Online Poker Likely Years Away For MassachusettsState Officials Concentrated On Getting Casinos Open |
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Don’t expect online poker to be coming to Massachusetts anytime soon.
The state’s first Las Vegas-style commercial casino could be a few years away, according to the Milford Daily News, and regulators likely wouldn’t take up the online gambling issue until the new casino properties are up and running and fully stabilized.
The state’s top gaming regulator reportedly said the following with regards to web gambling:
“We also have taken the position that Massachusetts shouldn’t do anything in online gambling until our bricks-and-mortar people are selected because they ought to be at the table when we do this. You can’t expect somebody to give us $85 million and then spend a billion to build a facility and change the rules of the game on them a year or two down the road.”
He also referred to Internet betting as a “major unknown question.”
Massachusetts legalized three Las Vegas-style casinos and one slots-only parlor in 2011, and it has been a slow process for the state in figuring out who should win the right to build. The law authorized the properties in different geographical locations in the state. Many firms tried their hands at competing, and as 2013 winds down only a handful remain in the struggle.
Both MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts remain in the hunt.
Right now, only Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have legal web poker.
Massachusetts briefly flirted with online poker last year.
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