Bill S.224

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1110 FILED ON: 1/17/2019

SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 224

By Mr. Rush, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 224) of Michael F. Rush, Paul McMurtry and David M. Nangle for legislation to regulate sports wagering . Economic Development and Emerging Technologies.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

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An Act to regulate sports wagering.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1: Chapter 4 of the general laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out lines 67-76, in section 7, and inserting in place thereof the following:-

Tenth, “illegal gaming,” banking or percentage game played with cards, dice, tiles or dominoes, an electronic, electrical or mechanical device or machine for money, property, checks, credit or any representative of value, but excluding: (i) a lottery game conducted by the state lottery commission, under sections 24, 24A and 27 of chapter 10; (ii) a game conducted under chapter 23K; (iii) a sports wager conducted under chapter 23N; (iv) pari-mutuel wagering on horse races under chapters 128A and 128C and greyhound races under said chapter 128C; (v) a game of bingo conducted under chapter 271; and (vi) charitable gaming conducted under said chapter 271.

SECTION 2: The general laws, as so appearing, are hereby amended by inserting after chapter 23M, the following chapter: -

Chapter 23N: Regulation of Sports Wagering.

Section 1. Definitions.

As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:

(a) “Gaming establishment” means a licensee offering gaming at a facility in this state as defined in section 2 of chapter 23K.

(b) “Interactive sports wagering platform” or “platform” means a person or entity that offers sports wagering over the internet, including on websites and mobile devices, on behalf of a gaming establishment.

(c) “Official league data” means statistics, results, outcomes, and other data relating to a sporting event obtained pursuant to an agreement with the relevant sports governing body, or an entity expressly authorized by the sports governing body to provide such information to sports wagering operators, which authorizes the use of such data for determining the outcome of tier two sports wagers.

(d) “Registered sports governing body” means a sports governing body that is headquartered in the United States and who has registered with [regulating entity] pursuant to this Act.

(e) “Sports governing body” means the organization that prescribes final rules and enforces codes of conduct with respect to a sporting event and participants therein.

(f) “Sports wagering” means accepting wagers on sporting events or portions of sporting events, or on the individual performance statistics of athletes in a sporting event or combination of sporting events, by any system or method of wagering, including but not limited to in-person, or over the internet through websites and on mobile devices. The term includes, but is not limited to, single-game bets, teaser bets, parlays, over-under, moneyline, pools, exchange wagering, in-game wagering, in-play bets, proposition bets, and straight bets.

(g) “Sports wagering gross revenue” means the amount equal to the total of all sports wagers, except for sports wagers made with promotional gaming credits, that a sports wagering operator collects from bettors, less the total of all sums paid out as winnings to all bettors, however, that the total of all sums paid out as winnings to bettors shall not include the cash equivalent of any merchandise or thing of value awarded as a prize.

(h) “Sports wagering operator” or “operator” means a gaming establishment that offers sports wagering or an interactive sports wagering platform that offers sports wagering on behalf of a gaming establishment;

(i) “Tier one sports wager” means a sports wager that is determined solely by the final score or final outcome of the sporting event and is placed before the sporting event has begun;

(j) “Tier two sports wager” means a sports wager that is not a tier one sports wager;

(k) “Wager” or “bet” means the staking or risking by a person of something of value upon an agreement or understanding that the person or another person will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome. The term does not include:

(i) any activity governed by the securities laws of the United States or this state;

(ii) any contract of indemnity or guarantee;

(iii) any contract for insurance; or

(iv) participation in any game or contest in which the participants do not stake or risk anything of value other than personal efforts of the participants in playing the game or contest or obtaining access to the internet, or points or credits that the sponsor of the game or contest provides to participants free of charge and that can be used or redeemed only for participation in games or contests offered by the sponsor.

Section 2. Sports wagering by gaming establishments.

(a) Sports wagering may not be offered in this state except by a gaming establishment pursuant to this Act.

(b) Gaming establishments may offer sports wagering:

(i) in-person at the licensed facility; and

(ii) over the internet via an interactive sports wagering platform to persons physically located in this state.

(c) A gaming establishment may contract with interactive sports wagering platforms to administer sports wagering over the internet on its behalf.

Section 3. Licensing of interactive sports wagering platforms.

