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00:00Massachusetts, the next state here in the United States that wants to raise sports betting
00:04taxes, and ironically, they're choosing the same exact number that New York has.
00:09We predicted this last year.
00:10You and I talked about this a ton, that once New York got that 51%, we didn't know that
00:16every other state would get to 51%, and certainly the revenue of New York is different than
00:20a lot of the other states for sure, but Massachusetts is the next one on deck.
00:24You think they get this all the way up from 20 to 51%?
00:28I don't.
00:29And you're right, I mean, besides us, the whole industry's been looking at states looking
00:34to raise their taxes.
00:35So this is not a surprise.
00:36In fact, Senator John Keenan, the person who introduced this massive bill in Massachusetts,
00:41actually tried to raise the taxes through a budget amendment last year to 51%, and it
00:46quickly was voted against by many of the other lawmakers in Massachusetts.
00:51This bill, along with raising it to 51%, the tax rate, includes many of the other parts
00:57that the Safe Bet Act at the federal level includes, including banning prop bets and
01:02in-play bets, setting wagering limits so you can't wager more than $1,000 in a day or $10,000
01:09in a month.
01:10It prohibits sports betting ads during sports events.
01:14It adds bonuses and single-game parlays to unfair and deceptive practices by sportsbooks.
01:20So it's a really big limiting bill to the industry.
01:23So of course, the industry is not a big fan of it.
01:26Again, it replicates the Safe Bet Act at the federal level, which we've seen the scrutiny
01:32at the federal level last month, starting with the U.S. Senate hearing, which we can
01:36assume there's going to be more because they hinted at more.
01:39And in that hearing, they talked a lot about the Safe Bet Act and how this is stuff we
01:43need to focus on and put into a national framework for the industry.
01:49And so there are lawmakers out there, certainly at the federal level and clearly at the state
01:54level that are trying to do this.
01:55I mean, this is fairly similar to the bill that we've talked about in Minnesota, which
01:59of course they're trying to just simply legalize, but we've got the opponents who are also trying
02:05to make sure responsible gambling, maybe to a bad extent, are trying to get this in.
02:11So based on Keenan's success last year, which wasn't, he had his amendment to 51% tax rate
02:18voted against, with this, along with 51% and everything else, seems like an even bigger
02:24breach.
02:25But maybe that's his goal is to say, hey, maybe we take some of these other things off
02:29and just get bigger tax rate, maybe not 51%, maybe 40%, whatever it ends up through discussions.
02:36But it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of appetite, but we'll see.
02:41But Massachusetts, certainly a big discussion state.
02:45We talk about the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which meets multiple times a month, a lot
02:50because they're very active.
02:53Just today we saw some online casino bills come through in Massachusetts.
02:57So Massachusetts is going to be a very active state this session, I think.
03:01So we'll be talking about it a lot this coming couple months.