Rush Street Interactive Fined $30k for Underage Gambling

Rush Street Interactive (RSI), a Chicago-based online gaming operator, has been fined by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE)…

…for allowing underage bettors to gamble online.

The company has received a $30k fine, which makes it the first online gambling operator in the US to be fined for such a thing.

New Jersey Law

This was officially the first time that something like this managed to slip past New Jersey’s online gatekeepers.

The financial penalty has been issued because New Jersey law states that individuals must be 21 or above to gamble online.

On January 7th, the gambling regulators issued a statement saying that RSI would be fined for allowing around 13 individuals aged 18-20 to open s…

…and place their gambling bets on the PlaySugarHouse.com website operated by RSI’s parent company, Rush Street Gaming.

The underage individuals placed around $5000 worth of bets during a period of time from November 2016 to January 2018, before illegal actions were finally noticed.

A Website Glitch

Actually, it was revealed that the underage bettors were able to use cash deposits and bonuses from the online casino due to a defect in RSI’s software. The problem is that the website did not request a specific birth date…

…but allowed a three-year variation which the underage gamblers used in their favor.

“As soon as our team discovered the misconfiguration, we self-reported it to the gaming commission and took immediate action to correct and prevent recurrence,” RSI management said in an official statement.

“Responsible gaming is a top priority for us,” management added.

RSI stated that they weren’t aware of this glitch and that they accidentally found out about it in January 2018, after which the company reported it to the regulatory division on their own.

The company’s management team also stated that the matter was taken very seriously and that the issue was promptly resolved.

Newly Regulated Market

After the official legalization of sports betting in 2018, New Jersey has gone through an extremely lucrative period. This Northeastern US state has gained over $1 billion in gross revenue from sports betting and online gambling in the past year. Statistics say that the government gained $52.3 million in 2018 alone just through online gambling.

“New Jersey’s sportsbooks are in a position to generate a $100 million handle from just that single game, which is the most significant single sports-betting event in the U.S.,” said Dustin Gouker, lead sports betting analyst.

A Word on RSI

Rush Street Interactive currently operates a regulated iGaming platform in New Jersey and is well-positioned to capitalize on emerging market opportunities.

The company operates innovative social casino sites, including ones that are closely integrated with land-based casino businesses.

RSI became the first US gaming company to launch a regulated online sportsbook in Colombia in June of 2018.

Source:

“Rush Street fined $30k for underage NJ online gambling”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, January 24, 2019.