MGC-commissioned study recommends in-game betting ban

MGC betting report 2022

A report from medical experts from the SEIGMA team at the School of Public Health and Health Sciences University of Massachusetts Amherst is recommending the state prohibit in-game wagering as it develops regulations for online and retail sports betting in the state.

MGC-commissioned report recommends ban on in-game wagering

The report was commissioned by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) to examine the impact on public health the gambling expansion would have. Massachusetts has a long history of research and studies related to gambling the group consulted. The group also read up on the latest gambling literature and looked at other states with regulated sports betting before drawing its conclusions.

Those conclusions advocate for regulations that would be some of the most limited in the country.

Here are the group’s four recommendations:

  • Requiring operators to provide player data to the MGC on a regular basis and to cooperate with researchers.
  • Prohibiting in-play sports betting as it is disproportionately utilized by problem gamblers.
  • Restricting advertising and celebrity endorsement.
  • Requiring responsible gambling features on all online sites.

Micro-betting limits could majorly hamper MA sports betting economy

As Jake Paul will tell you, micro-betting is the hot new buzzword in sports betting, so the idea of removing that market altogether would be an unprecedented limit on the types of bets available in a market. While the report advised that there would be an uptick in problem gambling with any sort of legalized sports betting, the group called the impact “modest” when speaking about the industry at large.

The state will already limit the scope of college betting in the state, prohibiting betting on in-state collegiate teams unless they are taking part in some sort of national tournament like March Madness. If the MGC were to implement an in-game ban on top of the college prohibition, it would drastically limit the scope of betting options in the state.

The debate about how much in-game betting will eventually comprise the betting market is a heated one, with numbers all over the map. A report earlier this year from USBets noted Genius Sports believes in-game will be 80% of the action in ten years’ time. How much a potential limit on in-game would hamper Massachusetts’ tax revenue from betting is unclear.

It is also unclear if the recommendation will go any further than the research team. For now, MGC is carefully mulling through every facet of regulations and consulting all stakeholders along the way.