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SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1657 FILED ON: 1/16/2025
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 302
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_________________
PRESENTED BY:
John F. Keenan
_________________
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:
The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
An Act addressing economic, health and social harms caused by sports betting.
_______________
PETITION OF:
NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :John F. KeenanNorfolk and PlymouthLindsay N. Sabadosa1st Hampshire1/18/2025Patricia D. JehlenSecond Middlesex2/19/2025 1 of 3
SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1657 FILED ON: 1/16/2025
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 302
By Mr. Keenan, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 302) of John F. Keenan, Lindsay N.
Sabadosa and Patricia D. Jehlen for legislation to address economic, health and social harms
caused by sports betting. Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_______________
In the One Hundred and Ninety-Fourth General Court
(2025-2026)
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An Act addressing economic, health and social harms caused by sports betting.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:
1 SECTION 1. Section 3 of chapter 23N, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is
2hereby amended by striking out, in line 150, the following words:- “in-play bets, proposition bets
3and straight bets”, and inserting in place thereof the following words:- “and straight bets;
4provided, however, that sports wagering shall include neither in-play bets nor proposition bets”.
5 SECTION 2. Section 4 of said chapter 23N, as so appearing, is hereby amended by
6striking out, in line 22, the words "and (E)", and inserting in place thereof the following words:-
7"(E) advertising related to sports wagering during a televised sporting event; and (F)"
8 SECTION 3.Section 11 of said chapter 23N is hereby amended by inserting, after the
9word "owners", in line 5, the following words:- ", agents, promoters".
10 SECTION 4. Said section 11 is hereby amended by striking out, in line 20, the words
11"and (v)", and inserting in place thereof the following words:- “(v) prohibit person from placing
12wagers with an operator of more than $1,000 per day or $10,000 per month without said operator 2 of 3
13having conducted an affordability assessment of said person and determining that the daily or
14monthly amounts wagered do not exceed 15 per cent of the amount said person has available in a
15bank account; and (vi)”
16 SECTION 5. Said section 11 is hereby further amended by inserting the following
17subsection:-
18 (l) Operators, directors, officers, owners, employees, affiliates and subcontractors of the
19operator or sports wagering operator shall receive no compensation for any percentage of wagers
20or deposits placed by a customer of the operator or sports wagering operator.
21 SECTION 6. Section 14 of chapter 23N is hereby amended by striking out the figure
22"20", in line 4, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- "51".
23 SECTION 7. Section 15 of said chapter 23N is hereby amended by striking out the figure
24"$1,000,000", in line 37, and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- "$2,000,000".
25 SECTION 8. Section 23 of said chapter 23N is hereby amended by inserting, after the
26word “gambling”, in line 15, the following words:- “and suicide attempts, suicides and self-harm
27among gamblers”.
28 SECTION 9. Said section 23 is hereby further amended by inserting the following
29subsection:- (c) Annually, each holder of an operator license that accepts wagers on sports events
30and other events authorized pursuant to this chapter from individuals physically located in the
31commonwealth using mobile applications or digital platforms approved by the commission shall
32supply the commission with customer tracking data collected for each player’s online gambling.
33The commission shall contract with an experienced nonprofit research entity to develop an 3 of 3
34anonymizing system that automatically removes from the customer tracking data personally
35identifying information including player name, street address, bank or credit information and the
36last 4 digits of a player’s zip code. The customer tracking data shall report on player
37characteristics including, but not limited to, gender, age and region of residence; player behavior
38including, but not limited to, frequency of play, length of play, speed of play, local time of play,
39amounts wagered and, for each wager, whether the wager was (i) made during the sports contest
40or before the contest began, or (ii) a parlay wager. The commission shall convey the anonymized
41data to an experienced nonprofit research entity that shall make the data available to qualified
42researchers to (i) conduct analyses that improve understanding of how gambling addiction
43develops and progresses; (ii) develop evidence-based harm minimization strategies; and (iii)
44develop evidence-based systems to monitor, detect and intervene in high-risk gambling. The
45commission shall request reports on the customer tracking data to improve oversight of sports
46gambling operations.
47 SECTION 10. Section 2 of chapter 93A is hereby amended by inserting the following
48subsection:-
49 (d) The provisions of subsection (a) shall apply to advertising and promotion of wagers
50authorized under chapter 23N related to any (1) bonus promotions, (2) same-game parlays, (3)
51odds boosts, (4) reload bonus or (5) risk-free, no-sweat or other free wagers commonly
52understood to have a similar meaning and utilized to attract a person to patronize a qualified
53gaming entity.