(a) An interactive sports wagering platform may offer sports wagering on behalf of a gaming establishment only if it holds a platform license issued by the Massachusetts gaming commission.

(b) Applicants for interactive sports wagering platform licenses shall:

(i) submit an application to the commission in the manner prescribed by the commission to verify the platform’s eligibility under this chapter, and

(ii) pay an initial fee of $100,000.

(c) Each year on or before the anniversary date of the payment of the initial fee made under subsection (b)(ii), if such platform license has been issued, a platform shall pay to the commission an annual license renewal fee of $10,000.

(d) Notwithstanding contrary law, a platform license application and all documents, reports, and data submitted by an interactive sports wagering platform to the commission containing proprietary information, trade secrets, financial information, or personal information about any person shall be treated by the commission as closed records and shall not to be disclosed to the public unless required by court order, this chapter, or other law.

(e) An interactive sports wagering platform may enter into agreements to offer sports wagering on behalf of one or more gaming establishments without limitation. Such agreements are not prerequisites to obtaining an interactive sports wagering platform license.

Section 4. Sports wagering operators; consumer protections.

(a) Sports wagering operators shall verify that a person placing a wager, including with respect to online or mobile betting, is of the legal minimum age for placing such a wager.

(b) Sports wagering operators shall allow individuals to restrict themselves from placing wagers with the operator, including limits on the time spent betting and amounts wagered, and take reasonable steps to prevent those individuals from placing such wagers, including upon request of such individual to share the request with the commission for the sole purpose of disseminating the request to other sports wagering operators.

(c) The commission shall promulgate rules that require an operator to implement responsible gaming programs that include comprehensive employee trainings on responding to circumstances in which individuals present signs of a gambling addiction.

(d) The commission shall promulgate rules to ensure that an operator’s advertisements for sports wagering:

(i) do not target minors or other persons who are ineligible to place wagers, problem gamblers, or other vulnerable persons, which may include limitations on the form, content, quantity, timing, and location of advertisements;

(ii) disclose the identity of the sports wagering operator;

(iii) provide information about or links to resources relating to gambling addiction; and

(iv) are not false, misleading, or deceptive to a reasonable consumer.

Section 5. Integrity requirements.

(a) Sports wagering operators shall conduct background checks on newly hired employees, and annual background checks on all existing employees. Background checks shall search for criminal history, and any charges or convictions involving corruption or manipulation of sporting events and association with organized crime.

(b) Sports wagering operators shall employ commercially reasonable methods to:

(i) prohibit the operator, directors, officers, owners, and employees of the operator, and any relative living in the same household as such persons, from placing bets with the operator;

(ii) prohibit athletes, coaches, referees, team owners, employees of a sports governing body or its member teams, and player and referee union personnel from wagering on any sporting event overseen by their sport’s governing body. In determining which persons are excluded from placing wagers under this subsection, operators shall use publicly available information and any lists of such persons that the sports governing body may provide to the commission;

(iii) prohibit any individual with access to non-public confidential information held by the operator from placing wagers with the operator;

(iv) prohibit persons from placing wagers as agents or proxies for others; and

(v) maintain the security of wagering data, customer data, and other confidential information from unauthorized access and dissemination; provided, however, that nothing in this chapter shall preclude the use of internet or cloud-based hosting of such data and information or disclosure as required by court order, other law, or this chapter.

(c) A sports governing body may notify the commission that it desires to restrict, limit, or exclude sports wagering on its sporting events by providing notice in the form and manner as the commission may require, including, without limitation, restrictions on the sources of data and associated video upon which an operator may rely in offering and paying wagers and the bet types that may be offered. Upon receiving such notice, the commission shall only deny a request if it deems such request arbitrary and capricious. If the commission denies a request, the sports governing body shall be afforded notice and the right to be heard and offer proof in opposition to such determination in accordance with the regulations of the commission. Offering or taking wagers contrary to restrictions promulgated by the commission is a violation of this section. In the event that a request is submitted in relation to an emergency situation, the executive director of the commission may temporarily grant the request of the sports governing body until the commission makes a final determination as to whether such request is arbitrary and capricious.

(d) The commission shall designate a state law-enforcement entity to have primary responsibility for conducting, or assisting the commission in conducting, investigations into abnormal betting activity, match fixing, and other conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of a sporting event or events for purposes of financial gain.

