Massachusetts gaming regulators fined Encore Boston Harbor $40,000 for taking illegal bets on Boston College women's basketball action last year, the Gaming Commission said Monday, the second fine levied against the Everett casino for allowing forbidden bets.
After an adjudicatory hearing held last April, the Gaming Commission determined that Encore Boston Harbor and its sportsbook had violated state law and regulations, and that "the business practices that led to the noncompliance incident were injurious to the policy objectives of" the state's legal betting law.
The commission last year fined Encore $10,000 for having taken bets on a Feb. 2, 2023 BC women's basketball game, and the fine issued Monday is related to illegal bets that the sportsbook accepted on BC women's basketball games on Feb. 12, 2023 and Feb. 19, 2023. In both cases, the commission said, the illegal bets were processed because an Encore vendor did not properly blacklist all BC women’s basketball team events.
"Despite identifying the first noncompliance incident, Encore failed to resolve the underlying issue or put adequate guardrails in place, resulting in its immediate repetition. Second, neither Encore nor its vendors were prepared for the adjudicatory hearing, which featured confusion and miscommunication from Encore, WynnBET, and [vendor] GAN," the commission wrote in its ruling. Commissioners added, "The Commission expects more of its Operators and licensees. Finally, Encore’s initial solution to the noncompliance incident was to remove women’s collegiate basketball entirely from its offerings. Such a fix, by sledgehammer rather than scalpel, is not an ideal solution. Operators should work to identify issues and fix them in a nuanced manner, that reflects a full understanding of the issue in question."
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When Massachusetts lawmakers legalized sports wagering in August 2022, after months of debate and discussion, they specifically excluded betting on most events involving Massachusetts colleges and universities. The only time wagering on an event featuring a Massachusetts school is allowed is if the team is participating in a tournament of at least four schools.
Encore took a total of seven wagers worth a total of $213 on the Feb. 12, 2023 and Feb. 19, 2023 BC women's basketball games, the commission said. All wagers were placed at a kiosk, rather than at a window with a teller. One of the three bets placed on the Feb. 12 game won a total of $53 as part of a parlay and one of four bets placed on the Feb. 19 game resulted in a $9.09 win. The incidents were uncovered, the commission said, when "a trader from the WynnBET overnight team discovered that the February 19, 2023, Boston College women’s basketball game had not remained properly disabled and wagering had been allowed on the game," leading to a wider review that also uncovered the Feb. 12, 2023 bets.
