The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) has fined the state’s three casinos for accepting illegal sports bets. Both the MGM Springfield and Plainridge Park have to pay $20,000 fines, while the Encore Boston Harbor penalty amounts to $10,000.
The retail sportsbooks at these properties all accepted wagers on Massachusetts college basketball sides. This is not permitted under state law, unless the teams are taking part in a tournament that has at least four participants, such as March Madness.
The operators voided all of the wagers in question
Each sportsbook did self-report the transgressions and put them down to administrative errors. The operators voided all of the wagers in question and refunded stakes when possible.
In the case of the BetMGM sportsbook at MGM Springfield and the Barstool Sportsbook at Plainridge Park, certain teams were miscategorized as being out-of-state when they were actually Massachusetts-based.
The issue with WynnBET at the Encore Boston Harbor was down to a system error in which only one of two names used by a team was blacklisted.