Damn lies and gambling statistics
UK gambling stats row, West Flagler appeal, Iowa State charges, Ontario issues fine, EPL fantasy fracas +More
Good morning. On today’s agenda:
UK Gambling Commission chief bewails poor use of data.
West Flagler does what it does in Florida.
More Iowa State players charged with betting offenses.
Ontario fines Apollo Entertainment C$100k.
EPL Fantasy Football gambling links under attack.
Check out your mind and don't be blind, to the numbers game.
Stats attack
UK Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes has had enough of folks bending statistics to suit their narrative, in a broadside against, well, pretty much everyone.
Lieception: “The Commission has seen misuse of statistics from gambling operators, trade bodies, charities, media outlets, sporting venue owners and others,” Rhodes said in a blog posting on the Commission website.
“The Commission has even received (or has been copied into) complaints about the misuse of statistics by another party, where the complainant themselves has misused statistics in order to press their complaint.”
Rhodes said the unavoidably divisive nature of the government’s white paper on reform had triggered a wave of intense lobbying on all sides, which had frequently boiled over into insults “and conspiracy theories”.
“This is unacceptable,” he said. “All parties seeking to rely on statistics to advance their arguments must do so accurately and in the correct context.”
Guess who: The regulator said it has referred one instance of inaccurate numbers to its siblings in the Office for Statistics Regulation. Rhodes said “multiple individuals and organizations have misused problem gambling statistics to create an inaccurate picture”, adding that player harm had become a particularly difficult subject to define and measure, leaving it open to misrepresentation.
He noted that the stats clearly show the problem gambling rate overall is low, compared to the level of participation, but the picture “is more complicated and requires statistics to be properly understood and properly used when discussing these matters”.
Alternative facts: In July, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) was called out by a House of Lords peer for its inventive use of statistics. Referring to a BGC press release that alleged an increased use of black market sites by UK consumers during the Qatar World Cup, it was pointed out that the full report carried out by Yield Sec was never published.
Lord Foster added there were “other instances when the BGC has not been entirely accurate” with regard to the industry’s positioning over recent changes to regulation.
This includes a claim that the BGC fully supported the ban on gambling with credit cards when the UKGC said that not one operator supported the move during the consultation stage.
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West Flagler appeal
Monday was the deadline for West Flagler to file an appeal in its fight to stop sports betting from coming to The Sunshine State via the compact between the Seminole Tribe and Florida.
Options, options: West Flagler, the plaintiffs, had several options at its disposal:
File for a panel rehearing.
File for an en banc review.
Appeal to the Supreme Court.
Take the case to state courts in Florida.
Do nothing.
The decision was announced on Monday afternoon, with West Flagler choosing the en banc route – the most sensible option at this stage. The court was unlikely to grant a panel rehearing, considering it was a 3-0 decision in June.
While en banc reviews are rarely granted, West Flagler stands a much better chance and can always move its appeal up the ladder to the SCOTUS.
And then there is the state route, which attorney Jeff Ifrah told Legal Sports Report was possible. “The DC Circuit did say, ‘Hey, you can go to state court’,” Ifrah said.
“And if they went to Florida state court, they could raise the argument about, ‘Well, what about the notion that regular Florida persons that are not on the tribal land are able to now bet on sports? Is that a violation of state law?’”
No sure thing: It’s important to note that if the court decides to grant the en banc review, it doesn’t mean it will succeed.
New Jersey’s en banc request was granted when it was challenging PASPA (read about that saga here) – New Jersey lost the hearing in a 9-3 vote but won at the Supreme Court.
If the court rejects the en banc request, the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock sports-betting app could return in September.
If West Flagler had decided against an appeal, the appellate ruling, which allows the compact to go into effect, would stand, allowing the tribe to relaunch its sports-betting app almost immediately.
The Seminole Tribe is now in a holding pattern but still feels very confident, even if the en banc review is granted. Given that three judges have already ruled in their favor, six of the eight remaining judges would have to side with West Flagler to overturn the June decision.
In a statement, a Seminole spokesperson said: “It’s important to note the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a unanimous decision in favor of the US Department of the Interior, which approved the gaming compact between the Seminole Tribe and the state of Florida.”
A little backstory: West Flagler’s argument, which was affirmed at the District Court level and later overturned by the DC Court of Appeals, is that the compact between the Seminole Tribe and Florida goes beyond what the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) is authorized to grant.
As attorney Daniel Wallach said in June, West Flagler will likely drag the case as long as possible.
"We all know that West Flagler, which is the main plaintiff, is going to be litigating this case all the way to the Supreme Court," said Wallach.
"That would automatically stay everything until that process concludes, and the US Supreme Court aspect of the case will probably extend the stay in this case until all federal judicial proceedings wrap up.”
Iowa in a state
Four more Iowa State football players have been charged with placing bets on games in which they were involved.
The dirty dozen: A criminal complaint lodged on Thursday last week with the district courts suggested that four current players with Iowa State and three former players gambled on their own team, as the number of players now charged as part of the ongoing probe has risen to more than a dozen.
The probe was launched by the NCAA in May. Iowa State said in a statement that since it became aware of the allegations it has been “actively working to address these issues with the involved student-athletes, and that process remains ongoing”.
“We will continue to support our student-athletes as our compliance staff works with the NCAA to sort out questions surrounding their future eligibility for athletics competition,” the statement added.
