BetMGM Fined by New Jersey Regulator for Accepting Prohibited Wagers

When sports betting in New Jersey was legalized, provisions were made in the state’s legal code to prohibit gambling on sporting events involving New Jersey college teams or athletes. This is strictly prohibited even if the wager in question is on the opposing team or athlete.

This type of wagering ban on in-state college sports is common throughout many US states with legal sports betting markets such as New York, South Dakota, and Washington.

Two wagers were accepted on March 10th, 2021 on a game between Niagara University and Marist College in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The game in question was played in Atlantic City the following day. The error was blamed on the sportsbook’s tech partner Entain as it had failed to flag the wager as a prohibited bet.

The division’s investigation found that the Entain’s trading operations division had failed to spot the mistake. This was despite the fact that it was required to manually verify the location of the game. The division also found that an automated venue checking system which should have been used by both companies was not in use at the time due to a malfunction. However, the error was noticed by an employee 40 minutes after the bets were placed. They were voided and stakes refunded to the gamblers.

As a result of both errors, the total amount accepted in prohibited wagers amounted to just $100.

Jenny Tang

An experienced iGaming commentator and analyst based in New York City - Jenny reports on regulation and gambling industry news and events.