Online sports betting boosted Mass. coffers but created few jobs
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Massachusetts' online sports betting industry hasn't had a major impact on the state's economy beyond a bump in tax revenue, per a new report.
The big picture: The findings, albeit limited to 2023, temper hopes for sports betting being a boon to the state's economy.
Driving the news: Mobile sports betting generated $90.8 million in state tax revenue in 2023, its first year in operation.
- That revenue made up 22% of all non-lottery gaming tax revenue that year.
Zoom in: The online sportsbooks paid $70.8 million to Massachusetts firms, just 4% of national business-to-business activity in the sector, per the report, by the UMass Donahue Institute's Economic and Public Policy Research group.
- The rollout of the online industry created a net 118 jobs, including indirectly, but the number of jobs created specifically by online sportsbooks are too few to accurately count, the researchers said.
- It may not come as a surprise, though, that the teams behind sports betting apps that could easily scale up across multiple states didn't need to hire more people for Massachusetts' rollout.
Caveat: This report didn't include jobs or revenue from sportsbooks at casinos because casino gaming and betting operations are so closely intertwined, says Tom Peake, research manager at the institute.
- Casinos may have added some new jobs to meet the demand of the new industry, but those employees may also have responsibilities beyond sports betting.
By the numbers: Massachusetts bettors placed $4.7 billion worth of online sports bets and were paid out nearly $4.3 billion in prizes in 2023.
- 29% of bettor spending ($136.9 million) came from people who said they would have spent their money on sports betting in another state or on the black market.
Yes, but: Most of the spending ($333.7 million) took away from other areas of the economy, like concerts and bars.
- The research suggests the online sports betting industry rollout cost 655 private sector jobs (resulting in the net of 118 new jobs).
What they're saying: "Let's just say they were going out to restaurants or to bars … and now they don't have that money because they spent that money sports betting, so they're spending less on these other things," Peake tells Axios.
- "Then the decline in demand for other services will eventually lead to falling employment in other sectors."
What we're watching: Whether online sports betting had a bigger impact on the state's economy in 2024 or so far in 2025. But we may not see that data for a while.