Penn gets punchy in MGC hearing
Barstool’s ‘Can’t Lose Parlay’ hearing, North Carolina done, Fitzdares CEO talks affordability challenges, Crown record fine +More
Good morning. On today’s agenda:
Penn/Barstool debates the meaning of reasonable.
Affordability checks are having an effect on high-end UK punters.
Crown agrees to record A$450m fine for compliance flubs.
Maryland’s Philippines casino vehicle plate confusion.
Everybody was kung fu fighting.
Penn’s MGC hearing
It all depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.
Can lose, may lose: On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission held an adjudicatory hearing on the currently suspended Penn/Barstool ‘Can’t Lose Parlay’ sports-betting promotion. The MGC did not issue a judgment, that will be forthcoming.
‘Can’t Lose Parlay’ was mentioned during Penn’s licensing hearing in December 2022. Penn CEO Jay Snowden called it tongue-in-cheek, but commissioners expressed RG concerns, although no formal prohibition was issued.
Barstool set the promotion in motion during the Massachusetts launch in March. But it was quickly scrapped due to the state’s strict marketing policies and the prohibition of terms such as ‘risk-free’.
The MGC discussed the matter on March 15, handing it over to the Investigations and Enforcement Bureau.
Fight for the right: At the start of the adjudicatory hearing, Chair Cathy Judd-Stein said the commission could reprimand, fine, impose conditions, suspend or even revoke Penn’s sports-betting license. But the hearing went off the rails early, as the two sides debated the definition of a “reasonable consumer” in a throwback to Bill Clinton’s testimony in 1998.
Penn’s counsel Jonathan Albano submitted that: “No reasonable person who saw a parlay with long-shot odds that required a player to win not one, not two, not three, but four or lose the parlay would have concluded that they were engaging in a risk-free sort of bet.”
Nothing was off-limits, as MGC commissioners discussed parlay bets, with Commissioner Nakisha Skinner calling them “morally wrong.”
It was clear the MGC wasn’t going to reinstate the promotion, and a punishment of some sort was coming – Penn has offered to permanently end the promotion (it has already suspended it) if the MGC so desires.
The bottom line is the MGC has spent several months on the ‘Can’t Lose Parlay’ to answer two simple questions:
Does the CLP violate MGC rules?
If yes, did Penn willfully violate the regulation?
What punishment (if any) it will hand Penn will be revealed in the near future.
North Carolina Gets It Done
Thirtysomething: North Carolina is poised to become the third state to legalize mobile betting this year and the 30th state to legalize OSB overall after the House concurred with changes made in the Senate to the state’s bill. North Carolina would join Vermont and Kentucky as new OSB states.
After a brief panic that North Carolina would go the Missouri route and add VLTs to its sports-betting bill, the House avoided a conference committee by voting on the bill, unchanged.
The bill provides for 12 OSBs and another eight retail books at MLS, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, NHL, NWSL, and PGA Tour facilities. Tax is set at 18% and the deduction of promo spend from taxable revenue is prohibited..
It leaves the Tar Heel state a Gov. Roy Cooper signature away from making it official.
Cooper has 10 days in which to do so.
Ohio complaint
Nasty neighbors: Ohio Casino Control Commission executive director Matt Schule told local media it was “horrible” that neighboring state Kentucky will allow all 18-year-olds to have a bet. “I absolutely hate the idea,” he said.
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Flying the roost
The CEO of Fitzdares tells the Gambling Files podcast that higher-staking customers have changed their behavior due to affordability checks.
Pinch point: William Woodhams, boss at the high-end UK bookie, said his top 20 private office and app customers have been spending 30% less in the last 12 months. “Definitely that high-staking customer is feeling the compliance pinch,” he told the Gambling Files.
He added that Fitzdares managed to approach the subject of affordability checks with less of a carrot-and-stick approach than others.
But for all the government was keen on “soft checks”, he said “you really can’t” do the checks in the way it envisages.
Then I saw her face: Asked whether he had seen the bigger punters moving offshore, Woodhams said: ”I didn't believe it and now I’m seeing it. It creeps up slowly without you realizing it.”
“It’s happening. It’s happened. The black market exists and there are a couple of [offshore] bookmakers aggressively marketing to the high-end punters.”
For the government, he noted that such a move was a ”big tax black hole”.
Crown fine
Australian casino operator Crown Resorts agrees to pay A$450m to make a series of money laundering charges go away.
Gangsta’s paradise: The operator was compromised by organized crime gangs, resulting in historical breaches that went on for over a decade at its Melbourne and Perth casinos. As part of the settlement, Crown admitted to multiple compliance failings, like not having an appropriate transaction monitoring system in place at the two casinos.
Specific high-risk customers including known arms dealers and drug kingpins were freely allowed to use the casinos and rarely if ever subjected to due diligence checks.
