The Massachusetts Gaming Commission Monday handed down its biggest fine since Massachusetts college basketball teams. Betting on local sports teams, unless they are in a qualified tournament, is illegal in the state.
All three brick-and-mortar sportsbooks in Massachusetts violated the no-betting-on-local-colleges regulation within days of launch, and all three pointed to human error for allowing the illicit wagers. The MGC in July issued fines totaling $50,000 to three retail sportsbooks.
Encore Boston Harbor had a second set of violations on Feb. 12 and 19, 2023, during which it allowed betting on two Boston College women’s basketball games. Encore’s senior vice president and general counsel, Jacqui Krum, reported the violations to the commission two days after the second violation, and an adjudicatory hearing was held April 14, 2023.
At that time, Encore executives explained that BC women’s basketball was listed by two different names by its technology provider, GAN, and that one of the names was not on GAN’s prohibited markets list. Krum added that the company had implemented a monitoring system to review available betting markets twice daily.
Seven bets totaling $213 placed 36k1
GAN ed BC women’s basketball games and made them inactive for wagering, but the Feb. 12 game against North Carolina was available for betting for four hours and, according to an MGC report, three wagers totaling $163 were placed on it. One winning bet was part of a parlay that paid out $53 and was redeemed on Feb. 13.
During a routine Feb. 15 audit, Encore Boston Harbor employees were able to flag and manually disable markets for the Feb. 19 BC women’s college basketball game against Louisville. Despite this, according to an MGC report, the “markets did not remain disabled.” On Feb. 19, betting was available for two hours and 13 minutes, four bets totaling $50 were placed, and $9.09 in winnings was disbursed on Feb. 19.
According to the MGC’s determination report, betting was again allowed because the BC women’s basketball team had two names in the GAN system. WynnBET, which operates the retail sportsbook at Encore Boston Harbor, continues to manually monitor markets provided by GAN. It is also now reviewing identification numbers provided by GAN and has the capability to disable any market.
All of the wagers on the banned markets took place on kiosks.
The MGC wrote that it settled on the $40,000 fine as a “consequence” and a “deterrent.” The commission called the penalty “appropriate” because Krum “took responsibility” for the violations, Encore Boston Harbor self-reported “in a timely fashion,” and the venue continues to put in place new systems to avoid similar issues going forward.
The MGC did note, however, that the violations constituted a second offense, it had to request additional information to get a “cogent explanation of what had happened, and that Encore Boston Harbor “did not demonstrate that it has its vendors under control.”
