Sports Betting Bill On To Massachusetts House Of Reps

Senate Bill 2844 passed through the Massachusetts State Senate.
Lots of changes will be made in the House, but time is on the legislator’s side.

BOSTON – Massachusetts sports betting may have taken a step in the right direction yesterday when the Massachusetts Senate passed S 2844 on to the House of Representatives.

S 2844 is a heavily amended version of HB 3993, which was passed by the House last July. That may make it sound as if SB 2844 is a lock to legalize sports betting in Massachusetts, but that is not the case.

Despite Senate Approval, S 2844 May Be In Trouble

S 2844 may have gotten through the State Senate, but it could have issues getting through the House.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives has shown a desire to regulate sports betting in Massachusetts in the past.

The House passed HB 3993 back in July 2021 that would have legalized sports betting, and that bill was the basis for S 2844. The only problem is that S 2844 was created because of how many changes the Senate had made to the House bill.

The largest differences between the Senate and House proposals are tax rates and online licenses.

Comparing The Differences Between The Senate And House Bill

Bill	Retail Tax Rate	Online Tax Rate	Online Licenses
Senate (S 2844)	20%	35%	9
House (HB 3993)	12.50%	15%	11

Time On Massachusetts Side

The Massachusetts House is likely to make a lot of changes to S 2844, especially when considering the State Senate made so many changes to the House’s proposal that they had to make a new bill.

Luckily for sports bettors in Massachusetts, there is plenty of time for the legislators to make their changes. The formal legislative session ends on July 31st, but the overall legislative session runs through January 2nd, 2023.

There are a lot of issues to iron out, take for example the fact that in the Senate alone there were 69 amendments made to the bill, but legal sports betting fans should feel hopeful that time is on their side.

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News tags: HB 3993 | Massachusetts | S 2844

Brett Crown

Brett is a passionate sports writer who majored in Sport Management at Florida State University. He combines his knowledge of stats with his understanding of game theory to find the best values when sports betting. Brett enjoys golfing, playing cornhole, and hanging out by the pool when he’s not locked in watching games.