Massachusetts Lottery to Offer Poker Themed Games

Massachusetts congressional representatives have recently expressed an interest in legalizing Internet gambling. The Massachusetts House of Representatives tried attaching online poker provisions to the state’s budget earlier this year. The 18 lawmakers sponsoring the bill were forced to abandon online gambling this year when the state Supreme Court ruled they were unconstitutional. However, the state lottery is still committed to legalizing Internet poker.

The Massachusetts lottery recently announced that it will be offering poker themed lottery games. The first games will be available to Massachusetts citizens early next week.

These new games are probably the closest the state will come to legalizing online poker in the near future. The new games are very straightforward.

Players will choose a number between 1 and 52 to choose the cards in their hand. Each number will represent a card in a playing deck. The rest of the game will be conducted similarly to most online poker sites, except that they will not collect their winnings from other players. The player with the winning hand will collect a jackpot based on the hand they showed.

Players with a royal straight flush will win the top prize of $25,000. Players can also participate in a Progressive jackpot. The value of the jackpot will increase each hand until a player wins a royal flush. The maximum value of the Progressive jackpot is $100,000.

Many players are encouraged that the lottery has found a way to introduce online gambling in Massachusetts. However, they are concerned that the lottery decided to discontinue its horse racing games this year. They are worried that may be indicative of a change in American gambling habits. This could suggest that other states will no longer offer horse racing in the near future.

This blog entry was posted on Monday, July 1st, 2013 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Casino News.