Bitcoin Forum

On April 22, the largest poker site in the world was slapped with the highest sports betting fine ever sanctioned by New Jersey.

PokerStars, the operator of the sportsbook BetStars NJ, was asked to pay $10,000 — an amount way higher than what used to be the biggest sports betting fine in NJ which was $2,000. The sanction was given after the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement found out that the bookmaker accepted over 200 wagers on sports which the state law prohibits from being included in the events that sportsbooks offer to punters for betting.

Full story: POKERSTARS FINED $10,000 FOR TAKING COLLEGIATE SPORTS BETS (https://www.bitcoinsportsbetting.co.uk/news/porkerstars-fined-10000/)

The whole story.

"The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) has fined PokerStars operator The Stars Group $10,000 (£7,690/€8,890) for accepting bets on basketball games featuring teams from two colleges in the state.

PokersStars processed a total of 216 bets on the game between New Jersey’s Rutgers University Scarlett Knights and the Eastern Michigan University Eagles in November of last year. In total, wagers on the game amounted to $2,657.89.

PokerStars, owned and operated by The Stars Group, also took a single wager on the game between New Jersey’s Monmouth University Hawks and the University of Pennsylvania Quakers in January of this year. The NJDGE did not disclose the value of this bet. However, New Jersey's gambling regulations prohibit licensees from offering bets on sports involving teams from colleges or universities located in the state.

PokerStars has acknowledged that it was in breach of state law and has refunded all of the bets that were placed in New Jersey on both games. The operator has also accepted the fine of $10,000 as issued by the NJDGE.

PokerStars is the latest licensed operator to face a fine for breaching gambling laws in New Jersey. Last month, GVC Holdings-owned bwin.party was fined $81,000 for allowing self-excluded players to gamble via its online platform in the state.

In January, Rush Street Interactive was also fined $30,000 for allowing minors to access its igaming services, becoming the first operator to face a punishment for this offence in New Jersey."

https://www.igamingbusiness.com/news/pokerstars-fined-over-college-betting-new-jersey

---

It suits them well since they make a bet on a college basketball event and they know that it is prohibited in their state. This is a common mistake of each and every casino and sportsbook out there and yet they blindly forget about the law just to make some money.

What's $10K to PokerStars? It's like a small slap on the wrist. I expected a much bigger fine for such a large and prominent gambling business.

We should not focus at the amount of the fine, but it is more about the mistake made by PokerStars. It is very unprofessional behavior for such a big company like PokerStars, I'm just wondering why they did it.

Yup.  They're like only the leading poker site in world.  Lol.

Nothing to see here folks.  Move along.

Seems like NJ is the only state which prohibits such wagers which is why I find it surprising that PokerStars would do this. These fines were imposed on others too, but they were not as popular as PokerStars.

Rules are rules though at the end of the day.

The law is equal for everybody but although this is the biggest amount fined so far in NJ it is still a ridiculous amount of money for a company like Pokerstars.

This probably won't harm at all Pokerstars.I see that is the first time such amount is fined but it is still irrelevant to the gambling community.

Regulation is a still a rules every gambling industry must obey, if it does't pay its inevitably processed into a more severe legal section. You're right is a small amount for large companies with profits exceeding that as pokerstars, they will be more selective in select matches well from this incident pokerstars will comply more with all the rules that apply.

It’s a big fine but really in the grand scheme it’s nothing to them & they’ll pay it quite easily. Will a t as a warning against any further indiscretions though as a future fine may be even higher.

It's not always about the amount, it's about principle! If a certain company is being regulated under a certain law and if that company is violating that law, a penalty provision will always be there! Even though the law of 200 wagers literally makes no sense, but it's a law! Like in Indonesia, you can get death penalty if you musterbate. Doesn't make sense but it's a law!!

