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Iowa gaming regulators have issued several financial penalties for companies that violated a myriad of sports-betting rules, including self-exclusion failures and accepting prohibited bets.
In total, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission issued $82,000 in fines to five different companies during a meeting on Friday (April 21). One of the largest fines went to BetMGM for permitting 38 people who were on the state’s self-exclusion list to have wagering accounts, 36 of which opened an account after they self-excluded.
Eighteen players who were on the self-exclusion list were allowed to make a deposit and at least one wager. In addition, the company sent almost 2,000 promotional contacts to 36 self-excluded players and failed to report the self-exclusion contacts within a required 72-hour period.
The commission fined BetMGM $20,000 for the offense, as well as requiring more than $11,000 in payments to the state as compensation for the winnings paid to the self-excluded players.
Other penalties included a total of $15,000 in fines for the Daily Racing Form Sportsbook, which was assessed a total of $10,000 for offering and accepting proposition wagers on collegiate athletes, which is prohibited by state law.
The company was also penalized $5,000 for failing to complete a required weekly download of the state’s up-to-date self-exclusion list.
Xpressbet was also penalized a total of $15,000 for missing several weekly deadlines to download the latest self-exclusion data, as well as failing to deactivate accounts of players who joined the self-exclusion list and sending six self-excluded players more than 1,000 promotional contacts.
PointsBet received a total of $12,000 in penalties, the largest of which was a $10,000 fine for offering wagers on when a penalty would be awarded during soccer matches on four separate occasions in violation of state regulations.
The company also received two $1,000 fines for offering wagers on a LIV Golf event and a lower-level English soccer league, which were not approved by the commission.
Finally, outside the sports-betting sanctions, Iowa's Diamond Jo Worth Casino was fined $20,000 for allowing an underage person to play in the casino for more than one hour.
