The Massachusetts Gaming Commission met on Thursday and again discussed the topic of bettors being limited by sportsbooks in the Bay State. However, some top-rated sportsbooks insist that a very low percentage of their clientele has their betting limits lowered or accounts suspended.
What’s the Problem?
In May, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) invited representatives from the state’s online sports betting companies to a roundtable discussion regarding the practice of reducing limits on certain customers. Much to the chagrin of the commissioners, none of the active sportsbooks made an appearance, which did not sit well.
The only sportsbook to even respond was Samantha Haggerty, Deputy Chief Compliance Officer for Penn National, the parent company of ESPNBET, who wrote, “Penn may limit a patron for various reasons, including taking advantage of manipulating the sportsbook or abusing promotional play.”
Acting MGC Chairman Jordan Maynard put it best when he expressed why the Commission was concerned about what they believe could be arbitrary or capricious decisions being made on customers trying to place a bet.
“Some claim they were not in violation of house rules, state laws or regulations, or other authorized acts when they were limited. It was the understanding of the MGC team that operators have the right to limit their risk by blocking those attempting to circumvent the rules. If a player is violating rules, laws, or regulations, they should not be welcome to access a market,” Maynard said. “That said, many at the MGC, myself included, were wondering if there were patrons who were wagering honestly who were being limited.”
“There is a worry that if we have operators limiting patrons who are playing by the rules, that limitation will naturally incentivize those players to turn to the illegal market,” he said.
Let’s Talk About It
Once the sportsbooks caught wind of the MGC’s frustration with none of them showing up for the roundtable in May, they all promised to appear at a follow-up meeting on the topic. The excuse all of the operators gave as to why they didn’t appear is that it was a public meeting and they did not want to divulge proprietary risk management protocols.
Operators have relayed information to the Commission with one memo stating, “across the board, a very low percentage of players are limited.”
DraftKings wrote a statement to the Wall Street Journal recently, saying, “DraftKings Sportsbook offers tens of thousands of wagers on any given day, all with market-specific betting limits. In order to provide the best possible customer experience for our players, we restrict less than 1% of players below the market limit based largely on betting behaviors.”
Despite the operators’ contention that there is no widespread problem or flagrant abuse of limiting the average bettors’ betting limits, acting Chairman Jordan Maynard is not convinced that is the case.
“Ultimately, there could be some regulations that come out of this,” Maynard said during Thursday’s meeting. “And what I would pose to the operators today in public is, do you want to be a part of the conversations that help develop those? Or do you want to be reactive to whatever comes out? And I would hope that they would want to be part of it.”
