FanDuel slammed by Iowa watchdog and hit with $125,000 fine

FanDuel has been slapped with a $125,000 fine by the Iowa State Racing and Gaming Commission. The watchdog found that it had been providing illegal bets during a variety of events, including the Super Bowl, golf, and soccer matches.

Within the $125,000 fine is a $30,000 fee for not providing working responsible gambling options. This is something that competitor DraftKings has recently begun pushing with its new toolset, while FanDuel itself has reportedly spent well over $100 million on responsible gaming initiatives.

FanDuel has accepted the fines, with reported fines involving violations revolving around bets as small as $330 to $89,000 for golf and $62,000 on the Olympics. The fines have been issued as Iowa has specific rules on what can and can’t be wagered on, with mainstream sports requiring approval from the Commission. FanDuel’s bread and butter, including prop bets, all need special approval, which the company didn’t acquire.

During the Friday hearing, the head of the Commission, Daryle Olsen, said:

“Five counts within a very short period of time is just too much, you know, and so I know they’re dealing with a big volume. I believe FanDuel is our number two operator in the state. But we just expect more.

“I think in fairness, the Commission has to look at how we treat our out-of-state operators versus our brick-and-mortar casinos, because we need to be consistent, and that’s all we’re trying to do. We expect more.

“I think our job is to tell them what we expect, lay out the concerns, and then hopefully they go back and fix it, and we don’t have to deal with this again.”

Speaking with Radio Iowa, FanDuel spokesperson Ben Roth said:

“We take responsibility for the matters represented in the settlement before the Commission today and understand that we did not meet the high standard that we hold for ourselves.

“In response to the issues before you today, FanDuel has worked to remediate the various root causes through a combination of manual remediation efforts.

“That includes increased training, more detailed checklists and runbooks for the deployment of content, and of course, automation wherever possible to avoid the potential for manual error.

“FanDuel has addressed each issue by ensuring that no impacted customer has been adversely affected by these issues, and FanDuel has disgorged itself of any resulting revenue as a result of these.”

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Featured image: Iowa State Racing and Gaming Commission

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