Massachusetts Operator Fined by Regulator for Wagering Violations
Encore Boston Harbor Fined $40K for Taking Bets On In-State College Basketball
Some states, even those where sports betting is completely legal, still have some restrictions on what bets people are able to take — mostly for legal reasons to avoid the possibility of improper game fixing.
A common prohibition is betting on in-state college sports teams with the idea being that high-roller bettors could easily pay off college athletes to swing the results of games. Well, one Boston casino incurred a Massachusetts gambling regulator fine by allowing those bets to be placed.
The Encore Boston Harbor was fined $40,000 by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission — the largest fine the Commission has levied since sports betting was legalized in the state — for allowing bets to be made on two women’s college basketball games involving a Massachusetts school.
Specifically, the casino took a total of seven bets totaling $213 on a February 13, 2023 game between Boston College and North Carolina and a February 19, 2023 game between Boston College and Louisville. These was instances in which betting sports online was not legal in Massachusetts but the casino took the bets anyway.
Both instances were self-reported by Encore to the Commission and, afterward, an adjudicatory hearing was held on April 14, 2023. The decision on the fine was just handed down, nearly a year later.
It’s worth noting that multiple betting operators — including Encore — had been previously fined for violating this rule within three days after sports betting was launched in the state. Collectively, Massachusetts’ three in-person betting operators were fined $50,000 for those violations.
How Did It Happen?
The way that sportsbooks ensure that this specific thing doesn’t happen is by prohibiting their technology providers — the companies that actually upload certain bets to the operators’ websites or in-casino boards — from including the games of certain teams. In Massachusetts, all in-state college teams are supposed to be on these so-called “prohibited markets” lists.
However, when advertising certain betting picks today at the casino, this particular operator (GAN) had Boston College women’s basketball listed under two different names in its internal system. One of the names was rightly on the prohibited markets list while the other was not.
So, the listings including the non-prohibited name made it to market for the February 13th game where three bets risking a total of $163 were made.
Encore flagged these bets during a routine audit two days later tried to manually disable the markets for the February 19th game but, due to the issue with GAN having multiple names in its system for Boston College, customers still had the ability to bet on that game.
Four bets risking a total of $50 were made in the 2+ hours the bet was still open at the casino. This is what incurred the Massachusetts gambling regulator fine.
WynnBet operates Encore and has now taken over the manual review of any market posted by GAN specifically so this problem doesn’t continue to happen. As a potential third-time offender, Encore would risk an even higher fine if it were to be caught accepting prohibited bets again.
Should These Bets Be Prohibited?
While such a large Massachusetts gambling regulator fine certainly is worth focusing on, it also brings up the question of whether or not these types of bets should even be prohibited.
The concern about potential game fixing is certainly a justifiable one but, in today’s day and age, the boundaries between states feel less and less like actual obstacles to facilitating some kind of betting conspiracy or scheme.
Who’s to say that a collective of bettors in Connecticut can’t organize a group to pay off Boston College student-athletes to throw a game against Duke, for example?
The only restriction is that Massachusetts casinos/operators can’t accept bets on games involving Massachusetts college teams but, of course, that doesn’t stop Massachusetts residents from going in neighboring states to place wagers on those games or from people in neighboring states — who may be closer to those colleges’ campuses than residents of that very state — from placing those wagers.
It all just seems a little bit short-sighted. It’s certainly important gambling news to discuss because a $40,000 fine over wagers of $213 is a drastic punishment. However, it might be time to question the effectiveness of these rules on actually preventing the game fixing like they are intended to.
With modern technology, an entire fixing scheme could be concocted from across the country or even around the world. A simple ban on people betting on in-state college teams does not do nearly enough to prohibit potentially illegal actions being undertaken.
This prohibition also significantly limits revenue to be collected by casinos/operators — and, in turn, the government — by not letting in-state residents bet on their favorite college teams. That’s another thing to consider.
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