The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) has issued a combined $80,500 in civil administrative penalties to four licensed sports wagering operators following a round of enforcement actions relating to impermissible betting markets and unauthorised wager types.
The fines were approved following a series of hearings conducted by the MGC’s Investigations and Enforcement Bureau (IEB), which reviewed noncompliance with the state’s Sports Wagering Catalog — the official register of events and wager types licensed operators are permitted to offer in Massachusetts.
The operators penalised were FanDuel, BetMGM, Fanatics Betting and Gaming, and PENN Sports Interactive. Each was found to have accepted wagers on markets that were either prohibited under Massachusetts law or not included in the approved catalog.
FanDuel received a $5,000 penalty for accepting player proposition bets on a collegiate player in breach of Massachusetts restrictions on wagering on individual college athlete performances.
BetMGM was subject to two separate penalties. The first, amounting to $6,500, related to a player proposition bet accepted on a UNLV wide receiver during an October 2024 game. The second penalty — $15,000 — covered two incidents in which the operator accepted wagers on UFC fighter Petr Yan during periods falling between November 2024 and March 2025, in violation of Massachusetts catalog restrictions.
Fanatics Betting and Gaming received two penalties. A $7,500 fine was issued for accepting 36 wagers on the 2025 Heisman Trophy winner between January and March 2025, with the total betting handle on those wagers amounting to $545. A further $20,000 fine — the largest issued in the round of enforcement actions — was levied for accepting 154 bets on a UFC bout involving Petr Yan between July 4 and July 24, 2025, in violation of the approved sports wagering catalog.
All eight penalties were unanimously approved by the Commission.
In a separate matter, the MGC also confirmed it will hold an adjudicatory hearing regarding BetMGM’s transmission of promotional materials through the MLB Ballpark application at eight Boston Red Sox games between April 2024 and July 2025. Senior Enforcement Counsel Zac Mercer told commissioners that 96,167 emails were sent in connection with the promotion and that BetMGM subsequently confirmed that 3,803 of the recipients were under the age of 21 as of September 4, 2025, 19 recipients were on the state’s voluntary self-exclusion list, and 25 were in a “cool-off” status at the time of transmission. BetMGM was unable to verify the date of birth of a further 37,632 recipients. The company attributed the incident to an individual employee who failed to follow internal protocols regarding promotional activity. No penalty has yet been issued in that case pending the outcome of the hearing.
The enforcement actions follow earlier penalties in Massachusetts, including a $450,000 fine issued to DraftKings in 2025 for allowing customers to fund accounts using credit cards, which is prohibited under state law. Separately, Caesars Sportsbook is also subject to a pending adjudicatory hearing over allegations that it accepted 88 wagers funded by credit cards between October 15 and October 28, 2025, from 35 bettors totalling $1,256.