State regulators have issued a total of $80,000 in fines to three different companies that Iowans may use to place online bets on sports.
Churchill Downs Technology, also known as Twin Spires, has agreed to pay a $20,000 fine for either contacting or allowing people on the state’s so-called self-exclusion list to reactivate an online account. It means those people voluntarily asked to be prohibited from entering a casino or placing bets.
“Two self-excluded individuals had opened wagering accounts…In addition, Twin Spires discovered eight individuals accounts were not properly restricted after they had self-excluded,” Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission administrator Tina Eick said, “and also that seven individuals were sent 343 promotional offers after they had self-excluded.”
Andrew Silver, legal counsel for Twin Spires, said the company discovered a system-wide issue in December of 2023 and immediately reported it to Iowa regulators.
“If they were locked out for having too many failed log in attempts using not the right password and when they were searched against the Iowa database, the block flag wasn’t modified to reflect ‘self-exclusion’ and these accounts later came back in a use the reset my password function and successfully do that,” he said, “and ultimately we’re very disappointed to discover one account was able to place wagers before we discovered this issue.”
Penn Sports Interactive, the sports betting operation associated with the Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs, offered some proposition bets in late 2023 and early 2024 that are not legal in Iowa. Eick said bets were taken on men’s basketball games between NCAA teams and teams in the NAIA. “In total, 51 patrons placed a total of 69 wagers on these impermissible markets,” Eick says. “The licensee did not provide notification to the commission until after the proscribed 72 hour notification period.”
Penn Sports was fined $20,000. A spokesman for Penn Sports Interactive said the violations happened a year ago, the company took corrective steps and there have been no violations of this type since then. Penn Sports was fined another $20,000 for sending two marketing emails to someone who put themselves on the state’s self-exclusion list so they would not get those sorts of email.
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission also issued a $20,000 fine against Circa Sports, which is associated with the Wild Rose Casinos in Clinton, Emmetsburg and Jefferson. Circa Sports offered certain wagers on an Iowa versus Michigan game that are not allowed under Iowa law.
“We are manually approving all college prop wagers for all of our markets,” said Piper Carter, who’s in charge of regulatory compliance for the Las Vegas-based company, “so I think that’s been effective in helping us reduce any future impermissible wagers.”
Circa Sports online also operates in Illinois, Kentucky, Colorado and Nevada.
The five-member Racing and Gaming Commission voted to assess the fines during its meeting earlier this month.