Regulators at the Massachusetts Gaming Commission are interested in whether people under 21 are using mobile platforms to bet on sports and what betting platforms operating here are doing to prevent that from happening.
Commissioners raised the topic Monday as four sports betting companies presented quarterly reports to the commission. Commissioner Brad Hill cited meetings and conversations the Gaming Commission has had with “outside sources” that revealed “there is some concern about underage people using computers and words of people of betting age”.
The Massachusetts Sports Betting Act of 2022 requires players to be at least 21 years old to bet at one of three brick-and-mortar sportsbooks or one of eight licensed online/mobile betting platforms by the commission. The law also requires operators to “use commercially reasonable efforts to prevent anyone under the age of 21 from placing a bet.”
The operators who presented Monday reported a total of eight accounts suspended in July, August and September for use by minors, although commissioners said they believed that was simply the number of suspicious cases that could be supported. Operators have detailed the steps they take to try to ensure that the person actually betting is the one who has been authorized to open an account.
“So for example: I can bet. My 16 year old son knows my passwords, I allow him to go in and bet – which we are told. We had no proof of that, but just that. this was happening – can you enlighten us on the protocols in place to ensure this doesn’t happen? Hill asked a Caesars Sportsbook representative. “And can you stop it? Because, like I said in that meeting we had with this outside source, you know, if someone wants to cheat, they’ll cheat.”
Curtis Lane Jr., chief digital compliance officer at Caesars Sportsbook, told the commission about some of the steps his company takes to identify accounts that might be controlled by someone other than the person who signed up, such as detecting betting activities from remote locations. , reporting unusual betting patterns or identifying accounts used by multiple devices. Each of the other operators that presented their third-quarter results to the commission on Monday — DraftKings, Penn Sports Interactive and WynnBet — also addressed the topic of minors using their apps and said they all used similar methods.
“I would like to reiterate what one of the commissioners said, which is that ultimately it’s difficult to police poor parenting. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of policing. in place for this,” said Jake List, senior regulatory director. operations for DraftKings, said. He said DraftKings’ Know Your Customer (KYC) regime includes identity verification, a geo-compliance tool that checks whether a user’s device is recognized by other programs the user logs into. is registered and, in some cases, requires a new user to download a copy. of their identity document.
DraftKings reported to the commission that it suspended five Massachusetts accounts last quarter over allegations of underage betting. The company’s presentation included a disclaimer that read: “These users claimed that a minor, usually a family member, placed a bet on the adult user’s account or that there was other evidence demonstrating that the account was managed by a minor who was not the account holder.
Adam Kates, senior director of compliance at Penn Sports Interactive, told commissioners his company switched to its own in-house back-end technology in July. As part of this change, Penn now requires anyone creating a new sports betting account to upload both a government-issued ID and a live selfie.
“This is not a situation where you can upload a photo of anyone, it will open your phone’s camera, you take a selfie, and our provider will match your face to that ID “So this is a really good check to make sure that we know who we’re dealing with and that the person who actually signs up for the account is the one who should hold the account,” he said. “On the underage spectrum, we see that it’s much more difficult for a teenager to use their parents’ information and just open an account. By adding the ID and the selfie, you have to have the identity document and the telephone number in order to open an account.”
After the four presentations, Hill said he was “very comfortable with what I heard today and was actually pleasantly surprised by what I heard today.” He said he would share the information with the person or people who raised concerns with him about underage betting, but said it would also be a subject the Gambling Commission would monitor.
“I just think it’s something we need to continue to monitor and work with our operators to ensure it’s a priority for them,” he said. “I think over the next few weeks, the next few months, and you know, going into the new year, this question is going to come up about how we can get this information out to our high school students and students who don’t are not. “I don’t have an age, things like that. “
Commissioner Jordan Maynard said at the end of the meeting that the commission should think about ways to improve KYC measures and also how to raise awareness about underage betting.
“By letting parents know, I mean, look, I can literally create an account with my mom’s name today. Because I know everything about her – I know where she got married, where she got his high school graduation, what his birthday is,” he said. “And so educating parents that there might be dummy accounts that they need to monitor, monitoring their devices, I think that’s an overall strategy. I think KYC is part of that.”
