As legalized sports betting rolls out in neighboring New Hampshire, Massachusetts continues to asses the best way to implement it, and a top legislator said that the process may take some time.
Sen. Eric Lesser, who chairs the Massachusetts Legislature's Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, told The Boston Herald that the issue is being watched closely but, "The timeline and the committee's work will be determined by our members and the substance of what we're going over."
Several bills have been filed on sports betting in the state legislature this session, including one written by Gov. Charlie Baker, but none have been approved. Neither he, the committee's House chairwoman nor House Speaker Robert DeLeo committed to a bill passing in 2020, according to the Herald.
DeLeo told the newspaper that he "looks forward to the results" of a review of sports betting proposals in 2020.
Betting on sports was legalized nationwide last year and has rolled out in about a dozen states across the country — with New Hampshire set to join them next week. Rhode Island is the only other state in New England that's made sports betting legal.
DraftKings, a sports betting company that's based in Boston, has a contract with New Hampshire to operate sports books there.
