Massachusetts lawmakers successfully reached a compromise agreement on a bill authorizing sports betting, including some college sports, in commonwealth early this morning and will soon be sent to Governor Baker’s desk to be signed into law. Joe Murray joined Toucher & Rich to share his excitement over Massachusetts finally legalizing sports gambling.
Fred: Let’s find out, is this what you wanted?
Joe: Yes, actually. So I didn’t think it was going to happen. We had a little bit of a square off on the Saturday Joe Show this week. I think one man deserves credit. I know [Dan] Lifshatz and I have been very vocal about sports betting being passed near Mass. But I got to give it up to an honorary honorary bankroll boy, Mark Bertrand, who has been calling out the Senate. I had a chance to talk to Senator Paul Feeney this week, and he said that there have been multiple letters and that Mark Bertrand’s name has been coming up at the offices about pressure to get this thing passed. So, the fans reaching out and talking about it on the radio, the politicians heard about it. They discussed it. They extended the time to get this done last night multiple times. And there were a bunch of other bills on the table that they never got to. So finalized, sports betting. And I’ll tell you right now.
Fred: Child trafficking or, okay, so.
Joe: Just the other things, mental health and all this.
Fred: Right. Gun control and.
Joe: For real, I’m being serious about that. The other things are still on the table. But this is very consumer friendly and that’s the biggest shock to me, guys. And we can get into the details in a second here, but I am shocked this thing happened and it’s good for consumers. I wouldn’t get excited if it’s this football season, even though some have mentioned it. But this is a good deal for Massachusetts and for the consumers, and that’s a shock to me.
Rich: Now, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be this football season, right? Because I think Charlie Baker the last step is that he just had to sign off on it. Hasn’t he already said that he is going to sign off on it if it ends up passing the the House and the Senate?
Joe: Well, yeah, they have ten days to approve it. He said he’s behind it. So this is officially now on Governor Baker’s hands. So, again, ten days to approve this thing. From what I gather, they might not be ready, but I know for a fact beyond core is ready to go. I know that there was a letter from multiple casinos this week saying we can support you. And if there’s any safety things that you need guidelines for, we have them. So the casinos are ready to go. I heard it could be next football season. It sounds like they’re trying to push it to happen this football season, which is less than 30, 30 days away, guys.
Rich: Yeah, they’re all ready. Everyone’s ready. The apps are ready. The casinos are ready. Everyone’s been ready. And I don’t know why. As a matter of fact, one of the senators or one of the representatives went on record this morning. I’ll have to find out which one it was saying.
Joe: Yep. Senator Rodriguez, said it could be approved this weekend – Yep.
Rich: They said it could be ready for football season. I mean, potentially. Is this a because they know that you had a concern that if it did pass, it would be a watered down version? Is this a watered down version? Because right now, at first glance, it doesn’t look like it. This looks like it’s got most everything that you would want.
Joe: Absolutely. So it seems like the Karen Spilka’s of the world lost, the Ron Mariano’s won. The people that had been holding this up lost and that that’s a good thing so to throw it in there. Betting on college sports, is it that’s a huge win. I think that might have been almost 70% of the betting bill that wouldn’t have been included. Yeah, so. But you can’t bet on local teams. So no mass team, no UMass, no B.C., but I’m fine with that.
Rich: Unless they’re in a tournament. Like if they’re in like March Madness or something like that, then you can bet on them. That was a little stipulation they threw in there, which is fantastic. That’s great.
Joe: Fantastic. Casinos and racetracks can now take bets, something that we didn’t think of and seven mobile licenses. So this is huge. Now, here’s a couple of other things, though. There will be a 20% tax rate, which is pretty big and then no credit cards.
Rich: What does that mean? Because it because I read that this morning. That’s not a 20% off of what you win, right? Like if I was to win, like if it was normally I was supposed to win 10 bucks, I wouldn’t only win eight bucks because I have to give them 20 percent off the top. It’s not like a [vigorish], is it. I think it’s something different than that, isn’t it?
Joe: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Because if you put 110 to win 100, you’re not going to take away 80. That’d be a huge break to the house. The house is going to pay the 20%. Well, that’s a lot, doesn’t hurt the consumer.
Rich: Then why do we care? So what does that mean for us?
Joe: It’s just so consumer friendly is what it means. But I’m sure there’ll be some sort of, and we got to get the logistics on that. But I talked to Senator Paul Feeney this morning. I know a guy, a local dude that I know he was a part of this whole process. I talked to him before, I talked to you guys, but he said it’s a very strong bill. Each of the three casinos will get a license plus two mobile skins as well. So DraftKings could have a mobile outlet somewhere, which is huge. And then there will be a future thoroughbred track that will get a license. So there might be something built, which means more jobs as well than the seven additional mobile-only licenses as well. So it’ll be mobile. We can go to like kiosks and just bet. This is this is going to be huge. We can go to the gas station, pump gas and probably bet while we’re there. This is this is consumer friendly. I can’t believe we’re at this point.
Rich: My god
Fred: Joe, if this pass if this passes, how much money do you stand to make in this? Because you are on the forefront of this whole thing.
Joe: Zero. Unless I get a job. That’d be. That’d be pretty big.
Fred: Believe that you will get a job, because now there will be a lot of people will be talking about betting. You’ll get jobs.
Joe: I hope so. And the TV show that we do had a big sponsor. We hope that they come back as well. I think, guys, this is this is monumentally huge. And the biggest thing about it is the politicians really were upset that the other states are eating in their backyard.
Rich: They should have been for a while now.
Fred: Yeah. I was just going to say, this is not a new idea. This has been happening for what should I be worried, glad they weren’t upset earlier.
Rich: Like what changed between the last two years where no one would budge and yesterday or this morning, rather?
Joe: So you know how people always think these politicians have like something to gain from it? But we’ve heard a lot of that. From what I gather, though, from what I gather, there was a certain side that wasn’t budging. And I think in order for them to get what they want, I think they had to get this thing fly to get that tax money, that the economic bill to go through, to have that money eventually help out elsewhere.
So I think the sports gambling thing was number one, and I think that they got a really bad rap about it. It looked like it was a clown show, even though this is really good for the consumer. In the end, it took way too long for this to happen. And again, if this thing can turn around in 10 days or 12 days, great. But if it’s been a clown show, it’s not a great look for Mass. But they had to include sports betting and I think as far as a consumer goes, everybody’s very happy this morning.
Fred: So you up all night? Did you stay up all night to get results?
Joe: Yeah, I was up at 2:23 in the morning hearing about some guy’s tie. And I go, That’s it, I’m done. I’m out. This thing that happened.
Fred: All right. When you found out it happened, did you let out? Was it like the end of the end of Flashdance, where the where you stood up and just, went “Yeah”.
Joe: Yeah, I saw a text from Rich, but I go, get out of here. And I saw, I’ll wake up, you son of a bitches is what I saw, then I woke up, but I said, Holy crap. And then here I am. So I had to call my guy to make sure we get all the details in there. But every every sports bettors should be very happy today. Today, Massachusetts did the right thing. It’s a good bill for them. It’s a great bill for consumers. And we’re going to be betting boys. So let’s get the bankroll ready. David.
Rich: You said something that kind of like I didn’t really think about when I was reading all this. So you saying they’re going to bring back the horse racing?
Joe: There’s going to be a yeah, they have a this is what I got here. A future thoroughbred track will get a license if Bill does what Senator Paul Feeney told me this morning.
