The Massachusetts online lottery won’t arrive in 2025 as initially expected, as a Lottery official revealed last week that the anticipated launch date has been pushed back until approximately April 2026. That’s about five months slower than the initially projected timeline. News of the delay came last week during an event with Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Goldberg added that she has also lowered the forecast for the iLottery’s profit in its first year.
In July, Massachusetts legalized iLottery as part of its budget bill, expecting it to launch around Thanksgiving in 2025—a timeline of about 16 months. At that time, the fiscal projection was that the new online products would bring the state lottery about $100 million in additional profit in the first year. Proceeds from those sales will go toward early childhood education and care grants. However, Goldberg said she now expects iLottery to generate 30% less than that preliminary forecast, according to a Commonwealth Beacon reporter who attended the event.
The new estimates are that iLottery will bring about $70 million in net profit in its first year, down by 30% from the previous forecast. Still, online sales are expected to grow substantially over the years. The online lottery will generate $180 million by year three, $230 million in year five, and $380 million in year 10.
Lottery Officials Blame Lack of Funding
When Gov. Maura Healey signed the budget into law, it included $2.5 million in funding for the iLottery to get the ball rolling. However, the Massachusetts Lottery says it has not yet received the money, which is the primary cause of the launch delay estimates. Massachusetts Lottery Director Mark William Bracken spoke to MassLive about the financial hurdle:
We’re waiting for the House and Senate to take that fiscal year 2024 close out budget … once we get that $2.5 million, that’s really when the 16-month clock starts ticking.
Bracken said the Lottery has been in conversations with multiple vendors but can’t proceed further until the funding comes in. He added that he expects it to arrive between November and January. Starting the 16-month timeline from that point would indicate a launch window of March to May 2026 for the iLottery, though Bracken suggested there’s a slight chance it could be earlier. During the Chamber of Commerce event, he said he would provide a more accurate timeline next year.
How Does 16 Months Compare to Other iLottery Launches?
The expansion process of online lottery varies from state to state. Some, like Kentucky and Georgia, didn’t even need to legislate an iLottery, enabling their launches through administrative rulemaking. Rhode Island managed to add instant online lottery games using the same law it passed for lottery-operated online sports betting. However, others, like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Illinois, and Connecticut, had to pass a bill to amend their lottery laws to allow online sales.
There have also been many differences in how the rollout has proceeded from state to state. Impatient Massachusetts residents may wonder whether 16 months is reasonable to wait between legalization and launch. The answer is that the timeline has varied dramatically between states.
Fast-Tracking an Online Lottery
Virginia, for example, launched its iLottery in July 2020, only a few months after the legislature approved it. However, it did so by expanding an existing lottery app. Although that app’s original functionality was much more limited, its existence allowed Virginia to speed up the process dramatically.
Another state that was quick to launch was Pennsylvania, which launched iLottery in June 2018, about seven months after the bill authorizing it passed. That iLottery was part of the October 2017 gambling expansion bill that also legalized Pennsylvania online casinos. By contrast, the first iGaming sites didn’t launch until July 2019, so the iLottery was considerably faster.
Massachusetts’ 16-month timeline most closely resembles that of its neighbor, New Hampshire. That state legalized online lottery sales at the end of June 2017 and launched its iLottery around 14 months later in September 2018
Slow Rollouts Aren’t Uncommon
That said, Massachusetts is far from alone in taking its time. Some states have taken even longer between legalizing an iLottery and making it a reality. Illinois and Connecticut each took about three years to launch their online lotteries after legalization, though for different reasons.
For Illinois, the issue was a legal one. It was the first state to embrace the concept and, therefore, had to wait for the federal Department of Justice to decide whether online lottery sales were legal. Once it had that approval, it was ready to launch within a matter of months, creating the first US iLottery in March 2012.
Connecticut is a more recent addition and its problem was technological. The state legalized iLottery in 2021 as part of an omnibus gambling bill that also included online casinos and sports betting. Impatient players in the state had to wait two years just to receive an expected timeline. Finally, in May 2023, the Connecticut Lottery Corporation announced plans for a fall 2023 launch, which it then failed to meet. It blamed quality control issues and was simultaneously experiencing a string of technological failures with its retail lottery terminals from the same vendor, IGT.
The Connecticut iLottery finally went live on July 1, 2024, over three years after passing its bill, albeit only 14 months after announcing that the process was underway.
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