SBC Americas

A lawmaker in Pennsylvania is planning to introduce legislation that bans the use of credit cards to fund sports betting, daily fantasy contests, iLottery and online casino activities.

Sen. Wayne D. Fontana has sent a memorandum to all members of the Pennsylvania Senate to give notice of a pending measure that will aim to prohibit the use of credit cards for gamblers in the state. Fontana’s consumer protection bill is being introduced to curtail problem gambling as online gaming and sports wagering continue to grow in the state.

According to Penn State’s 2022 Online Gaming Report, more than 36% of online gaming participants in the Keystone State reported at least one gambling problem. The report was conducted in partnership with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Another factor in Fontana’s decision to a propose new bill is the average credit card balance for Pennsylvania residents being over $5,640.

Pennsylvania Senators h..

What started out as a bill to provide West Virginia universities with anonymized player data to study problem gambling ended up as a law that could establish West Virginia University as one of the premier higher education institutions on the East Coast for gaming-related degrees.

And that is the version of the bill passed by the Senate and concurred by the House this weekend.

The House passed the original version of the bill, sponsored by Delegate Shawn Fluharty, but a Senate committee substitute revised large swaths of the language. For example, the word “required” was removed from the section involving operators providing player data and the new version does not seem to mandate the data is provided. The new section reads:

“For the purposes of research only, West Virginia University shall be permitted to analyze transactional data and metrics of the type collected and maintained by the West Virginia Lottery as of March 1, 2024, related to gaming operations conducted in the state. F..

The West Virginia Legislature has passed a self-exclusion sports betting measure into law.

The bill, which is headed for Gov. Jim Justice’s desk, means that an individual can be banned from sports betting if they have “harassed or shown a harmful pattern of conduct directed at a sports official, coach or any participants of a sporting event.”

House Bill 4700 passed out of the Senate with an amended title of “banning certain persons from sport wagering activities” on March 8. The House then passed the Senate’s amendment on the same day allowing for the legislative action to be completed before the close of the 60-day legislative session on March 9.

The legislation, introduced by state Delegate Shawn Fluharty in January, has been added to the existing West Virginia Lottery Sports Wagering Act, which was signed into law in 2018.

The bill states that anyone found guilty will be notified of the commission’s intent to ban them from sports betting and also the person will be given a heari..

A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee has had details of his fraudulent use of the team’s virtual credit card released ahead of a sentencing hearing next week.

According to a filing in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, former Jaguars employee Amit Patel embezzled more than $22 million from the team to fund personal purchases, including luxury trips and daily fantasy sports contests on FanDuel and DraftKings. Patel, who worked in the team’s finance department, pleaded guilty in December 2023 to one count of wire fraud and one count of engaging in an illegal monetary transaction. The 31-year-old admitted to improper use of the Jaguars’ funds while also creating and falsifying team accounting records.

Patel committed his crimes between September 2019 and February 2023 and faces up to 30 years in prison for his actions, which were mainly attributed to a gambling addiction.

“Almost the entirety of the funds Mr. Patel used from the VCC were spent on the..

MGM Resorts and BetMGM have announced new initiatives with mental health care provider Kindbridge as part of Problem Gambling Awareness Month (PGAM).

MGM Resorts has donated $100,00 to the Kindbridge Research Institute in support of a voluntary medication trial for veterans experiencing gambling addiction in Las Vegas, while BetMGM has announced it will expand its relationship with Kindbridge Behavioural Health.

MGM Resorts and Kindbridge Research Institute

MGM Resorts’ donation of $100,000 will contribute to research into a first-of-its-kind treatment that aims to reduce gambling urges and symptom severity among veterans with gambling disorders.

The research, run in conjunction with the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, is part of the Kindbridge Research Institute’s 50x4vets program which aims to increase the research on gambling disorders in veterans by fifty times in four years.

“This is such a promising intervention,” said Nathan D. Smith, Executive Director of Kindbridge Resea..

North America is maintaining its ability to provide a safe environment for betting activity, according to Sportradar Integrity Services’ betting corruption and match-fixing review.

In 2023, Sportradar detected 1,329 suspicious matches in 11 different sports. The total of suspicious fixtures, which included 105 countries, was flat compared to 2022’s results.

Out of the suspicious matches detected by Sportradar, only 34 were from women’s events.

“Continued investment in the development of technology is key to detecting otherwise hard-to-find occurrences of match-fixing,” said Sportradar EVP of Integrity, Rights Protection and Regulatory Services Andreas Krannich. “In combination with access to account-level data, collaboration across the industry, and human experts, we have a suite of powerful tools to help both prevent and detect risks to sports integrity.”

Sportradar’s ability to monitor matches was bolstered by artificial intelligence, which detected 73% of all suspicious matches ..

Daily fantasy sports operator Underdog has announced it has invested in the responsible gaming solutions provider idPair.

Through GuardDog, Underdog’s responsible gaming innovation fund, the operator will provide investment as well as allowing idPair access to advisors, mentors and investors. Underdog has also confirmed that idPair will be prioritized for integration into Underdog’s product offerings.

idPair’s technology allows for universal responsible gaming limits as it is able to create a centralized view of an individual’s play and gambling activity across all applications and operators in a jurisdiction for regulators.

“Most users play with more than one operator for their gaming activity. The opportunity we see with idPair is the ability to connect people and their play, and use those insights to inform enhanced responsible gaming initiatives,” said Adam Warrington, Vice President of Responsible Gaming at Underdog. “Operators can only focus on their individual platforms. We b..