Majority of state senators support legalizing sports betting, survey shows
Photo | Courtesy of Sturbridge Agricultural and Equestrian Center, via presentation to Sturbridge Selectmen
The proposed Sturbridge Agricultural and Equestrian Center, which would have included horse racing, was voted down by the town.
At least 60 percent of state senators support legalizing sports wagering in Massachusetts, a move favored by the House and Gov. Charlie Baker, according to a News Service survey of the Senate conducted this week.
A House-approved sports betting bill remains lodged in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, where it's sat since last summer. In the survey, not a single senator said they are outright opposed to legalization.
The House voted 156-3 last July to authorize sports betting. The bill (H 3993) is a priority of Speaker Ron Mariano's, who said this month that he's frustrated by the Senate's "stubborn reluctance to take the bill up."
Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday that there's no getting around legal sports wagering. Referencing a bill he filed around four years ago based on New Jersey's framework, Baker said that "whether it's that, or some other version, I think at this point this is a fact of life."
"And for people in Massachusetts - literally many do - to just drive over the border, to be able to participate in something that is another form of entertainment, I think is unfortunate," Baker said.
Talking in January about her legislative priorities, Senate President Karen Spilka, who did not respond to the survey, was noncommittal on sports betting.
"You know, some want to do it, some are uncertain they want to do it," the president said. "But we will be taking a look at it with the senators."
Responding to Mariano's comments this month, the Ashland Democrat said she wants to see "some sort of consensus" among senators before moving forward.
While there is majority support in the Senate for the concept of sports betting, senators seem to be struggling with details, which could be worked out behind the scenes or through floor debate and amendments.
Senate President Pro Tempore Will Brownsberger said in his response to the survey that there are "unresolved questions about the scope of activities that should be eligible for sports betting, how to set it up, how to regulate it, and how to share the revenue it generates."
The House bill arrived in Senate Ways and Means last July, within a week of another legalization proposal sponsored by Sen. Eric Lesser (S 269), which was approved by the Economic Development Committee and also sent to Ways and Means.
For the past eight months, the Senate's path or stance on sports betting has been difficult to gauge because the talks have been almost entirely private. Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues said meetings with stakeholders are ongoing and his team is trying to "get our hands around all the competing proposals out there."
In an effort to once and for all see just how much support or opposition exists in the Senate for allowing people to bet on sports here, the News Service posed the question to all 40 senators.
SHNS identified support from 24 senators, or 60 percent of the chamber, for legalizing sports wagering, mainly from survey responses but in a few cases from a senator's cosponsorship of bills on that subject. Eight senators either replied that they were undecided, noncommittal, or did not want to comment. No members of the Senate answered in outright opposition to sports betting. Twelve senators did not provide any response or acknowledgement of the question.
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