Iowa regulators issued a $60,000 penalty Thursday to a sportsbook for illegally allowing the use of credit cards on its site. According to Racing and Gaming Commission administrator Brian Ohorilko, the penalty involves American Wagering, which does business as Caesars Sportsbook.
According to Ohorilko, there was a specific incident in July 2021 where it was discovered that there were a number of transactions that took place using a credit card, which led to a full audit. “Throughout certain periods in 2020, 2021, prepaid debit cards were purchased using a credit card and a number of those transactions were permitted and it went through,” he said, as reported by Radio Iowa.
The total rose to 485 transactions worth $212,000, which he says the Racing and Gaming Commission felt was “fairly egregious”. This follows a similar penalty levied at the last commission meeting against FanDuel for $75,000 for a two-count violation. Ohorilko stated this is something that has come up with the sportsbooks and there will be some more penalties in the Commission’s future meetings, “and it’s important for the sportsbooks to get a handle on,” he stated.
In Iowa, credit cards cannot be used to wager on sports betting or any form of gambling, a policy also in place in other gambling markets such as that of the UK. The companies are currently working to make corrections so that these kinds of violations will not occur again, the Gaming Commission says. Ohorilko stated that sportsbooks are not only aiming to correct the actions but to develop procedures to audit the issues and do their own self-checks.
Other penalties such as license suspensions exist, and commissioners can levy them should problems not get corrected. However, the ultimate goal with any of these violations is to get them back into compliance with the law, Ohorilko says.
