The rubber is about to hit the road for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and its investigation into sports bettor limiting by bookmakers.
Commission members met Thursday and approved the next steps for the regulator’s staff, starting with collecting data from operators regarding the restrictions they place on bettors.
MGC officials will make “a detailed, but narrow, data request” to Massachusetts sports betting entities about their limited customers.
“We would formulate such a data request to seek specific player data from which our team could deduce (1) the percentage of their players that they limit, (2) how many players are being limited and exhibit winning behavior, and (3) how many players are being treated as VIPs and exhibit losing behavior,” a memo to commissioners explained.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission will meet this morning and receive an update on its work on sports bettor limiting.
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) November 21, 2024
Commission staff outlined some "recommended next steps" in a memo to commissioners, starting with data collection, then analysis, then potential regulations. pic.twitter.com/5ZF7j6p8Ip
Once that data is collected – the process is expected to take a few weeks, and could prompt additional requests for data – MGC staff will analyze the information "to identify problem areas and remedies that we might recommend to the Commission."
After the necessary data is rounded up and considered, MGC staff could then recommend regulations to the commission to try to fix any problems they see.
“Such regulations might include requiring that patrons be notified when and how they’ve been limited, implementing reporting requirements regarding patron limitations, and/or requiring that operators establish clear and defined protocols used to limit patrons,” the memo noted.
All of the above signals the MGC starting to move from learning and thinking about the limiting of sports bettors – and the regulator has had several public discussions on the topic, including a lengthy roundtable in September with operators and industry experts – toward action.
One curious commission
Operators have argued limiting is a tool they need to manage risk, that only affects a small percentage of bettors, and that allows them to offer a wide variety of wagering markets and competitive odds to customers. It’s done because of a bettors’ behavior, not because they win, the recreational-focused bookmakers say.
There are players, however, who see limiting much differently. To them, the tactic is applied to winners for the crime of winning. Moreover, industry experts say sharper bettors can be used as tools themselves, to refine lines and odds, and warn that limiting is driving business to offshore and illegal bookmakers.
The MGC is the only legal sports betting regulator that has taken such an active and public interest in sports bettor limiting. It did so after hearing complaints from limited customers, and the regulator has shown no signs that it will drop the issue anytime soon.
Data dump
Data collected from operators will form the foundation of whatever the MGC does next.
The memo to commissioners noted staff would rely on an exemption to the state’s public records law regarding “trade secrets or commercial or financial information” that is voluntarily handed over to an agency with the promise of keeping it confidential.
“We're going to be curious here, and I look forward to what we learn,” MGC chair Jordan Maynard said during Thursday's meeting.
