Massachusetts Gaming Commission lawsuit to be dropped after casino player data made available
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has introduced a live application portal for researchers seeking data from the state’s casino licensees.
US.- The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission over access to casino player data. It says the regulator has now fulfilled its obligations under Section 97 of the 2011 Expanded Gaming Act by introducing a live application portal for researchers seeking access to the anonymised behavioural data from the state’s casino licensees.
The PHAI filed the lawsuit in July 2024 after failing to receive data that it had first requested in 2022. The first Massachusetts casino opened in 2015, with all three commercial properties operating by 2019.
Under Section 97 of the Expanded Gaming Act, the gaming commission is required to collect behavioural data from casino licensees, contract with an experienced nonprofit research entity to anonymise it by removing personally identifying information and certain game details, and make the anonymised data available to qualified researchers. The data is intended to support analysis of how gambling addiction develops, evidence-based harm minimisation strategies, and systems to monitor and intervene in high-risk gambling.
Following the submission of the lawsuit, the commission contracted the University of Massachusetts in 2025 to store and anonymise the data, and the process was completed earlier this month. A brief version of the player data dictionary is available on the portal, while the full dictionary is provided to approved researchers.
The data covers metrics such as player demographics, loyalty programme information, session times, wager amounts, average bets, win/loss figures, jackpot activity and game characteristics from Massachusetts’ three commercial casinos.
Andrew Rainer, PHAI Litigation Director, said: “After PHAI filed suit against the Commission in July 2024, the Commission finally took the steps needed to collect player data from its casino licensees, to anonymise and store the data, and to make the data available to researchers.”
Massachusetts Gaming Commission spokesperson Thomas Mills said: “Since the onset of casino gaming in the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has worked diligently to create the framework to allow the anonymous transfer and analysis of the data by qualified researchers,” Mills said.
Mark Gottlieb, PHAI Executive Director, said the organisation now wants similar requirements applied to sports betting. He said: “This kind of player data should now be collected from sports gambling companies, whose business in Massachusetts has exploded since sports gambling was legalised in 2023. At PHAI, we look forward to working with the Massachusetts legislature to ensure that a similar statutory obligation to share player data, of the kind included in Sen. Keenan’s Bettor Health Act (S.302), is imposed on sports gambling operators here in the Commonwealth.”
