Massachusetts regulators still aren’t ready to offer a go-live date for retail sports betting, though casino representatives on Thursday pushed for one during the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s first stakeholder roundtable meeting.
Commissioners opened the meeting by saying that the regulatory process will be “deliberate,” and that while they want to move “swiftly,” they “won’t sacrifice integrity.”
The meeting closed with stakeholders clearly stating that they prefer a universal start date for in-person wagering rather than a staggered start. Likely most confounding to stakeholders is the commission’s seeming inability to understand why identifying a start date is so important.
Commissioner Eileen O’Brien said she didn’t envision being able to target a launch date anytime soon, and she then asked stakeholders to explain the relevance. Operators explained how all of their preparations are timed to the start date and that everything from licensing to hiring to procuring equipment is related to when a jurisdiction will go live.