Iowa regulator fines three sportsbooks for allowing use of credit cards
Three companies have been fined $150,000 for credit card betting violations.
US.- The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has approved three fines totalling $150,000 for the illegal use of credit cards by sports betting operations. BetMGM and Elite Hospitality were each fined $60,000, while SCE Partners had been fined $20,000.
Representatives from the three sports gambling operations said they were taking steps to correct the breach.
Racing and Gaming administrator Brian Ohorilko said: “In these particular cases, they involve some prepaid cards, a complicated type of transaction where customers either unknowingly or willingly circumvented the credit card rules. And so we do think though, I should mention, that this is an isolated incident.”
Ohorilko added: “Two years ago the law was changed in Iowa that called out the use of credit cards for wagering on any type of sports wagering and gambling games, and so it is something that is very important to the policymakers in this state and it’s something that we really don’t want to see.”
Iowa sports betting revenue up 97% year-on-year in August
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has reported sports betting revenue of $14.4m for August. That’s an increase of 97.3 per cent year-on-year and 28.6 per cent from July of this year. Online sports betting generated $11.7m in revenue and retail $2.7m.
Sports betting generated a handle of $122.6m, a 12.9 per cent increase from July and the highest total since the $233.5m worth of wagers reported in March. Consumers spent $110.1m betting online and $12.5m at retail facilities.
