Massachusetts Gaming Commission members voiced frustrations Monday about a DraftKings betting catalog violation.
The mobile sports betting operator accepted unauthorized wagers on UTR Pro Tennis matches in March, and DraftKings self-reported the violations to the MGC. The MGC did not issue any penalty Monday, but the body does plan to hold a hearing involving the sportsbook operator in the future to learn more about what led to the violations.
Commissioners were frustrated by the violation and surprised to hear DraftKings handled betting on a market that had not been approved by the MGC.
“I am a little frustrated, and I would like to make sure this practice doesn’t continue,” MGC Chair Cathy Judd-Stein said. “We just really need to make sure that operators know this is something that the commission takes very seriously.”
The violations
The MGC reported that DraftKings allowed wagering in Massachusetts from March 10-22 on UTR Pro Tennis — a secondary pro circuit created by Universal Tennis — despite the operator not checking for approval to accept betting on that league. Mobile sports betting first went live in the state on March 10, and the operator accepted 864 of the tennis wagers totaling $7,867.
The operator cited miscommunication as the cause for the issue, saying a betting menu from a different jurisdiction was copied over for Massachusetts users. “I get a little frustrated when I see, ‘Well, we just copied from somebody else, and didn’t check the book in Massachusetts,’” Commissioner Eileen O’Brien said. “I don’t know whether that was benign neglect or whether that was something else.”
MGC commissioners considered allowing the agency’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau to handle possible penalties and further investigation, but they ultimately decided to discuss the violations in a more public setting to discourage other operators from making similar mistakes.
Commissioner Jordan Maynard added that he’d like to see the MGC turn around a decision on the violation “fairly quickly.”
