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Mass. Treasurer: State's lotto could move
online
December 14, 2012, 8:00 am
(NECN) - Soon you might be able to buy
lottery tickets without leaving the house. Massachusetts Treasurer
Steve Grossman plans to ask Bay State lawmakers to allow the
l
ottery to operate online gambling.
He joins us from our Suffolk University
studio downtown.
Currently, under Massachusetts state law,
consumers can only buy lottery tickets in person and only with
cash. But Grossman plans to ask the legislature to remove those
restrictions. Ultimately, this is about more than just selling
lottery tickets online. If the legislature agrees, Grossman says
the lottery could pilot a whole range of online games, like fantasy
football or online poker.
Why is this a good idea?
“Don’t forget, this all was kicked off last
December by the Justice Department which said, from now on,
lotteries can offer almost any product, other than sports betting,
to in-state adults, using credit cards,” says Grossman. “We felt
that after that ruling, we had to move and move quickly to study
this whole issue of online gaming. The lottery as you know is
almost a $5 billion business. It generated almost a billion dollars
in profit last year. It’s the lifeblood of every city and town for
local aid for senior center, for firefighters, for quality of life.
So if the threat of the internet is imminent, to lotteries all over
the country, including our own, the most successful lottery in the
country, we felt we had to study it and that’s exactly what we’re
doing. So we put together a task force.”
The number one concern is protecting the
7,400 retailers that have been the backbone of the lottery for 40
years.
Grossman says they are very sensitive to
stores and they’ve made it clear they will do nothing to undermine
the profitability and the health of those small retailers, all over
the country, some that are two or three generations
old.
“We’re going to protect those retailers.
That’s number one requirement of anything we do.”
Grossman says the second concern is problem
gaming, problem gambling, excessive gaming and gambling
addiction.
The Treasurer says both issues will be
studied very carefully and nothing will be done too
quickly.
When might this come into play?
They are going to the legislature early next
year.
On another note, Grossman is carefully
considering a run for governor in 2014.
“I look forward to 2014. Whatever I do, I
look forward to being on the ballot. Hopefully to continue to serve
the people of this Commonwealth,” Grossman says. “That’s up to
them, not up to me.”
Tags: lottery, gubernatorial candidate, Steve
Grossman, massachusetts treasuerer, internet gambling
Mass. Treasurer pushing for Internet lottery
sales
Dec 12, 2012, 10:14 am
BOSTON, Mass. — Massachusetts State Treasurer Steven Grossman
is gearing up to ask state lawmakers for permission to create and
test what he hopes will be a first wave of Internet lottery games
in Massachusetts.
Grossman said Tuesday that he plans to ask the Legislature to
eliminate existing barriers in state law that prevent the lottery
from selling tickets and other games online or accepting credit
cards as a form of payment.
Grossman said the kinds of lottery items for sale on the
Internet could include familiar games like Mega Millions, Powerball
and instant tickets.
But Lottery officials are also looking at possibly developing
so-called 'social gaming' ventures like fantasy sports leagues.
Other games such as online poker might not be feasible at
first.
Grossman said the Lottery needs to test different games to
decide which might produce the most revenue. He said the threat of
Internet gambling to existing state lotteries is
'imminent.'
'Internet gaming is going to be a fact of life and is going
to have an impact on lotteries all over the country in the
relatively near future,' he said. 'We want to move as quickly as we
can, as appropriately as we can.'
Grossman, who as treasurer oversees the lottery, said a
special task force he set up to explore the issue is preparing to
release its findings.
Among those recommendations is that any plan to expand the
lottery online must also protect the 7,400 convenience stores,
liquor stores and other stores that sell physical lottery tickets.
Grossman called the lottery agents the backbone of the
system.
The lottery is expected to collect net profits of about $927
million in the current year. The money is returned to cities and
towns in the form of local aid.
In explaining his push for online lottery games, Grossman
pointed to a U.S. Justice Department ruling last December that
reversed its previous stance barring states from conducting online
gambling.
The department's ruling goes far beyond tickets, however,
opening the door to states offering virtually any form of gambling,
except on sports. Grossman said the new ruling allows the
Massachusetts Lottery to market online to in-state adults with
credit cards.
Grossman said he didn't have an estimate about when the
Lottery might start testing online games, although nothing can
happen until state lawmakers pass legislation giving him the green
light. The Legislature is set to come back into formal session in
January for a new two-year term.
'We want to test it out and we want to test it out very, very
carefully,' Grossman said. 'We want to gather more
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