Public health advocates have dropped a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission over casino data collection. They say the matter has been resolved.
The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University sued the gaming commission in 2024.
They said the original 2011 law legalizing casinos required the commission to get detailed information from gambling operators about player behavior, and to give it to researchers studying gambling addiction.
But more than ten years after the first casino opened, that data was still not available.
PHAI director Mark Gottlieb said the state needs that information to regulate gambling more safely. As one example, he said, a particular slot machine may be especially addictive for players.
“The data shows that [gamblers] are using it in a way that is inconsistent with responsible play,” Gottlieb said. “Then those certain features, for example, of those slot machines or other kinds of electronic gaming machines could be required to be changed or eliminated to prevent that kind of harm.”
PHAI dropped the lawsuit earlier this month when the state began to comply with the law, Gottlieb said.
In a statement, Massachusetts Gaming Commission spokesperson Thomas Mills said the organization hired the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute to create a portal, where as of July 10, 2026, researchers can apply to access player data — after the data has been stripped of any personal identifiers.
Mills said the commission began this work in 2016, well before the lawsuit was filed.
“Since the onset of casino gaming in the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has worked diligently to create the framework to allow the anonymous transfer and analysis of the data by qualified researchers,” Mills wrote.
But Gottlieb said the process would have gone much quicker if the state required casinos to provide accessible information upfront as a condition of getting a casino license.
“Requiring them to come up with data formats that would facilitate making this a much easier process for them,” Gottlieb said. “None of that was part of the application process.”
Next, Gottlieb said, sports betting companies should be required to share their player data with the state.
The 2011 gambling law did not require data collection for sportsbooks, but a pending state bill - the Bettor Health Act – would.
