BetMGM has been fined over $260,000 in the US state of Pennsylvania for allowing self-excluded individuals to gamble more than 150 times.
According to a statement on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) website, the operator was given a $260,905 fine for “152 instances in which an individual on the Board’s Interactive Self-Exclusion List was permitted to gamble on their sites”.
“Licensed operators of iGaming sites in Pennsylvania must deny individuals on the self-exclusion list from establishing or maintaining an interactive gaming site,” noted the PGCB.
The PGCB’s Consent Agreement acquired by iGaming Expert mentions that BetMGM completed an “audit of the BetMGM and Borgata Pennsylvania Player Database against the IG Self-Exclusion List” in March 2021.
The audit found that 148 accounts had wagering activity while on the list with a total of $252,035.55 deposited and $82,460.30 withdrawn for a total difference of $169,575.25.
In a separate incident on 9 April 2021, BetMGM self-reported that a self-excluded individual was “able to access their account due to human error” as they weren’t included in the self-exclusion upload process on the BetMGM platform by the Responsible Gambling Program Manager.
The individual was removed from the self-exclusion list on 31 March 2021 before they were subsequently reinstated. The individual was able to deposit $580 and did not withdraw any amount.
In another incident on 22 July 2022, the operator self-reported that a self-excluded individual was able to access their Borgata Online Pennsylvania account “due to a system anomaly, and through extensive testing, the error could not be replicated”. This individual deposited $700 and withdrew $100.
A review on 10 July 2023 revealed that two additional accounts had betting activity while on the self-exclusion list.
This was caused by “manual human error when the BetMGM Responsible Gaming team did not check if the patrons had been completely removed from both the casino and IG Self-Exclusion Lists, which led to them being inadvertently removed from the BetMGM BackOffice Self-Exclusion Database for Pennsylvania”.
From these accounts, $183,065.45 was deposited and $92,916.59 was withdrawn, making a difference of $90,148.86.
“In total, these reviews revealed that a total of $436,381.00 was deposited and $175,476.89 was withdrawn, a difference of $260,904.11, by individuals on the IG Self-Exclusion List via the BetMGM and Borgata platforms during the time periods listed above,” the agreement said.
It is noted in the Consent Agreement that BetMGM took action to correct and mitigate incidents including closing individual accounts mentioned, coaching and retraining staff, reviewing systems and conducting audits.
The operator has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $260,905, in addition to a $2,500 fee for costs. BetMGM will also make a donation of $20,000 to the Pennsylvania Council on Problem Gambling and will institute policies and procedures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
