Sports betting bills have passed in both chambers, but they have significant differences. It’s unclear if the conference committee will be able to come to an agreement.

As of now, Massachusetts residents can travel to over 30 states including neighboring Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York to legally place bets on sports. A conference committee of house and senate lawmakers met last week to discuss finding common ground between the two bills. There are significant differences.

The Senate’s bill would tax in-person bets at 20% and would not allow for credit card usage. The House’s bill would tax in-person bets at 12.5% and has no restrictions on credit card usage. The Senate bill also places strict restrictions on advertising, whereas the House bill does not. The biggest difference is in collegiate sports betting. The Senate’s version does not allow for college sports betting, whereas the House’s version does.

A possible solution other states have agreed upon is to allow for collegiate sports betting, but only on games involving out-of-state colleges.

For this to become law, a report would have to come out of the conference committee in time for both the House and Senate to vote on the matter before the end of the session.

https://www.wwlp.com/news/state-politics/conference-committee-start-discussion-on-sports-betting/