The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC), the governing body for gambling in the Bay State, made rulings that resulted in fines for the state’s three casinos – MGM Springfield, Plainridge Park Casino, and Encore Boston Harbor. All three broke the rules of the Gaming Commission, which say you can’t bet on regular season games played by college teams from Massachusetts unless they’re part of a tournament.
All of the casinos self-reported the violations, and a hearing was held earlier this summer to determine what happened and settle on a punishment.
In the end, the fines amounted to $50,000. MGM Springfield (who works with BetMGM) and Plainridge Park (who works with Barstool Sportsbook) were each fined $20,000, while Encore Boston Harbor (who works with WynnBET) had to pay a $10,000 fine.
Harvard Games Cost MGM Springfield
MGM Springfield had to pay a fine of $20,000 because they took bets on two Massachusetts college basketball games without permission. These games were between Harvard and Yale, and Harvard and Brown, and they happened on February 3 and February 4.
People could place bets for about 20 hours each time, and 28 tickets included bets on these games.
The company that manages the betting for MGM Springfield, BetMGM, made a mistake. They wrongly said that Harvard was in Connecticut, which led to the unauthorized betting.
Plainridge Park Also Fined $20,000
Plainridge Park Casino also had to pay a $20,000 fine for a similar mistake. They took bets on a regular season game in February 2023, involving the Merrimack College men’s basketball team.
This error happened because their vendor, Kambi, wrongly listed Merrimack as a team based in Florida, resulting in 33 illegal bets being placed.
Even though Plainridge quickly reported their own mistake and put new rules in place to prevent it from happening again, the commission stressed the serious consequences of breaking the rules against betting on in-state college games.
Women’s Basketball Game Led to Encore Fine
Representatives from Encore Boston Harbor explained that GAN, the company that manages the WynnBET system, made a mistake when they entered the Boston College women’s basketball team into their system for a game against Notre Dame.
Encore self-reported this violation before the game began, and the error was attributed to an incomplete prohibited wagering list that didn’t fully include the Boston College team’s names.
They explained that the team was listed as both “Boston College women’s basketball” and “Boston College Eagles women’s basketball,” but only one of these names was blocked from betting.
To avoid making the same mistake again, WynnBET now checks all college basketball teams in its system twice a day.
DraftKings May Also Face a Fine
And we’re still waiting to find out if the Massachusetts Gaming Commission will fine DraftKings after finding out that they were letting people place bets on several Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) events between March 11-22, which isn’t allowed in Massachusetts. Nearly 900 UTR bets were placed and added up to a total of $7,867. These bets were on events in Barcelona, Newport Beach in California, and Argentina.
DraftKings self-reported the mistake and immediately stopped taking UTR bets in Massachusetts. Company officials explained that they are allowed to take UTR bets in other U.S. areas where they operate, which led to the confusion.
The MGC has yet to make a decision about the DraftKings violation, but the issue with DraftKings is considered to be a lot bigger than the three mistakes made by the in-state casinos.
Some experts expect DraftKings to get a heavy fine, and this should make Massachusetts sports betting app operators take the rules of the commission more seriously.
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