On Thursday, Carousel Group’s MaximBet Colorado Sportsbook received a sum of $80,000.
No, it wasn’t the result of a fortunate sports bettor profiting from an 11-leg bet.
During its quarterly meeting, the Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission unanimously approved an $80,000 fine for Carousel Group. The New Jersey-based company will also face additional penalties.
Penalties were imposed as a result of a collaborative partnership between Carousel Group and the Colorado Division of Gaming (CDOG). These penalties stemmed from investigations conducted by CDOG and CG, following a self-reported closure of a MaximBet location for 16 days in December.
Due to the failure of conducting proper checks, bettors have infringed upon the Colorado Limited Gaming Act and Sports Betting Regulations by placing bets outside the borders of Colorado.
MaximBet, among the 27 licensed Colorado online sportsbooks, presently focuses its operations within Colorado as it strives to broaden its presence across the United States.
Just one day prior, on Wednesday, MaximBet made an exciting announcement about a significant sponsorship deal with Charlie Blackmon, the outfielder for the Colorado Rockies.
Restrictions are accepted by the Carousel Group.
According to the official agreement documents on the Colorado Department of Revenue website, MaximBet was fined $80,000 for the period of December 1-16. The fine was calculated at a rate of $5,000 per day for the duration that their web-based customer-location system was not operational.
In addition to the fine, the stipulation agreement requires Carousel Group / MaximBet to fulfill the following obligations:
- had a recertified sports betting online system called & . & rdquo,
- Analyze the individual’s exposure settings.
- The Colorado Division of Gaming should conduct an audit of its internal controls and compliance issues. Additionally, they should propose necessary changes to address these concerns.
- Inform the Division that it is committed to willingly and consistently adhere to the provisions of the Colorado Constitution, Colorado Limited Gaming Act, and Colorado Sports Betting Regulations.
Additional violations may lead to the cancellation or temporary suspension of licensing privileges, and a penalty of $25,000.
The Carousel Group has agreed to the terms and penalties.
On April 11, Daniel Graetzer, the Director of Carousel Group, penned the following message to the CLGCC.
We would like to express our gratitude to the Colorado Division of Gaming for their valuable assistance in helping us reach a fair decision. The company attaches great importance to complying with regulations. In light of this, The Carousel Group has conducted a thorough audit of our operations in Colorado, strengthened our change management process, increased staff in our compliance office, and updated our internal protocols before receiving the Stipulation and Agreement. We are committed to further expanding our presence and business in Colorado.
Investigations were prompted by a phone call to Bettor & .
On December 18, a call to MaximBet customer support initiated a joint investigation into the location issues.
The guest, mentioned in the case records, asserted that & ’s unsuccessful spot check hindered him from placing a bet. Upon being informed that he had to be in Colorado to proceed, the customer retorted, «And ,” which had never posed an issue previously. & rdquo,.
An internal investigation conducted by MaximBet revealed that wagers from the website had been placed outside of Colorado in one confirmed case with a high probability, as well as four cases that were suspected.
Carousel Group reported a computer program issue related to geolocation to the entertainment division in Colorado on December 23.
CG stated in the initial event record that two days later, on Christmas,
We discovered a technical problem between our fraud management system and the GeoComply system. This issue resulted in a unique situation where the backend system inaccurately verified all tokens used by a single player to place bets without proper verification.
MaximBet & , whose geolocation was turned off,
After conducting a thorough investigation, it was discovered that 29 MaximBet customers, including the original caller, had placed bets between December 1 and December 16 without undergoing geolocation. Out of these 29 customers, it was initially and reasonably concluded that 25 of them had placed bets within Colorado state boundaries.
Four unidentified customers were located in Portsmouth, New York, Pittsburgh, and Hickory, North Carolina.
The research assistance was sought by Carousel Group from the auditing firm Odds on Compliance.
Nevertheless, a Colorado Department of Gaming investigator held contrasting views on certain aspects of the internal investigation conducted by the Carousel Group &. Specifically, the CDOG dismissed the claims made by CG & regarding the assumption that customers who had previously placed successful wagers in Colorado would repeat this behavior during the occurrence of a system error.
The exact details of how certain MaximBet bets were made outside of Colorado during the 16-day period remain unknown. Nevertheless, the CDOG investigation revealed that out of the 336 location checks conducted during that time, none were successful.
On February 1, Odds on Compliance notified the Division of Gaming that MaximBet had disabled its location service on November 30 but reactivated it on December 17.
On February 15th, Federico Rocca, the head of operations at MaximBet, notified the CDOG that the casino was not conducting any testing or implementing any modifications at that moment. Furthermore, Rocca expressed that they had no knowledge about who or why the location had been deactivated.
The duration of the two studies combined exceeded two months.
In April, the condition agreement was signed by both parties.
