Massachusetts pushes for online lottery

The State Treasurer re-filed a bill to allow an online lottery in Massachusetts.

US.- State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg introduced a bill that would authorise the Massachusetts State Lottery to offer online games. She believes that the legalisation would be a good way to modernise the system.

“I had to come around to this thinking because I myself hadn’t thought about online lottery games, but I saw the way millennials are operating is really online. This past Christmas shopping season, Cyber Monday outperformed Black Friday. We really want to be prepared to have a more modern, forward-thinking product,” Goldberg said. State Senator Jennifer Flanagan, D-Leominster, filed a similar bill to legalise online lottery games.

According to Wicked Local, Goldberg admitted that her idea is to boost the US$965 million that the state is gonna get from lottery revenue by allowing people to use the lottery online or with a smartphone. Flanagan believes that lottery revenue is an essential part of cities and towns funding. “In 2009 when lottery sales weren’t as good as they are now, we heard from cities and towns asking, ‘What about the lottery money?’,” she said. Both proposals include measures to help and discourage compulsive gambling, such as a maximum limit of the amount of money that people can deposit in their online lottery accounts.

“What experts tell us is it is much easier to track and put in programs to control compulsive gaming online. When you’re operating from an IP address or phone, you can develop programs to identify and restrict a person’s own gambling,” Goldberg added.