Last September, Caesars Entertainment got caught up in the sports gambling craze in New Jersey and became a little too excited. It allowed a few bets on college football games, an activity that is still prohibited in the state. Once the wagers were made known, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) swooped in to slap the company on the wrist (although it more than likely just felt like a feather) and new information has now surfaced related to the illegal wagers.
According to NJGamblingSites.com, information received through a public records request helps to build a timeline of events surrounding the bets. On November 20, the Deputy Attorney General of New Jersey, Jennifer K. Russo-Belles, sent a letter to Caesars, addressed to the company’s VP and Chief Counsel N. Lynne Hughes, that points to “numerous instances of noncompliance.”
Russo-Belles details how Caesars allowed gambling on a game between universities Rutgers and Kansas, stating, “While CIE’s [Caesars Interactive Entertainment] Las Vegas Trading Team noticed the game had been incorrectly loaded and removed it from availability within an hour of its posting; CIE’s New Jersey Trading Team did not. It was not until the division notified CIE’s New Jersey Trading Team on Sept. 14, 2018, four days later, that CIE voided the bet.”
However, the trading team for CIE Las Vegas “had failed to send out notifications when it discovered the illegal listing because it was unaware of New Jersey’s compliance standards.” That led to the manager of CIE’s hub operations, Jeff Davis, to send an internal memo to CIE staff in which he emphasized that it was “illegal to offer New Jersey collegiate games for sports betting.”
That should have been the end of the conversation, but it isn’t. Eight days later, CIE once again allowed gambling on a football game between Monmouth and Princeton on its SG OpenBet Platform. This was a double whammy for Caesars, as both colleges are in New Jersey and the competition also took place inside the state. Fortunately for Caesars, no wagers were collected during the 90 minutes that gambling was open.
When the NJDGE realized that Caesars had conducted a few transgressions, allowing gamblers to place wagers on college games, it wanted to make sure the company understood the severity of breaking the laws. It issued a fine to the casino giant, which reported net income in 2017 of $4.85 billion, that the company more than likely recuperated in less than two minutes. Caesars was ordered to hand over a paltry $2,000 to the NJDGE.