A 2019 investigation by Australia’s Channel Nine revealed the group had been infiltrated by international criminal syndicates, triggering probes of its casinos in three regions of the country.
It became the subject of Royal Commissions in Victoria and Western Australia, and a judge-led inquiry in New South Wales.
It was eventually found to have facilitated money laundering and branded unsuitable to hold a gaming license in all three states.
Bad company: If approved by the Federal Court, the fine would be the highest ever paid out by a casino and the third-largest in Australian corporate history, following sanctions placed on two large banks that also serviced illicit drug empires.
Crown has pledged tens of millions of dollars towards new systems and controls as it bids to move on from a saga that has cost the group almost half-a-billion dollars in penalties.
In November, it was fined A$120m by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) over breaches of its responsible service obligations.
In April, the operator was branded “atrocious” and fined an additional A$30m by the same authorities for allowing punters to cash bank cheques made out to themselves, amplifying risks of gambling harm and likely aiding “criminal infiltration by money launderers”.
Crown was bought by Blackstone for $6.3bn in 2022.
Australia notebook
A sports bettor in Australia has filed a federal lawsuit against Sportsbet and BetEasy to recover what he lost wagering, alleging operators failed to inform him he had a gambling problem as he lost more than A$600,000 over six years
Alexander Gassner accuses the companies of "unconscionable conduct".
Car trouble
The vehicle plates of nearly 800,000 cars registered in Maryland bear a website address that redirects gamblers to an unlicensed online casino hosted in the Philippines, after the previous owners let the domain expire.
Car wrangled scammer: The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) has distanced itself from starspangled200.org and told punters to steer clear of the site, which redirects to globeinternational.info and offers illegal betting services.
“Pagcor has nothing to do with the said websites, as well as the gaming activities happening therein,” said the regulator’s chair and chief executive Alejandro Tengco.
The starspangled200.org URL originally belonged to a non-profit organization that commemorated 200 years from the War of 1812.
Limited edition license plates were issued for the occasion, all featuring the link.
After the organization disbanded, an unlicensed, opportunistic Philippine-based online casino website acquired the domain.
An investigation is being carried out by Philippines enforcement authorities.
More Penn enforcement
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) fines Hollywood Casino York for failing to meet the state’s minimum requirements for security personnel.
Can’t get good help these days: Ruben Warren, the casino’s general manager, said the business struggled to fill staffing roles after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Penn Entertainment, which runs the casino, has said it will pay the $78,000 violation penalty plus $2,500 for administrative costs following the breach, which occurred between May and September 2022.
Separately, the gaming board also announced a $22,350 fine for TCS John Huxley America and TCS John Huxley Europe, a licensed table game manufacturer, for failure to file principal licensing applications in line with state law.
In the same meeting, the board approved the banning of five adults from all Pennsylvania casinos for leaving nine children unattended in order to gamble.
From the start of 2022 through April 2023, the watchdog identified 359 incidents of adults leaving children unattended to gamble at Pennsylvania casinos involving 576 minors.
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Top bins
Belgian operator Bingoal has been fined €400,000 ($428,000) by the Netherlands regulator for advertising to youngsters.
Telly addicts: Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), not for the first time, started an investigation following the broadcast of a TV investigation showing evidence of the breaches.
A total of five providers have been fined for the same offense of advertising aimed at young people aged 18-24.
The regulator said the fine for Bingoal marks the end of the investigation.
Lawyers told C+M poor wording of the law in regard to advertising and young people has caught operators out, and may lead to a legislative tweak if lobbying efforts are successful.
Skill games notebook
Pacemaker: Skill games device manufacturer Pace-O-Matic said it has won another battle in court in Pennsylvania, with a Monroe County judge saying skill games are legal within the state.
The company noted in a press release that late last year its games were seized from a small business by the Monroe County District Attorney’s office, in coordination with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement.
This was despite skill games having been “deemed legal by courts of law”.
The judge ruled Pennsylvania skill devices are “games of skill and not games of chance.”
This is counter to the arguments of the AGA and casino operators who have been calling for states to crack down on skill machines.
Sports integrity notebook
The International Betting Integrity Association has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Portuguese Online Betting and Gambling Association.
Sponsorship notebook
Kindred will replace its 32Red brand on the front of the shorts of Scottish Premiership soccer club Rangers with the logo of sister product Unibet.
The logo will be accompanied by the ‘Zero % Mission’ slogan, which emphasizes Kindred’s efforts to eliminate all revenue it generates from harmful gambling.
Flutter said it has extended the partnership for its Sky Bet brand with the English Football League until the 2028-29 season, adding a commitment to not market its brand or products in family areas of club stadiums or advertise to young football fans.
Fun88 will no longer appear on the shirts of English Premier League club Newcastle United and has seen its partnership with the club ‘evolve’ to the status of Asian betting partner. Fun88 has been Newcastle’s shirt sponsor for the past six seasons.
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