A Massachusetts public health organization has withdrawn its lawsuit against the state’s gambling regulator after officials established a system for researchers to request access to anonymized casino player data.
The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University filed the case against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2024. The organization argued that the state’s 2011 casino legislation required the commission to collect detailed information about gambling behavior and make that material available to researchers examining gambling addiction.
More than a decade after the first Massachusetts casino opened, PHAI said researchers still lacked access to the required information. The organization dropped the case earlier this month after the commission began implementing the required process.
New System Opens Access to Player Information
Commission spokesperson Thomas Mills said the regulator worked with the University of Massachusetts Amherst Donahue Institute to develop a portal through which qualified researchers can request player data. The information must first have personal identifiers removed.
The portal became available on July 10, 2026. Mills said the commission had started developing the framework in 2016, several years before PHAI filed its lawsuit.
“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.
PHAI director Mark Gottlieb said access to the information could help researchers identify gambling products or machine characteristics associated with harmful behavior. That evidence could then support changes to gambling products where necessary.
“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.”
Advocates Seek Broader Data Requirements
Although PHAI ended its legal action, Gottlieb said the process could have been established earlier if Massachusetts had required casinos to prepare usable data as part of their licensing applications.
“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.”
The dispute also drew attention to a separate gap involving sports betting. The 2011 law imposed the player-data requirement on casino operators, leaving sportsbooks outside the same framework.
Gottlieb said sports betting companies should also provide player information to state authorities. The pending Bettor Health Act would address that gap by requiring sportsbooks to share relevant player data with the state.
The resolution therefore ends the lawsuit over casino data access while leaving a broader policy question before Massachusetts lawmakers. The newly available portal gives approved researchers a route to anonymized casino information, while proposed legislation could determine whether similar requirements apply to sports betting operators.
Source:
“Public health leaders drop ‘data’ lawsuit against MA gambling commission”, nenc.news, July 29, 2026
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