The gaming fee pumped the brakes on sports activities betting simply because the physique tasked with regulating the state’s latest business started overview of the primary utility for a license.
You can blame it on Barstool Sports.
“We’re at a crossroads right now because of the information that is presented to us,” Gaming Commission Chair Kathy Judd-Stein stated.
The fee met Tuesday to think about the primary casino-based sports activities betting license utility of three they obtained final month.
That license utility overview, of a proposal by Plainridge Park Casino to start taking bets on skilled and a few school sports activities in late January, was met with stiff resistance by commissioners, after it got here to mild that the corporate which might function the sports activities betting platform on the Plainville on line casino, Penn Entertainment, lately purchased a controlling curiosity in Barstool Sports.
Commissioners had been involved particularly following reporting within the New York instances about Barstool’s founder, Dave Portnoy, his admitted previous drawback playing, and the impact his presence in promoting may need on a younger viewers.
Barstool logos have been utilized in Penn Entertainment promoting and on firm property since its buy final yr, commissioners famous, and its recognition with individuals beneath 21, who the fee is tasked with defending from gaming promoting, causes issues.
“Barstool Sports is the elephant in the room,” Commissioner Nakina Skinner stated.
Commissioners even famous that Penn Entertainment, when buying Barstool, disclosed that their affiliation with the corporate and Portnoy could have a unfavourable affect on their capability to do enterprise.
“None of the concerns we’re raising today are private in nature, you recognized them, Penn recognized them, and so that’s why I say we’re at a crossroads right now,” Judd-Stein stated.
Of explicit concern to commissioners was the Times’ reference to a go to Portnoy made in September to Knoxville, Tennessee, for a University of Tennessee soccer sport. Portnoy informed the gang he put “100 grand on Georgia.”
“I am focused on, and there are other issues and we know that, but I, like Commissioner (Eileen) O’Brien, am focused on not just the play at universities, but just the messaging around what I perceive to be the glorification of excessive gambling. I could be convinced, as I said, with data,” Judd-Stein stated. “How do we reconcile that with our programs?”
Commissioners ended the assembly in government session, the license utility nonetheless unapproved.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”
