North America

The Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) is protecting players across the state by issuing cease and desist orders to a group of unlicensed offshore casino operators.

The MGCB has sent cease and desist orders to 11 offshore iGaming operators that are accepting customers in the Wolverine State without adhering to required consumer protection and fair play standards. The lack of protections and standards include the unregulated acceptance of digital wallets and cryptocurrencies as payment methods.

Michigan’s gaming regulator has also recognized the failure of the offshore operators to offer data protection to players, which is also required for licensed gaming operators.

“This should serve as a strong warning to illegal operators: Michigan does not tolerate unauthorized gambling activity,” said MGCB executive director Henry Williams. “We will continue our relentless pursuit of actively identifying and disrupting these operations.”

The operators that have received cease and desist le..

The Illinois Gaming Board is changing its policies regarding sportsbook payments.

The gaming regulator has announced that it has adopted a proposed rule to ban credit cards to fund gaming accounts for online sports wagering. The IGB has implemented changes to its practices to protect players and promote responsible gaming.

The regulator has adopted the new rule following a review of sports wagering practices and rules as Illinois reached the five-year mark as a regulated online sports betting market.

“As part of our review, we determined that prohibiting the use of credit cards to fund sports wagering accounts is a justified and impactful advancement in Illinois sports wagering,” said IGB Administrator Marcus D. Fruchter. “There is a growing body of recent research showing that restrictions on credit usage to fund wagering accounts encourages responsible gambling and mitigates the harms of compulsive gambling.”

The proposed rule adds to existing standards in Illinois regarding cred..

Another lawsuit is taking issue with the large deposit bonuses DraftKings offers to users.

Filed in the Eastern Pennsylvania District Court, the new suit comes from five DraftKings customers and aims to be a class action others can potentially join in down the line.

Suit takes issue with complicated bonus offers

Like many other suits brought against DraftKings, this one centers largely around its $1,000 deposit bonus. As others have argued, the suit claims the terms to clear the maximum value of the bonus are difficult to understand, complex and require a substantial amount of play in order to maximize the value of the offer.

“DraftKings attracts new users and keeps existing users coming back by advertising an all-upside gambling experience, falsely promising users that they will get free money which they can wager without any risk. In reality, DraftKings has created an all-upside opportunity only for itself: the hidden terms of its promotions require users to deposit and gamble a..

A former employee at Baylor University is being penalized by the NCAA for a series of sports betting infractions involving the school and its student-athletes.

Sam Hancock, a former Director of Resource Development at Baylor, has been issued a two-year show-cause order by the NCAA for placing impermissible daily fantasy sports wagers on professional and amateur sports. According to the NCAA, Hancock placed 2,950 impermissible bets between July 2019 and September 2024 while employed at Baylor.

The illicit wagers, placed across three different DFS platforms, totaled $45,979. The DFS wagers included 113 bets involving Baylor teams and student-athletes despite Hancock being informed by Baylor of the NCAA’s rules and standards concerning sports betting.

Hancock informed the NCAA that he wagered with DFS and sports betting platforms before his time at Baylor but continued to wager on pro and amateur sports after he was hired.

The NCAA determined that Hancock violated Bylaw 10.3, which ba..

A proposal in Illinois to add compulsive gambling to the list of recognized substance use disorders is making headway.

SB 0118, sponsored by four Democrat lawmakers, was first introduced in January and passed the Senate by a unanimous 55-0 vote in recent days. It has been engrossed in the House of Representatives and is awaiting a reading in that chamber’s Rules Committee.

The bill would amend the state Substance Use Disorder Act to add a gambling disorder, which it defines as “persistent and recurrent problematic gambling behavior leading to clinically significant impairment or distress.”

The Department of Human Services would be responsible for a state-wide strategy that would include creating and administering prevention and treatment programs for disordered gamblers. One of the department’s duties would be to create grants that would draw funds from, among other things, revenue dedicated to the department under the provisions of the Video Gaming Act and the Illinois Gambling Ac..