Massachusetts study shows illegal sports betting levels remain unchanged
Legal sports betting has been available statewide for more than a year.
The University of Massachusetts has released a recent study that examines the impact legal sports wagering has had on illegal gaming revenue, according to a local WWLP news report.
Research revealed that legal sports betting statewide has not made significant changes to illegal gambling activity.
The UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences looked at data from both 2022 and 2023. The study showed that “there was no change in the proportion of monthly gamblers who engaged in illegal sports betting between the two years.”
However, activity within the legal market experienced growth, according to the survey results.
The state first welcomed legal retail sports betting in January 2023 after legislation passed the previous August to bring in a regulated market.
Massachusetts launched its online sports betting market in March 2023.
Along with the School of Public Health survey, a recent Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling study examined how legal gambling has affected the illegal market.
According to the research, 53% of those polled said they would have engaged in illegal sports wagering if a statewide legal market was not in place.
Researcher Rachel Volberg recently shared these results with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission during its last meeting, local news said.
Volberg commented, “Now, taken together, these data suggest that there has not been, or had not been in 2023, a substantial recapture of illegal sports betting revenues in Massachusetts between 2022 and 2023.
“However, as many jurisdictions internationally have found, it can take a substantial period of time for sports bettors to migrate fully from non-regulated to regulated providers.”
To date, more than 35 states in the US have opened legal regulated sports wagering markets since the Supreme Court overturned the previously established nationwide sports betting ban in 2018.
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