INFORMATION NOT CURRENT!!!… This page has not been updated October 1, 2011. Since then, the legislature has enacted a broad gambling bill that will establish casinos in the state. Internet gambling was not a part of the bill, and the legislature is unlikely to expand gambling any further this term. Update coming soon.
Summary
One stand-alone bill to license and regulate internet gaming is pending in the Massachusetts legislature. Additionally, a highly publicized bill to expand gambling in the State of Massachusetts now contains provisions that would enable the licensing and regulation of poker on the internet.
Senate Bill 132
Introduced in the Massachusetts Senate on January 20, 2011, S. 132 would authorize the Massachusetts Lottery Commission to conduct a two-year “pilot program” to “evaluate new technologies, delivery mechanisms, sales channels, and other innovations not previously offered by said Commission.”
The bill was the subject of an informational meeting conducted by a joint committee of members from both houses of the state legislature on July 14, 2011 but has received no official action since then. The state senator who introduced the legislation, Senator Michael Rush, has been called to Iraq by the Navy Reserves so his chief of staff now manages the issue.
State Treasurer Steve Grossman, whose department oversees the State Lottery, publicly opposes the pilot program, claiming it would violate federal law. (See State House News Service article: While lottery sales are flat, Grossman sees online gaming pilot as unlawful).