You’ve got to be kidding. That sort of summed up the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s reaction when sportsbooks reported the numbers of underage gamblers in the third quarter as presented by Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, Penn Sports Interactive and WynnBet.
Caesars Sportsbook and WynnBet testified they had zero accounts for underage betting from July through September, the Boston Herald reported. DraftKings reported a single account suspension in July and four in August. Penn Sports Interactive reported three suspensions the previous quarters.
Citing a National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) survey earlier in the year, more than half of the 3,527 underage participants admitted to betting.
“There is some concern that there are individuals who are underaged using computers and passwords of who are of age to bet. We’re being told that it is happening,” Commissioner Brad Hill said, per the Herald.
Commissioner Jordan Maynard flat out refused to accept the math. He provided a more straightforward assessment. “Take a look at the NCAA survey, you’ll see that (underage gambling) is definitely happening, and it’s happening in high numbers.”
A Caesars spokesman, Curtis Lane Jr., acknowledged the difficulty to catch someone using a registered account even if underage.
“From my understanding, there is nothing concrete that would definitively identify that. We would have to just do a series of analyses and various testing to determine if that is the case, but at the current stage there is nothing to definitively define if anyone is underage.”