According to an affidavit obtained by ESPN, starting running back Jirehl Brock made 1,327 online wagers totaling more than $12,050, under a DraftKings account associated with a non-athlete. This included three games in which he participated.
Two former players, Arland Bruce and Reggie Bracy, are alleged to have worked together in placing wagers while underage, using a DraftKings account registered to Vincent Bruce, who is over 21.
Bracy, who appeared in 14 games at Iowa, allegedly made 66 wagers totaling $715 while underage.
Isiah Lee, a defensive tackle, is accused of placing wagers on a FanDuel account registered to his fiancée, including 21 involving 12 Iowa State games in which he played in during 2021 and 2022.
All four Iowa players involved have not been practicing with the team.
Sports integrity notebook
The International Tennis Integrity Agency has provisionally suspended three players – Timur Khabibulin, Sanjar Fayziev and Igor Smilansky – following multiple breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). The agency is still considering what sanctions to impose.
Low ranks: Khabibulin reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of 753 in 2016, Fayziev reached a career peak of 253 in 2017 and Smilansky 451 in 2018.
The players were collectively found to have contrived aspects of matches, facilitated wagering, failed to report corrupt approaches and, in Khabibulin’s case, offered money to negatively influence players’ best efforts.
Apollo in trouble
Maltese-based operator gets C$100k fine after RG failures.
We have a problem: Apollo Entertainment, a Malta-based iCasino operator behind seven websites in Ontario including Zodiac, Yukon Gold and Luxury Casino, has been fined C$100k for breaching responsible gambling standards by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).
It is the first fine issued by the AGCO since the launch of online operations in April 2022.
Apollo Entertainment only received its license to operate in the province in September last year.
The Commission found that Apollo failed to conduct required interventions with players who may be experiencing gambling-related harms. This included the case of a player experiencing over $2m in losses in under four months without receiving interventions from the gaming site operator during that period.
The AGCO also found that Apollo failed to implement an adequate voluntary self-exclusion program and didn’t ensure employees understood the importance of responsible gambling.
Remedy: The AGCO added that Apollo Entertainment had been “responsive” to its regulatory findings since being advised of these issues and had “already taken significant steps” to address the shortcomings identified.
Tom Mungham, CEO at the AGCO, said all operators have an “obligation to proactively monitor patron play for signs of high-risk gambling”.
He added they must take “appropriate actions to intervene and reduce the potential for gambling-related harm”.
Fantasy under fire – UK edition
One of the fantasy sites accused of allowing gambling operators to advertise to a potentially underage audience pauses its campaign.
Kicking off: Ahead of the start of the EPL season (last weekend), Fantasy Premier League, the leading fantasy football game in the world, came under fire for gambling links, with a BBC investigation finding ads and promotions for gambling populating many of the biggest FPL-related podcasts and social media feeds.
One of the sites mentioned, FPL Wire, immediately moved to halt the ads for a site called Fairplay Exchange, a company that lets people place personal bets against each other.
In a statement released on X (formerly Twitter), FPL Wire said this was the first time it had embarked upon such a campaign.
It noted the three videos that included the promotion had explicitly said they were not for children. It said it has now deleted the videos.
The site added that it had “not received and will not accept” any money from Fairplay.
The BBC also found that another site, Fantasy Football Scout, had carried promotional articles for bet365 within the last month. The promotions are for a separate fantasy game with £500k of prizes.
The guidelines from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on whether social media posts have a “strong appeal to children” have been tested in recent months.
Just last week, the ASA found that four tweets from Ladbrokes mentioning certain tennis stars had breached the rules.
Previously, the same firm was found to have committed a similar offense when it ran a campaign on Twitter featuring five EPL managers.
A source in the gambling sector with links to FPL told Compliance+More that operators had been using fantasy football as an acquisition and retention tool for many years.
“Yes, FPL allows players to play at 13+ but any content producer or platform carrying gambling advertising should be adhering to the LCCPs so will not be targeting under-18s,” said the source who preferred not to be named.
The EPL itself is in a “very tricky place”, they added.
“They can’t condemn/ban what we call off-platform cash leagues, as they know that, first, it’s virtually impossible to police and, second, it would be detrimental to their participation and engagement levels.”
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North American notebook
Virginia: The Virginia Lottery has fined Betway $20k for mistakenly communicating with a list that included self-excluded gamblers. Half-a-dozen of those sent an email about account technology issues and account creation were on the Virginia Lottery’s self-exclusion list while a further 94 were on Betway’s own list.
European notebook
Ukraine: The government has moved to reinstate an 18% turnover tax for iCasino. The move was taken on August 10 with the hope of raising UAH1.5bn (~$41m) this year. Last week, the reform proposals from the Ukrainian Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAIL) were included in the government’s 2023 action plan.
Germany: The Federal Gambling Authority of Germany, GGL, has launched a European-wide tender for an academic institution to lead new research on gambling advertising. The study is part of the GGL’s ongoing evaluation of the Fourth Gambling Interstate Treaty (GlüNeuRStv).
Africa notebook
Ghana: The 10% withholding tax on all gambling winnings comes into force on Tuesday, August 15. Commissioner of the domestic tax revenue division, Edward Gyambrah, said the provision applies to all private lotto, sports betting, casinos and all online operations and said it was hoped the tax would raise up to GHS1.2bn (~$107m) in its first year of operation.
Australia notebook
SkyCity Entertainment has made a provision of A$45m ($29.2m) in anticipation of receiving a penalty over anti-money laundering failings. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre launched proceedings in December.
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