It took less than 10 days for two of the state’s three casinos to break the rules prohibiting bets on Massachusetts colleges, regulators heard Thursday.
“It is our understanding that wagers were permitted on a Merrimack College men’s basketball game over the course of approximately seven hours,” Chief Enforcement Counsel Heather Hall said. “It is our understanding that there was a wagering allowed on a Boston College women’s basketball game.”
Sports betting in Massachusetts went live on January 31 at the state’s three casinos. Two of those casinos, Encore Boston Harbor and Plainridge Park Casino, the Gaming Commission learned Thursday, for a short time allowed bets on in-state college sporting events.
The bets would be legal on college teams from outside the state, but wagers on Massachusetts based schools were forbidden by lawmakers except when the teams are involved in a tournament or championship game.
Both of the unauthorized bet takings, according to Hall, were discovered because the casinos self-reported the infractions.
“I think the first thing I would like to note is both of these incidents were self-reported by the licensees,” she said.
According to officials from Plainville’s casino, their error was caused by a third party.
“Due to a data input error by one of our vendors, we notified and self-reported a violation to the MGC. We regret that this mistake happened, take full responsibility, and have added several remedial steps to our compliance process to help prevent this from happening again,” Plainridge Park General Manager North Grounsell said. The commission did not learn what caused Encore’s lapse.
The commission also did not choose to take any action against either casino on Thursday, as the investigation into what exactly occurred is still ongoing.
“These matters are new to us,” Commission Chair Cathy Judd-Stein said. “And so we are just wanting to make sure our processes are all in place, commissioners, and after next Tuesday we will be able to determine if any next steps are taken either by the commission itself or at our direction, the (Investigations and Enforcement Bureau).”
How much was bet and by how many people was not made available to the commission.
Herald wire services contributed.
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