Station Casinos could breathe easier after dodging an $80,000 fine for accepting more than 300 sports bets after a match. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
Station escapes minor
Rather than potentially losing their Nevada license to accept 348 sports bets after the game, Station Casinos walked away relatively lightly with a fine of just $80,000.
At its June meeting on Thursday, the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) signed off on the station’s penalty for accepting hundreds of after-the-fact bets on a sports betting app between 2018 and 2021. To share an agenda and livestream of the meeting:
Case No. 21-04 – a complaint filed by the NGCB in September against Station Casinos and Red Rock – appeared under Section V of the meeting’s agenda. The complaint said that in June 2018, the station acquired funds and wrote 35 bets covering five events via the mobile sports betting app, Stadium Live, after the results were determined.
according to CDC Games ReportsThe station did not acknowledge or deny the allegations of NGCB. However, Station Casinos’ attorney, Marc Rubinstein, said his client settled the case “for disturbing value, because litigation would be costly”.
The Blame Game
The station admitted Thursday that it had failed to maintain its virtual servers on which the Stadium Platform runs the mobile sports betting app.
NGCB’s senior deputy attorney general, John Michaela, decided that the station should have redundant monitoring to prevent post-match betting problems from recurring.
The Station’s attorney responded that other game license holders have encountered similar problems and that “the organizers are not holding the stadium accountable for a software flaw.” He stressed that the station is in the process of replacing the wrong program and moving away “from the stadium as soon as possible.”
Rubinstein said the station had to live with the uncertainty that the fault could recur, which the attorney said occurred in January through March 2022. He also referred to a stadium that confirmed that the March repeat “impacted multiple licenses and not just the station.”
Rubinstein fired a clincher shot, adding that NGCB should have, to some extent, used its relationship with the stadium “to come up with a better remedy”.
The old opponent has another bob
The NGC meeting was also attended, of course, by the station’s old opponent, the Culinary Union.
Comprehensive investigation at the station
In the public comments section, union member Zachary Poppel asked NGCB to conduct a thorough investigation of the Station regarding matters beyond just its servers. Poppel called on the authority to investigate “the game’s licensees’ ability to tell the truth and investigate how it was done.” [Station] Regarding the law.”
The $80,000 terminal fine is low compared to other penalties. Michela cited other post-match betting incidents related to CG Technology. The former Nevada operator received a fine of $1.5 million in 2016 and $1.75 million in 2018.
