Massachusetts Council on Gaming and Health. She said her organization takes no position on whether the Lottery should be allowed to sell products online, but she said if it is allowed the legislature should insist on more problem gambling research.
Asked about problem gambling, Bracken said an online Lottery would have more safeguards.
“Currently, retail Lottery sales are anonymous,” he said. “With online Lottery we can have – we will have --- self-exclusion lists.”
A provision in the state budget produced by the House Ways and Means Committee would direct revenue from an online Lottery, estimated at $200 million, to an early education grant program.
David Koffman, Legislative Director for the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said revenue from online Lottery sales should go directly to cities and towns just like the money that comes from in-person Lottery business.
“That is certainly incredibly important to MMA and for cities and towns,” Koffman said.
The average Massachusetts resident spends $800 per year on lottery tickets – twice the average in the second-highest spending state, New York.
