Join the Massachusetts Apprentice Network for the one-year anniversary of its launch.
03/27/2023
9:30am - 11:00am
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
This event will explore why in-game advertising is becoming the next big advertising channel and how companies can tap into the gaming ad space.
03/28/2023
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Mediahub
Thank you for joining us for our second Government Affairs forum of the year that featured Ronald J. Mariano, Massachusetts Speaker of the House.
03/30/2023
9:45am - 11:00am
Colonnade Hotel
Designed for mid-level managers and supervisors, this new certificate program addresses workplace well-being through unique, innovative, and actionable methods.
Join our Transformational DEI Certificate! Our comprehensive learning & development offerings are designed to connect and grow strong leaders who lead both inside and out of the office.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Expand your DEI professional development with a virtual workshop focused specifically on LGBTQIA+ identities and inclusion.
Our Economic Inclusion Committee provides strategic support around research, policies, and programs that are focused on building equal opportunity.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
The Fierce Urgency of Now Festival brings Boston’s diverse young professionals together with business leaders, organizations and their peers to build connection, advance careers and ignite positive change.
09/12/2023 -
09/15/2023
Greater Boston
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For more than 25 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
Through MITX (the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange), we’re building valuable connections between the people and ideas behind technology and its impact on the future of customer experiences, all to create a community that’s finding tomorrow’s solutions together.
We support small business through public policy initiatives, events designed to connect small businesses in Greater Boston to their peers and established business leaders, professional development offerings, and free small business advising.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce offered comments to the conference committee on H.3993/S.2862, An Act regulating sports wagering. The Chamber supports legalizing sports wagering in the Commonwealth and applauds the House and Senate for advancing proposals to regulate an activity already occurring in the black market and legally in neighboring states. We encourage the conference committee to present a final report to the full Legislature before July 31st that allows for competitive sports wagering options, empowers the Gaming Commission to regulated and monitor the market, and creates built-in protections for abnormal betting activity and problem gambling.
In contrast to black market wagering, the Gaming Commission and licensees in a regulated environment can quickly and effectively identify bad actors or irregular behavior, protecting both consumers and the integrity of sporting events. Along with a safer product, embracing sports wagering provides an economic boost to the Commonwealth by creating jobs and growth opportunities in sporting and entertainment sectors.
However, eliminating the black market for sports wagering is critical to the success of this new regulated industry. Convincing individuals to embrace the legal market will maximize consumer protection effectiveness and new revenue to the state. Policies that place the Commonwealth well outside the norm of regulation and competitiveness will hurt the state’s efforts to regulate sports wagering effectively, which risks the continued use of offshore apps and other means of illegal betting.
Competitive Tax Rates Legal sports wagering, like other forms of gaming in the Commonwealth, should be regulated and taxed. While not as lucrative as licensed casino gaming, sports wagering will still provide meaningful revenue to the state through licensing fees and wagers which can be dedicated to important public policy initiatives.
However, tax rates should be competitive with other jurisdictions and targeted to eliminating lower cost, illegal options that bettors may already use. These options, particularly mobile apps associated with offshore sportsbooks, will not disappear overnight once sports wagering becomes legal. While short-term tax revenue is important, in the long-term revenues will be bolstered by widespread acceptance of the legal market over illicit options. Any tax rate imposed on sports wagering should be reasonable and allow for the healthy growth of a new industry operating on slim margins.
The establishment of this new industry is not unlike the legalization of cannabis, where a widely used and entrenched black market existed as a new regulatory framework took hold. As this market continues to mature, the regulated cannabis market produced over $3 billion in retail sales since 2018.[i] Retail cannabis products are subject to an excise tax of 10.75%, excluding sales and optional local taxes. This is a useful benchmark for taxes that allow for a newly regulated industry to thrive.
Looking at peer states, Connecticut taxes sports wagering gross gaming revenues at 13.75% for retail establishments, and 18% for mobile betting. Maryland adopted a tax rate of 15%, and New Jersey 14.25% on revenues. These states offer sports wagering through multiple mobile and retail licensees in competition with each other, similar to the structure under consideration in Massachusetts under both House and Senate bills.
In contrast, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, which have higher tax rates, adopted a very different regulatory structure by offering sports wagering through their lottery monopolies. In these states, only one operator is allowed to offer sports wagering products either through a mobile outlet or at retail establishments. In New Hampshire specifically, the operator offered a higher percentage of gross revenue sharing with the state solely in exchange for exclusive rights to offer sports wagering, eliminating competitors and becoming the sole option for legal bets. Neither the House nor Senate contemplate this type of regulatory approach, and therefore should avoid comparisons to states with sharply different licensing approaches.
Finally, one tool to encourage bettors to use newly licensed sports wagering options is promotions, which allow bettors to try sport wagering products through special offers by operators. These promotions should be excluded from gross sports wagering revenues to create parity with other legal gaming options at existing gaming establishments and assist in a full shift to the legal market.
Advertising While some reasonable restrictions on sports wagering advertising may be advisable, gametime whistle-to-whistle bans are an overly blunt tool, serve to perpetuate the illicit market, and are likely unconstitutional. Most sports wagerers are fans, and convincing these active audiences to embrace legal, regulated sports wagering during games is another key tool to early market success. There are also several practical implementation problems with such bans, particularly in New England where our sports teams are supported regionally across many state lines and television markets. State-by-state restrictions will be difficult for broadcasters to navigate and may result in a total blackout of sports wagering advertising during athletic events. Exactly at the time when fans should be encouraged to use licensed betting products, the bans would risk keeping bettors on familiar, illegal offshore applications.
Daily Fantasy Sports Daily fantasy sports is legal in Massachusetts, and has been since 2016 when authorized by the Legislature. Governed by regulations promulgated by the Attorney General’s Office, operators must place limits on monthly individual losses and ensure only those over the age of 21 participate in the offerings. There are no state license fees or taxes on daily fantasy sports.
However, S.2862 places new restrictions, taxes, and fees on a growing industry already operating successfully in Massachusetts. These proposals are unnecessary and will only hurt our local operators as they seek to grow in the Commonwealth. The industry already provides hundreds of jobs in Massachusetts and is poised for further growth. This type of homegrown success should provide an example of why businesses should locate here. Imposing drastically high taxes in this bill – on an industry outside of sports wagering – is unnecessary and discriminatory, particularly when the state has ample revenue at its disposal. Not included in the many other iterations of sports wagering legislation and with little public discussion, these new regulations and tax rates send a chilling signal to innovative companies that may consider locating to Massachusetts or when deciding whether to remain in-state.
[i] https://masscannabiscontrol.com/open-data/sales-and-product-distribution/
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