Massachusetts gaming regulators moving forward with long-stalled data collection project

Massachusetts gaming regulators are finally moving forward with a long-stalled data collection project dealing with problem gambling. Commissioners said that progress on the plan, which has been on ice for almost a decade amid political and pandemic barriers, is "miraculous."

Gaming regulators navigated through several hurdles over the last 13 years in their efforts to move forward with the data collection. The project has its roots in Massachusetts' casino gambling legalization in 2011, with the enabling law including a requirement that casinos supply the Massachusetts Gaming Commission with data collected from player loyalty programs.

The law requirement allows the commission's team to leverage the data in order to develop strategies to minimize high-risk gambling behavior. However, regulators would first need to contact researchers to analyze and anonymize the information before utilizing it.

According to a report from the UMass Amherst’s School of Public Health and Health Sciences, which reviewed problem gambling rates since casinos were introduced in 2015, the prevalence of problem and at-risk gambling has not significantly changed.

The report was based on player surveys compiled through the gaming commission. However, regulators believe the player loyalty data sets could offer a much more detailed view of gambling behavior in Massachusetts.

“It will help us to understand better problem gambling – how it progresses, how it remits – it will allow us to create evidence-informed policies and regulations," said Mark Vander Linden, the MassGaming director of research and responsible gaming, as per a CommonWealth Beacon report.

“None of that escapes us. We take that very seriously. But this is a very complex project, and we want to make sure that we do this right. And so we are moving this project forward. There’s a lot of work that has been done, and certainly there’s more work to be done, but we’re confident that this is on track and moving forward.”

Three years after the statute – Section 97 of Chapter 194 of the Acts of 2011 – took effect, the MGC decided to delay implementing the project. Regulators opted to wait “until all Massachusetts casinos were operational, due to concerns about competitive disadvantage amongst competitors,” Vander Linden explained.

Since the project was put on hold in 2014, the whole of the gaming commission has turned over. Some steps to lay the groundwork began after the Plainridge Park casino opened but before the MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor swung open their doors, Vander Linden pointed out, picking up in earnest in mid-2023.

In addition to putting off the project so that the nascent casino industry could settle in, commissioners also noted that the pandemic created additional delays. “I think people sometimes forget that COVID-19 was a very harsh reality to the world that changed things and was a roadblock to many things moving forward for two to three years,” said Commissioner Brad Hill.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Eileen O’Brien emphasized the complexity of housing the data and the challenges faced but expressed optimism for the future of the project. The research division has now put out a request for information for possible vendors, one day ahead of the MGC's latest open meeting.

“Building a system to anonymize, transmit, and link casino player data and make it accessible to qualified researchers requires thoughtful consideration of ethics, law, privacy, security, and technical considerations,” the commission wrote in releasing the RFI, as per the Beacon report. “This also includes ensuring an open, equitable, and transparent process for identifying partners with whom to engage in this work.”