Massachusetts casinos and sportsbook operators in the state were found to have accepted prohibited wagers and state regulators are considering sanctions.
The first violation involves DraftKings and its acceptance of 864 tennis wagers that are not allowed in the state. The breadth of bets, which occurred in March, was detailed in a July 25 hearing with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC).
The 864 wagers involved the Universal Tennis Ranking (UTR) Tour. They were made over the span of 12 days and totaled $7,867. DraftKings discovered the issue and reported it to the MGC. Losing wagers were refunded and pending wagers were canceled.
DraftKings said the issue was “miscommunication between the trading team and the trading compliance team.” Apparently, the trading team took the wagers without checking with the compliance team to see if they were legal in the state.
That did little to appease some members of the MGC, who pointed to past mistakes made by DraftKings, most notably the acceptance of wagers on in-state college teams, which are prohibited. They seemed to hint that these types of mistakes cannot continue.
The MGC met with DraftKings officials behind closed doors to get more detailed information regarding the violations. Jake List, senior director of regulatory operations at DraftKings told Covers.com that the closed door meeting was necessary to protect the company’s operating procedures.
“Some of it is competitive in nature and also potentially enables customers to more easily exploit us if talked about in the public forum,” said List. “So that was the reason for requesting the closed session and the general summary already provided.”
The MGC has not indicated when a decision would be made regarding what type of discipline would be handed out. A fine is likely to come.
Additionally, three casinos in the state were also penalized monetarily for a lesser number, but higher dollar amount of wagers regarding in-state college teams.
The violations date back to February and involve the Encore, MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park casinos. Encore was fined $10,000, while MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park were docked $20,000 each.
Betting on in-state collegiate teams is against the law unless they are competing in a tournament with four or more competitors like March Madness.
In the case of MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park, the illegal wagers occurred because the in-state collegiate teams were listed incorrectly as out-of-state teams.
Harvard University was listed incorrectly as a Connecticut school by BetMGM, who operates the sportsbook at MGM Springfield. More than $1,200 in bets were accepted for both the February 3 Harvard versus Yale men’s basketball game and a February 4 Harvard versus Brown men’s basketball game.
Plainridge Park Casino incorrectly listed Merrimack College as an out-of-state team when they faced Long Island University in a men’s basketball game on February 2. More than $6,800 in bets were placed at the casino’s sportsbook.
Encore took a $70 bet on February 2 when Boston College’s women’s basketball team faced Notre Dame.