It is seriously funny how they are trying to make it look like its a punishment while they fully know that its nothing. Pokerstar probably makes that much money in just couple of minutes so punishing them for it isn't really repelling at all. They will continue doing so forever until they literally take all the money illegally and why would they after all they make more than that to begin with. I feel like if we can continue to increase these punishments like it went from 2 thousand to 10 thousand with the same mindset to 50 than 250 then more we can actually make it somehow dangerous for these websites to let people bet illegal.

I am not against illegal stuff when it comes to sportsbetting since we play that here all the time but when a big corporation doesn't follow the law and than gets punished only $10k it is just not even funny anymore.

There was a report done about a month ago while the march madness tournament was still going on for 60 minutes. They were saying these college basketball matches were not good for these large books to allow them to bet on simply because those players who do not get paid much to play in the games are enticed to throw a game when a large sum of money is involved. It has happened in the past and they prohibited it in new jersey and several other states in america to offer wagers on college games.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sports-betting-the-basics-60-minutes
But as it was mentioned before pokerstars fine doesnt mean anything to them and can afford to pay it without any thought. Because if they can pay neymar and usain bolt to do commercials for them then they have deep enough pockets to pay a $10k fine without any worries.

You called this the highest sports betting fine? Is $10,000  that big for the largest poker website in the world? I guess they can afford to pay, as they probably making way more than this on  a daily basis.

This situation will happen again and again. Not only for PokerStars but for small time poker companies. Money is the trigger why they go against the law. And if the law caught them, then it's a bad day for them but if not, betting goes on.  ;D Paying that amount is easy peasy as they can always get that money fast.

Most people replies on here do focus only on the amount of $10k.Yes,this isnt really that big and i dont consider as a slap for Pokerstars.This amount is just too small and can be handled on piece a cake.
The thing here is that they do go overboard on law which is really unprofessional for a known gambling company.

Just because of the 16 excess wager, they have been fined. Well, everyone is correct that this amount is a piece of cake to a giant poker company but they were fined because they did wrong and did something against the rule.

Yes, it is obvious that this amount isn't too high for them but they broke a rule.

$10,000 is just peanuts to PokerStars compared to the revenue that they get daily. I believe the New Jersey Department of Gaming Enforcement is just making a statement and showing to other gambling sites that they are monitoring all their moves PokerStars is just unlucky that there we're chosen to be an example.

That's the biggest fine in history of New Jersey as per OP though its not that high compare to other state but I think the sanctioned is just right for just a small mistake of PokerStars and i think this move can't really affect the market of PokerStars. It just happen that New Jersey are too strict on their rules and PokerStars have to strictly follow it from now on.

I agree. No matter how much they were fined, what's illegal is illegal. You know what PokerStars said when they were asked why it happened? They said it was just a technological mishap. Nothing like that could ever be believed as a mere accident. I think it was all intentional.

I don't think that is the highest sports betting, and I am sure that they get more than that and that amount is not too big for them and they can easily to give that money ;D
The gambling industry is using huge money, and we know that there is much big company can earn more than that amount.

I was just thinking how silly that is, typical government giving a fixed sum penalty.    This favours the largest entities over the smallest.   What really hurts and would scale for their operations is to miss a day of business out of the month.   Thats really going to sting for them and be alot more then 10,000 I imagine

This irritates me especially because every time I see a court fine handed out it reminds me of the time I got fined about a months income.   In nominal terms I was just slightly off the same figure they fine a national sports person for when they get reported for a fine in court.   They are supposed to adjust for personal circumstances but they do not.    Applies to taxes quite often also, the richest pay the least in percentage terms

Such a non-newsworthy item, looks like this particular news website is just publishing shit articles to bump up their statistics.
I mean they can't even spell Pokerstars right in their title... It says Porkerstars :P

I'd be embarrassed if I were the writer of an article like this.

It's been edited already, eternalgloom.

Anything that's illegal is news-worthy, btw, hence that news article.

That's right, the money is not that huge considering how much they've earned from this business, they can easily pay that and continue business,
regarding to that information with college betting which is prohibits from the said state, is that the only sanctions or there's other thing that they've need
to face aside from the $10K fine?