(e) The commission and sports wagering operators shall cooperate with investigations conducted by sports governing bodies or law enforcement agencies, including but not limited to providing or facilitating the provision of account-level betting information and audio or video files relating to persons placing wagers.

(f) Sports wagering operators shall immediately report to the commission any information relating to:

(i) criminal or disciplinary proceedings commenced against the sports wagering operator in connection with its operations;

(ii) abnormal betting activity or patterns that may indicate a concern with the integrity of a sporting event or events;

(iii) any potential breach of the relevant sports governing body’s internal rules and codes of conduct pertaining to sports wagering;

(iv) any other conduct that corrupts a betting outcome of a sporting event or events for purposes of financial gain, including match fixing; and

(v) suspicious or illegal wagering activities, including use of funds derived from illegal activity, wagers to conceal or launder funds derived from illegal activity, using agents to place wagers, and using false identification.

Sports wagering operators shall also immediately report information relating to conduct described in subsections (ii), (iii), and (iv) to the relevant sports governing body.

(g) Sports wagering operators shall maintain the confidentiality of information provided by a sports governing body to the sports wagering operator, unless disclosure is required by this chapter, the commission, other law, or court order.

(h) The commission and sports wagering operators shall maintain the confidentiality of all information relating to conduct described in subsections (f)(ii), (f)(iii), and (f)(iv) unless disclosure is required by this chapter, other law, or court order, or authorized by the relevant sports governing body. Nothing herein prohibits the commission or a sports wagering operator from making a confidential disclosure to another sports wagering operator, a sports governing body, sports betting regulating entity, law enforcement entity or other party for the purpose of preventing or investigating conduct that corrupts or could corrupt the outcome of a sporting event, including match fixing.

(i) Except as provided in subsection (j), sports wagering operators may use any data source to determine the results of sports wagers, provided the data is not obtained directly or indirectly from live event attendees who collect the data in violation of the terms of admittance to an event or through automated computer programs that compile data from the internet in violation of the terms of service of the relevant website or other internet platform.

(j) Commencing on March 3, 2020, a sports governing body may notify the commission that it desires to supply official league data to sports wagering operators for determining the results of tier two sports wagers. Such notification shall be made in the form and manner as the commission may require. Within 30 days of such notification by a sports governing body, sports wagering operators shall use only official league data to determine the results of tier two sports wagers, unless the sports wagering operator can demonstrate to the commission that the sports governing body or its designee cannot provide a feed of official league data to the sports wagering operator on commercially reasonable terms.

Section 6. Recordkeeping; information sharing; registration; sports betting royalty.

(a) Sports wagering operators shall maintain records of all bets and wagers placed, including personally identifiable information of the bettor, amount and type of bet, time the bet was placed, location of the bet, including IP address if applicable, the outcome of the bet, records of abnormal betting activity, and video camera recordings in the case of in-person wagers for at least three years after the sporting event occurs and make such data available for inspection upon request of the commission or as required by court order.

(b) If a sports governing body has notified the commission that real-time information sharing for wagers placed on its sporting events is necessary and desirable, sports wagering operators shall share in real time, at the account level, and in pseudonymous form, the information required to be retained pursuant to subsection (a) (other than video files) with the sports governing body or its designee with respect to wagers on its sporting events. Such information may be used by a sports governing body solely for integrity purposes.

(c) sports governing body may register with the commission if the sports governing body is headquartered in the United States and it completes such registration form as the commission may require. Upon submission of a completed registration form to the commission, the eligible sports governing body shall be deemed registered and shall be entitled to receive the royalty provided for in this section.

(d) Within thirty days of the end of each calendar quarter, a sports wagering operator shall remit to the commission a royalty of one-quarter of one percent of the amounts wagered on sporting events conducted by registered sports governing bodies.

(e) The royalty shall be remitted on a form as the commission may require, on which the sports wagering operator shall identify the percentage of wagering during the reporting period attributable to each registered sports governing body’s sporting events.

(f) No later than the thirtieth of April of each year, a registered sports governing body may submit a request for disbursement funds remitted by sports wagering operators in the previous calendar year. The commission shall disburse the funds to the registered sports governing body in pro rata proportion of the total amount wagered on its sporting events. No registered sports governing body is required to obtain a license from the commission in order to lawfully accept the funds provided for in this subsection.

