Massachusetts Gaming Commission to Continue Sports Betting Limitations Discussion in September

• The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has scheduled another meeting to discuss sports betting limitations in the commonwealth
• The commission will continue the discussion on Monday, Sept. 22
• Regulators noted during the last discussion that operators provided so much data it needed to be properly evaluated before any recommendations are made

The discussion on Massachusetts sports betting limitations will continue next month.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission today agreed to schedule a meeting on Monday, Sept. 22, to continue the discussion on how licensed sports betting operators limit players, how many of their players are limited, and if winning/losing rates have anything to do with how patrons are limited.

No specifics were provided on what will be discussed during the meeting.

Sports Betting Limitations Discussion Will Continue

The upcoming September meeting will be the first to discuss sports betting limitations since April, and stems from a number of meetings the Massachusetts Gaming Commission held with licensed sports betting operators in 2024 to evaluate the practice of limiting customers.

Each of the state’s licensed sportsbooks provided the commission’s sports wagering division with requested player limitation data in April, but the deluge of data provided to be too much for the division to process on its own.

The MGC unanimously agreed to bring in a data analyst to evaluate the provided information to see if there is any correlation between a customer’s win rate and a sportsbook limiting their action on a platform.

“We’ve gathered data and will continue to gather data. We look forward to learning and putting that learning into action. We’re proud to be the first jurisdiction in the U.S. to openly discuss limiting with the operators and we’re excited to add that interplay with the VIP programs. We’ll continue to learn on this matter,” Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Jordan Maynard said at the April meeting.

The data requested asked for information regarding how many patrons are currently being limited in the commonwealth and for specific player data to determine the percentage of players being limited, how many players are being limited that exhibit winning behavior, and how many players are being treated as VIPs and exhibit losing behavior.

The commissioners will also use the data to craft specific questions related to both patron limiting and VIP programs, while the operator responses will help the MGC identify potential areas for regulation, but also help to note additional datapoints to seek on patron limiting and VIP programs.

It’s unknown if this September meeting will be an update on the process of evaluating the data, or if the process is complete and findings will be provided to the gaming commissioners.

Roundtable Led to Evaluation

The investigation into player limiting and VIP programs stemmed from two roundtables the MGC hosted with its licensed sportsbooks.

Originally, the MGC only planned to host one roundtable on the subject in May 2024. However, all of the sports betting operators (excluding Bally Bet) no-showed the first meeting, which necessitated the second meeting held in September.

Over the course of the full roundtable held this past September, operators claimed that limiting users is more about curtailing a very small percentage of customers from taking advantage of the sportsbooks while being able to safely offer a high number of markets to its more casual bettors.