Bally’s has been granted a temporary license to operate in the Massachusetts sports betting market and has paid a $1 million entry fee, but has still yet to submit details of its official launch.
Cathy Judd-Stein, the chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC), expressed her concerns in the MGC’s meeting Thursday.
“I’m upset if we haven’t properly protected us,” Judd-Stein said in regard to the lack of transparency and expediency that Bally’s has operated in Massachusetts with, suggesting that the operator has not maintained the same respect for the MGC’s process as the other MA sportsbooks have.
She also raised suspicions that Bally’s may be dragging their feet in the Bay State to benefit its operations in the neighboring Rhode Island sports betting market.
“Are they not operating in Massachusetts because they want to benefit Rhode Island?” she asked.
These statements came after MGC director of sports wagering Bruce Band presented his update to the commission about Bally’s formal entry into the Commonwealth.
Apparently, Band and his team have offered to help Bally’s with the rest of the process on at least three or four occasions since December, all of which have gone unanswered. This led to Band sending a letter to the operator on Wednesday urging Bally’s to provide specific information about when they are actually going to launch.
Band also noted that the last time he spoke with Brett Calapp, Bally’s Chief Operating Officer of its North America interactive business, the prediction was that the operator was aiming to go live towards the end of Q2 2024.
“I will push the envelope harder if I don’t hear,” said Band of his latest attempt to move the needle.
Bring them back to the table
Multiple commissioners concurred with the urgency to get meaningful information from Bally’s.
“I’d like to be a little more strict and say, ‘No, you are having a meeting with us,’ and if that means before the Commission, so be it,” commissioner Brad Hill said, asserting that the MGC should force Bally’s to the table.
Commissioner Nakisha Skinner seconded Hill’s point.
“I would like to have Bally’s appear before us just to communicate what their intentions are at this point," she said. "It’s been quite some time since the temporary license was granted, and we as a body owe it to Massachusetts to understand exactly what it is they’ve got planned for this Commonwealth, and when.”
The fact that Judd-Stein drove most of this conversation and was so adamant in expressing her frustrations says a lot considering this was her last full meeting at the helm as the MGC’s chair. She announced her retirement from public service last month, and her final day with the commission will be March 21.
Judd-Stein emphasized that “it’s an asset to have been approved by the state” and that receiving a Massachusetts sports betting license is a “privilege.”
She wants to assure that the commission continues to pursue this matter after her tenure ends since Bally’s has “gotten such a delay now that they’re actually outside the original process" that the commission imagined for its new operators.
