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December 27, 2024 Clouds | 27°F
The 193rd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  1. General Laws
  2. Part I ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
  3. Title XIX AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION
  4. Chapter 128A HORSE AND DOG RACING MEETINGS
  5. Section 14 Granting licenses; petitions; ballots; vote of county

Section 14

Section 14: Granting licenses; petitions; ballots; vote of county

[ Text of section effective until December 15, 2025. Repealed by 2011, 194, Sec. 39. See 2011, 194, Sec. 112 as amended by 2014, 165, Sec. 192; 2016, 176, Sec. 12B; 2017, 56, Sec. 14; 2018, 159, Sec. 14; 2019, 47, Sec. 14; 2020, 1, Sec. 14; 2020, 106, Sec. 14; 2021, 27, Sec. 14; 2022, 128, Sec. 14; and 2023, 26, Sec. 20.]

  Section 14. Licenses shall not be granted under this chapter for the holding or conducting of any horse racing meeting or any dog racing meeting within any county unless a majority of the registered voters of such county voting on the following described questions relative to granting such licenses when said questions were last submitted to them have voted in the affirmative.

  The state secretary shall, if there has been filed with said secretary, not later than the sixtieth day before the biennial state election at which such subdivision is to be submitted, petitions, the forms of which may be obtained from said secretary, signed by registered voters of such county, the total of which are equal in number to at least ten per cent of the total number of registered voters in said county, cause to be placed on the official ballot to be used in the cities and towns at biennial state elections, commencing in the year nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, the following subdivided questions:

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 A. Shall the pari-mutuel system of betting on licensed : YES. : :
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 horse races be permitted in this county? : NO. : :
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 B. Shall the pari-mutuel system of betting on licensed : YES. : :
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 dog races be permitted in this county? : NO. : :
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  If a majority of the votes cast in a county in answer to subdivision A is in the affirmative, such county shall be taken to have authorized the licensing of horse races therein at which the pari-mutuel system of betting shall be permitted.

  If a majority of the votes cast in a county in answer to subdivision B is in the affirmative, such county shall be taken to have authorized the licensing of dog races therein at which the pari-mutuel system of betting shall be permitted.