In New Jersey, sports betting on college teams is prohibited to a certain degree. Sports fans a mnl168 re not allowed to bet on New Jersey college teams, or any college game played in the state, even if the teams are not based in the region. This is a bummer for sports fans, but part of the state regulations. It seems as though last year, BetMGM took bets on basketball games in the state when they were supposed to. Wagers worth less than $100 are now costing the brand $25,000 in fines.
College Basketball Betting Allowed
Documents from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) state that BetMGM accepted two wagers on a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament game last March. The game was taking place in Atlantic City and involved Niagara University and Marist College.
For the wagers, BetMGM was fined. The brand said the issue stemmed from Entain PLC, its tech partner. Supposedly, Entain was at fault for the errors that allowed the bets to be placed. According to the sportsbook, Entain creates the betting markets. This process includes checking where the game is played. They are the ones who should have flagged it and stopped the bets from being offered in the Garden State.
According to the DGE, the trading operations division of Entain did not catch the error, which they should have, since it must be entered manually to verify the game location. The regulator said that both companies generally use an automated venue checking system, but it was not used in this instance.
Another Prohibited Bet Days Later
Once the error involving the tournament game was caught, less than an hour after the bets went live, they were voided. The patrons who wagered on the games were given a refund. Less than two weeks later, BetMGM and Borgata’s online operations offered a custom parlay for a college basketball game involving Rutgers University.
This sports bet was available much longer, a total of eight hours before it was noticed as an error. Only $30 was wagered on the game in total, from two people. An Australian employee for Entain created the parlay and did not know that Rutgers was a team in New Jersey and should not have been wagered on.
BetMGM has yet to respond to the details of the fine. It would not be surprising to find that new steps are in place to ensure that this type of mistake does not happen again.