(g) The commission shall annually publish a report stating the amount received from sports wagering operators in royalties and the amount paid to registered sports governing bodies.

(h) Any unclaimed royalties shall be distributed to the sports wagering operators that timely remitted the royalties required under this section to commission. Such royalties shall be distributed to the eligible sports wagering operators on a pro rata basis.

(i) The commission shall cooperate with a registered sports governing body and sports wagering operators to ensure the timely, efficient, and accurate sharing of information and the remittance of the royalty to the registered sports governing body or its designee.

Section 7. Civil penalty.

Any person, firm, corporation, association, agent, or employee who knowingly violates any procedure implemented under this Act shall be liable for a civil penalty of not more than 10,000 for each violation, not to exceed 100,000 for violations arising out of the same transaction or occurrence, which shall accrue to the state and may be recovered in a civil action brought by the commission.

Section 8. Criminal liability.

(a) Whoever:

(i) places, or causes to be placed, a bet or wager on the basis of material nonpublic information relating to that bet or wager, while knowing that the information is material nonpublic information; or

(ii) knowingly engages in, facilitates, or conceals conduct that intends to improperly influence a betting outcome of a sporting event for purposes of financial gain, in connection with betting or wagering on a sporting event—

shall be fined not more than $5,000,000 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

(b) A bet or wager is “on the basis of” material nonpublic information relating to that bet or wager if the person placing the bet or wager, or causing it to be placed, was aware of the material nonpublic information when such person placed the bet or wager or caused it to be placed.

(c) Any person or gaming establishment who violates subsection (a)(ii) shall be liable to the relevant sports governing body, which sports governing body may sue either at law or in equity in any court of competent jurisdiction.

SECTION 3. Sections 24, 24A and 27 of chapter 10 of the general laws, as so appearing, shall not apply to a gaming establishment conducting sports wagering in accordance with this chapter.

SECTION 4. Section 2 of chapter 271 of the general laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended, in line 4, by striking out “except as permitted under chapter 23K” and inserting in its place thereof the following:- “except as permitted under chapters 23K or 23N.”

SECTION 5. Section 3 of chapter 271 of the general laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended, in line 1, by striking out “Except as permitted under chapter 23K” and inserting in its place thereof the following:- “Except as permitted under chapters 23K or 23N.”

SECTION 6. Section 5 of chapter 271 of the general laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended, in line 1, by striking out “except as permitted under chapter 23K” and inserting in its place thereof the following:- “except as permitted under chapters 23K or 23N.”

SECTION 7. Section 5B of chapter 271 of the general laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended, in line 58, by striking out “under chapter 23K” and inserting in its place thereof the following:- “under chapters 23K or 23N.”

SECTION 8. Section 8 of chapter 271 of the general laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended, by striking out lines 10-11 and inserting in its place thereof the following:- “other illegal gaming that is not being conducted pursuant to chapters 23K or 23N.”

SECTION 9. Chapter 271 of the general laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking section 17A and inserting in its place thereof the following section:-

271:17A. Telephones, internet or other communications technology; use for gaming purposes

Section 17A. Except as permitted under chapter 23N, whoever uses a telephone, internet or other communications technology or, being the occupant in control of premises where a telephone, internet or other communications technology is located or a subscriber for a telephone, knowingly permits another to use a telephone, internet or other communications technology so located or for which he subscribes, as the case may be, for the purpose of accepting wagers or bets, or buying or selling of pools, or for placing all or any portion of a wager with another, upon the result of a trial or contest of skill, speed, or endurance of man, beast, bird, or machine, or upon the result of an athletic game or contest, or upon the lottery called the numbers game, or for the purpose of reporting the same to a headquarters or booking office, or who under a name other than his own or otherwise falsely or fictitiously procures telephone, internet or other communications technology service for himself or another for such purposes, shall be punished by a fine of not more than two thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year.

Name:	District/Address:
Michael F. Rush	Norfolk and Suffolk
Paul McMurtry	11th Norfolk	1/30/2019
David M. Nangle	17th Middlesex	1/31/2019
Michael O. Moore	Second Worcester	4/23/2019