Massachusetts Gaming Commission decided Thursday.
DraftKings allowed bets to be placed during a 13-minute window Oct. 24 on what it termed “incorrect totals” for total points, total rebounds, and total assists during the Nuggets-Lakers game. According to the company, 137 bettors placed 178 wagers on the “impacted” markets. One of those bets, a $100 parlay, would have cost DraftKings about $150,000 if the company were required to make payouts.
The MGC first voted 2-3 against a motion to void the bets, with commissioners Brad Hill and Eileen O’Brien voting in favor of voiding wagers and commissioners Jordan Maynard and Nakisha Skinner and Chair Cathy Judd-Stein opposing the relief.
Moments after the vote, Skinner suggested a different tack, moving to allow DraftKings to void the wagers, but to pay out to anyone who did place bets three times their initial bet in cash. Those who bet with promotional credits will also be credited three times those bets in cash. Her motion was approved 3-2.
The mistake was the result of a miscommunication with supplier Sportcast, which informed DraftKings that it would be offering first-quarter basketball markets. DraftKings told its supplier it could not those offerings. Sportcast apparently sent the markets anyway, and they appeared on the DraftKings platform as full-game betting options, rather than first-quarter markets.
Same odds provider also made a previous mistake j2s45
Commissioners struggled with multiple issues, including whether allowing DraftKings to void would “be in the best interest of the Commonwealth,” which according to a DraftKings letter would have lost approximately $115,000 in tax revenue if DraftKings did not void the bets. The real concern voiced by the commission is that it earlier in the year allowed DraftKings to void wagers based on odds provided by Sportcast, but the company continues working with Sportcast.
DraftKings Senior Director of Regulatory Operations Jake List, who argued for the ability to void, said that voiding wagers for clearly erroneous markets is in its House Rules, and that multiple bettors intentionally took advantage of the the error. MGC staff recommended that the commission allow the voids.
List said that his company offers hundreds of thousands of markets every year, and that “I can promise you that there will be errors” in the future. His concern is that there will be an error that at some point could “bankrupt a company.”
At a Nov. 16 meeting, the commission heard from DraftKings and had initial discussion on the matter.
Connecticut, NJ made DraftKings pay e604s
Regulators in New Jersey required DraftKings to pay out the wagers while all other jurisdictions in which the error was made allowed DraftKings to void them. List shared with the commission that every jurisdiction has a different process for making this determination, and in some states, operators are not required to bring the issue before a commission, as staff can make the decision.
In Connecticut and New Jersey, List said, errors are not addressed in the regulations, so the company was required to bring the question to those state’s commissions.
DraftKings isn’t the only sports betting in Massachusetts went live. Earlier this fall, the MGC voted to void 257 wagers for about $48,000 made on PENN Entertainment’s site, then known as Barstool Sportsbook. In that case, the market for a football game was left open for 90 minutes after the game had ended.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, Derek Lennon, the commission’s chief financial officer, shared that any bet that pays more than $5,000 and had more than 300/1 odds will be subject to a 5% withholding tax from the state, in addition to federal withholding. The tax is retroactive to July. The commission also agreed to changes to FanDuel‘s house rules.
Concerned about underage betting 1a3q2o
The MGC also made clear that it is concerned about how many people under the age of 21 are using responsible gambling, and revenue.
When Caesars shared a compliance slide that showed it had not identified any underage gambling attempts for the period of July-September, Commissioner Brad Hill jumped in, saying that meetings with “outside sources” revealed some concern that underage gambling is prevalent. He asked Caesars representative Curtis Lane, “Is there anything that Caesars is doing to identify when something like is happening or can it be identified?”
Curtis responded that anomalies on an — like a different IP address — would likely be flagged by geofencing company GeoComply, or that the company would have to do extensive investigation to determine if a parent was allowing an underage person to use their .
The four operators reported in total that eight s had been suspended during the third quarter for underage wagering. DraftKings suspended five s, and List said it can be “difficult to police bad parenting.”
PENN Entertainment’s senior director of compliance, Adam Cates, said his company over the summer implemented a system that requires anyone opening a new to both a government-issued ID and a real-time selfie. Cates said the software opens the camera on the device creating the , so it’s not possible to sub out a photo. This technology, Cates said, also makes it tough for a child to open an using a parent’s identification.
The commission does not currently have plans to alter KYC or identification requirements, but said it will continue to keep in touch with operators about how best to monitor underage wagering activity.
