It’s early in fiscal year 2025, but Massachusetts lawmakers want to make a change to introduce iLottery in the state.
On Thursday, Massachusetts Democrats agreed to legalize online lottery sales as part of a $58 billion FY25 adjusted budget.
On Friday, both the House and the Senate approved the new budget. That passes it on to Gov. Maura Healey, who is expected to sign it.
Previous efforts to pass iLottery during the calendar year didn’t pan out. However, this latest proposal garnered more support due to the age limit for playing online increasing to 21 and more stringent advertising rules.
It appears that Massachusetts will soon be joining the states with online lotteries.
House and Senate approve iLottery expansion
The FY25 budget called for iLottery to be included dating back to January when Gov. Healey had it as part of her proposal.
However, the Senate omitted online lottery from its version in May, differing from the House.
Now, both are on the same side.
The House approved the amended budget by a vote of 154-3 on Friday. The Senate then unanimously approved the budget, 40-0.
Senate President Karen Spilka told the Boston Herald that the current proposal answers the concerns many Democratic lawmakers had in previous efforts to legalize iLottery. The same went for Senate budget writer Michael Rodrigues, who has been against online lottery in the past:
“We’re very concerned with this expansion of online gaming, whether it’s sports gaming or now the lottery, that because of how easy it is to access it right through your phone that it could target some minors. So, we have protections built into it, and the House agreed with the protections.”
According to the Boston Herald, dollars generated from an online lottery will go to a grant program that supports early education and care providers’ day-to-day operational and workforce costs.
The State Treasury Department will be responsible for overseeing the rollout of iLottery.
In-person retail purchases of lottery tickets will still have an age limit of 18 years old.
Efforts to include iLottery in the yearly budget have ramped up as formal sessions for the Massachusetts government conclude on July 31.
Massachusetts Lottery has been striving for online access
This latest news is being happily received by the Massachusetts Lottery.
Executive Director Mark Bracken has been very vocal in the state adding iLottery. He believes the introduction of sports betting to the state in March 2023 has had a great impact on lottery sales.
On Friday, Bracken issued a statement to PlayiLottery that the Massachusetts Lottery is more than ready to provide an online option.
“Our team is excited to implement an online Lottery. We are ready and prepared to offer our players a modern lottery experience in a safe and accessible environment.”
Though Bracken has had concerns about decreasing lottery sales, as of early June, the state was on pace for a record fiscal year.
Through 49 weeks, Massachusetts had $5.77 billion in sales, 0.7% ahead of FY23 at the same time. That was a total of $40.7 million ahead, with three weeks of data still to come.
The sales boost came from a big increase in Powerball, which was up 28% year over year. Bracken’s concerns were more from instant tickets, which were down 0.3% on the year at $3.77 billion.
Along with the support of the state lottery, an April poll showed half of the residents in Massachusetts were in favor of an online lottery.
Photo by lucadp via Shutterstock
Graphic from the Massachusetts Lottery
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