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The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) has issued several enforcement orders totaling $102,000 in penalties and a forfeiture order against four licensees for accepting prohibited wagers on in-state college sporting events and allowing a self-excluded patron to gamble.
The largest of the fines was an $80,000 penalty levied against Fox Bet for accepting prohibited wagers on four separate occasions on college basketball games involving in-state universities.
The two-page settlement released by the DGE on Friday (August 18) settles multiple complaints issued against the subsidiary of Flutter Entertainment.
The division filed a complaint against Fox Bet on August 19, 2021, seeking sanctions against Fox Bet for permitting wagering on a February 13, 2021 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) game between New Jersey' Rutgers University and Northeastern University.
The DGE also issued a complaint on September 20, 2022, seeking sanctions against the licensee for permitting wagers on a November 16, 2021 NCAA basketball game between Monmouth University and Leigh University.
On January 6, 2022, Fox Bet advised the DGE it had again permitted wagering on a prohibited sporting event, this time an NCAA basketball game between Fairleigh Dickenson and St. Francis University on December 31, 2021.
Additionally, on January 8, 2022, wagers were placed on an NCAA basketball game between Seton Hall University and the University of Connecticut.
Wagering on in-state college teams remains prohibited under New Jersey's constitution.
Voters in November 2021 had an opportunity to legalize betting on in-state college sports teams and college athletic events but nearly 57 percent of voters said no to the ballot initiative on amending the state constitution to expand the state’s sports-betting law.
The DGE’s order comes two weeks after Flutter announced the closure of the Fox Bet sportsbook by August 31. The company stopped accepting bets as of July 31.
Balances will be available to withdraw on the Fox Bet application through August 31, after which time the balances will require PokerStars applications to access. PokerStars is not affected by the Fox Bet closure.
Fox Bet had only launched in four states: New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Michigan; and Colorado.
An email sent to Dublin-based Flutter seeking comment on Friday was not returned.
In other settlements released Friday, the DGE issued a forfeiture order of $12,000 in gaming winnings retained by Hard Rock Casino and Resort in Atlantic City.
According to the two-page order, Hard Rock confiscated the winnings from a patron identified as “JB,” a self-excluded individual, who was prohibited from engaging in gaming activity.
The DGE also released another order fining Kambi and Rush Street Interactive $5,000 each for accepting wagers on in-state college games.
Kambi was fined for permitting prohibited wagering on two separate occasions. Specifically, Kambi, along with Rush Street Interactive, allowed wagering on an NCAA football game between Rutgers University amd the University of Michigan in September 2021, and an NCAA basketball game between the University of Connecticut and St. Bonaventure University held in Newark, New Jersey, in December 2021.
Rush Street Interactive was also fined for its role in allowing the prohibited wagers.
