Several Maryland sportsbook operators agreed to consent agreement penalties at a lottery commission meeting last week for violations in 2023.
Slap on the Wrist
FanDuel, DraftKings, and Maryland’s own Crab Sports agreed to pay fines for a variety of infractions ranging from player deposits to a lack of responsible gambling messages. The violations all occurred last year and it is not the first time the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency has cracked down on operators’ transgressions.
In April 2023, Boston-based bookmaker DraftKings sold gift cards at retail outlets that “did not include required responsible gambling messages regarding the age limits for participants in sports wagering and daily fantasy sports.” Because of that breach in the rules, DraftKings agreed to enter a consent agreement in which the fine was $5000 for the violation.
However, DraftKings was not alone, as their chief rival, FanDuel, also entered into a consent agreement to pay over $15,000 for two violations that included a $9,500 penalty for allowing 38 unverified accounts to bet a combined $275,000 between November 2022 and July 2023. In addition, one account remained active that had previously been flagged as being on Maryland’s self-exclusion list, and for that, FanDuel agreed to pay $5000.
Also, Crab Sports, a sportsbook that operates strictly in the Maryland market, agreed to enter into a consent agreement forcing it to pay a total of $7000 for two violations. The first of which was a $5,500 penalty for “not maintaining players’ deposited funds in the correct account” while the second was a $2000 citation for understating its sports betting revenue tax due to a reporting error.
Maryland Fines SBA
The Sports Betting Alliance (SBA) is a national industry trade group representing four major players in the sports betting industry including BetMGM, DraftKings, Fanatics and FanDuel. In May of last year, the organization felt the wrath of the Maryland State Board of Election when it considered a $48,000 fine for its failure to comply with Maryland’s 48-hour disclosure requirements during the 2020 campaign season.
A fine of $1000 per day for every day that the paperwork was not submitted was levied, as all political contributions to candidates must be publicly disclosed within 30 days through candidate committee reports. The SBA did not adhere to that requirement but stated it was simply an oversight.
SBA spokesperson Nathan Click said, “This was simply a filing error by our compliance team. As soon as we realized the mistake, we immediately filed the missing form and worked with the Maryland State Board of Election to correct the error.”
Jared DeMarinis, Director of Candidacy and Campaign Finance, said the SBA did act in good faith once they became aware of the issue. “We’re cracking down hard on disclosure with independent expenditure entities, and that was the biggest one that was collected so far,” DeMarinis said.
However, the SBA was not the only entity out of compliance, as the Maryland Board of Elections collected $74,900 in fines last spring with 91% of those levies generated emanated from four companies exceeding the 48-hour reporting deadline.