Yes to be forced to close down business a day or more in the area they committed their offense would have a much greater impact on a company than a small fine. Big companies don't care about a fine that they cut earn in a few minutes or a few hours of business.

Thanks for sharing this detailed information. What can I say? I am sure such popular sports betting websites have enough money to spend on good lawyers. They should have known bets in college sports are against the law. And while $10k sounds like a lot of money, it's probably close to nothing in comparison with the site's revenue.
It also seems from this story that it's not the biggest fine that was issued in New Jersey, contrary to what the op says.

PokerStars is an organization which makes a lot more than 10k.
This fine is nothing for them and they won't be affected at all. Fining PokerStars is just an action to throw ash in our eyes.

People arent that numb or naive to believe in their story about its a miss because no matter what angle you are trying to check or see it.Its purely intentional and only fools or crazy enough
would buy that kind of reasoning.

That's also my view, the fine is like advertising for the company, but it has a disadvantage too like they will have a bad record to the authorities in their area, it will just make pokerstar even more popular but if the case is all about cheating their players, now that's a different and big story.

$10,000 has been the biggest "sports betting"-related fine ever sanctioned by NJ, as in the report I shared: https://www.bitcoinsportsbetting.co.uk/news/porkerstars-fined-10000/. I believe that that $30k fine imposed upon Rush Street Interactive wasn't for sports betting. They were fined that amount because they allowed minor to place bets on the online casino games they have. I don't even think Rush Street offers sports betting services in NJ.

Although they have a bad record in their area, they can get an advantage in the other area because of the advertising will reach more customers and popular as both of you said.

I am sure that they will not try to cheat their players after they got the fine because that will only cause their reputation to become worst in the customers and they will lose their customers.

Besides that, I don't think that the fine will mean for the company since I am sure that they can make another profit their business especially if they can reach more gamblers to play their games.

Tend to agree here, except I'm not really sure I know how big PokerStars is in terms of their expertise. They probably have a legal advisor, a team for compliance even, but this could have been some rogue guy who thought it was a fun idea, who slipped it under the radar. Anyway, they can't tell what really happened and a technological mishap is perhaps the best answer (You sure they didn't say technical though? I wonder what technology caused the accident haha).

No publicity is bad publicity eh? This is Jersey!

If its illegal then it must be a higher fees and a possible suspension of their license. Regulator should investigate this one well or else there will be more possible cases like this. Who knows if PokerStars are doing a more suspicious thing. A gambling site like this should not ruin their reputation or else gamblers will have doubt on this site. 

This sounds more like a notification that the legal department have send. If they wanted to hurt them, they could, as this is not as serious crime (and easily fixable) in their opinion but they wanted to be heard.

I disagree that it's really newsworthy, but I might have been a little bit too rude about calling this publication a shit article.
Still, pretty big mistake to have in your title, just saying...

So it's just a warning sign that they are still under the jurisdictions and if ever they will not follow the rules they can be sue them and file a case
for them, the amount is not the basis the importance of following the rules should always be prevailed.,

If you know some gambling site that gives a $10,000 fine then put it here but so far that was the highest fine I've ever seen in the gambling casino history. They may pay that fines but i think there is a certain day that their sites will have to stop from an operation. So it's still a bad time for them since they were punished.

10K usd is relatively high to pay for a penalty but this is not about violating the regulations because it is all.about following the regulations.

I think it will not hurt for the business owners for they also earn a lot in this form of business so the penalty will just compromised on their earnings. This is why I have seen a lot of gambling sites, gambling locals that are operating because for sure there are lot of money circulating on this form of business.

It did say specifically that it' the highest betting fine only for the state of new jersey, so there should be larger fines probably in other states like nevada. But to also consider that this should be a grave offense, i agree that the fine is a little to lenient. A big gambling site like that can pay 10,000 every week without flinching lol.or they could just be thinking of sanctioning college sports in betting.