Roll out of Mass. online lottery delayed again until summer 2026

Right after lawmakers approved $2.5 million to pay start-up costs related to online Lottery games, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg told a key committee that the launch of the state’s latest gambling offering is going to take a little longer than she previously had announced.

The Mass. Lottery this summer got its long-sought authority to sell products online, and officials there initially said they planned to launch their “iLottery” in late 2025. But Executive Director Mark William Bracken said in October that the Lottery had updated its timeline to expect the start of online sales in April 2026. On Monday, Goldberg extended the timeline by a couple of months.

“We are looking forward to implementing iLottery which will help us compete in an increasingly saturated market,” Goldberg told the Joint Committee on Ways and Means during its hearing Monday to begin to forecast revenues for fiscal year 2026.

Referring to the $2.5 million in the supplemental budget passed just before Monday’s hearing, the treasurer added, “Assuming funding is received by January 1, the Lottery hopes to go live with its full suite of online offerings in the summer of 2026. Based on this timeline, we do not currently anticipate any revenue from iLottery in fiscal year 2026.”

Fiscal year 2026 will run from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.

Goldberg and Lottery officials warned for years that the roughly $1 billion that the Lottery produces for local aid each year would be in jeopardy unless lawmakers allowed the agency to sell its products on the internet, citing increased competition from casinos, daily fantasy sports and now online sports betting. Lottery profits have mostly held up during the wait for online authorization and the agency brought in an estimated $1.159 billion in net profit in fiscal 2024 to be returned to Massachusetts cities and towns.

“The Lottery is currently on track to meet its projection of $1.050 billion in net profit for fiscal year 2025, despite economic headwinds and continuing impacts from the competitive marketplace. Looking forward to fiscal year 2026, the Lottery projects flat sales at retail, and therefore a flat net profit of $1.050 billion,” Goldberg told the budget managers.

She also laid out her expectations for online Lottery revenue: more than $70 million in net profit from online sales in year one, more than $180 million by year three, more than $230 million in year five, and almost $360 million in year 10.