Sportsbook

For MGM Springfield and other Mass. casinos, sports betting could hold key to the future

Monday 22 de February 2021 / 07:11

⏱ 2 min read

(Massachusetts).- Efforts to control the deadly coronavirus pandemic – from plexiglass shields at roulette tables to bans on patrons standing and drinking at the same time – dominated the news for MGM Springfield and the region’s other casinos in 2020.

For MGM Springfield and other Mass. casinos, sports betting could hold key to the future

But it’s sports gambling and how Massachusetts and its neighbors choose to regulate it, that could have the biggest impact on MGM going forward.

“If they don’t get sports gambling at the casino or online, I don’t see much of a future,” says Richard McGowan, a professor in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College who studies the gambling and casino industries. “They are in way too much debt. The future of gambling looks like it’s online. What will make or break MGM Springfield is what the Massachusetts Legislature decides to do with sports gambling.”

That could be running online betting through the existing casinos, as New Jersey has done. Delaware uses the state’s lottery. But online operators like DraftKings want in on the action as well.

McGowan is the author of six books on the gambling, alcohol and tobacco industries. He predicts MGM will sell the Springfield casino as a way of recouping its losses at a property that hasn’t lived up to expectations. MGM management says that’s not on the table.

At the beginning of February 2021, Governor Charlie Baker filed and introduced a bill that would legalize sports betting in Massachusetts in the form of Bill HD 678. Baker has been an advocate to make sports wagering legal for the Bay State for quite a while and has made that public knowledge by not only speaking in favor of it but also by adding the pastime to multiple budget proposals including the 2021 budget, which was later taken out by lawmakers.

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País: United States