Treasurer Deb Goldberg announced a new timeline for the online lottery, saying the initiative will not launch until April 2026, near the end of fiscal 2026.
Lottery
Posted inGambling
Online lottery charges toward legalization with some safety tweaks
Based on other states with iLotteries, some of the products would be as straightforward as allowing someone to play Mass Cash or Powerball over their mobile device. Others look like something of a high-tech scratch-ticket. Some approach the appeal of more traditional mobile games – matching patterns, playing battleship – and still others approximate games more often found in casinos than on a lottery ticket.Â
Posted inEconomy
A race to keep up – or to the bottom?
MARCH WAS “Problem Gambling Awareness Month” in Massachusetts, but for those in charge of the state lottery the gambling problem coming into the new year was that people weren’t doing enough of it. The lottery was seeing flat or declining sales in many of its games during the last half of 2022, which represented the […]
Posted inEconomy
A race to keep up – or to the bottom? Lottery bets big on $50 scratch ticket, online games.
MARCH WAS “Problem Gambling Awareness Month” in Massachusetts, but for those in charge of the state lottery the gambling problem coming into the new year was that people weren’t doing enough of it. The lottery was seeing flat or declining sales in many of its games during the last half of 2022, which represented the […]
Posted inEconomy, Gambling, Opinion
An online lottery will hurt Main Street retailers
LOCALLY OWNED retail stores are rightfully up in arms about inclusion of an online lottery in the House fiscal 2024 budget. As demonstrated through testimony before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, an online lottery system in competition against stores is not needed. The expansion of the lottery online will harm […]
Posted inGambling
Healey backs moving Lottery games online
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. MAURA HEALEY is on board with the House’s push to legalize online Massachusetts Lottery sales, a stance that could ramp up pressure on the Senate to approve another gambling expansion shortly after sports betting launched. Saying that her answer might leave host Jim Braude “shocked,” Gov. Maura Healey told GBH’s […]
Posted inUncategorized
As VaxMillions drawing nears, doses continue decline
ONE MASSACHUSETTS adult is about to become $1 million richer when the first VaxMillions winner is pulled on Monday. But despite the trove of cash and scholarships on the line, most eligible residents still haven’t signed up for the lottery and vaccination rates continue to decline. Thursday was the last day for fully-vaccinated residents to […]
Posted inGambling
Lottery leaving Braintree for Dorchester
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS LOTTERY plans to try a change of scenery, moving its administrative staff from its longtime headquarters in Braintree a few miles north to Dorchester. Putting the roughly 140 headquarters staff near UMass-Boston and within walking distance of the Red Line could appeal to a more diverse and younger workforce, […]
Posted inGambling, The Back Story
House money
DOES THE NUMBER combination 23, 31, 42, 50, 57 mean anything to you? That was the million-dollar winner in the Powerball game from Sept 26, 2015, purchased at the American Legion post in East Springfield. Unfortunately for whoever had it, the deadline to cash it was Monday and it went unclaimed, meaning Massachusetts’ share of the […]
Posted inGambling, State House News Service
Keno sales lag near slots parlor
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SEVERAL WEEKS AFTER the state’s first licensed slots parlor opened its doors, state Lottery sales are up, though there has been a noticeable lag in Keno activity around the area of Plainridge Park Casino, according to the head of the Lottery. “The sales themselves were up a healthy margin,” said Michael […]