The Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) approved a settlement agreement with Penn National Gaming, under which the company will pay $12,500 in fines to settle two responsible gaming missteps it made earlier this year.
In exchange for agreeing with the IGC’s findings and paying the fines, Penn avoids disciplinary action by the regulator. IGC ordered the settlement agreement on September 29.
Both charges levied by the IGC involve Barstool Sportsbook, which Penn’s parent company, Penn Sports Interactive (PSI), controls.
According to the settlement agreement, the first count Penn faced involved its planned launch of Barstool Sportsbook in mid-May.
On May 14, PSI’s vice president for compliance reportedly informed the IGC that the company planned to launch the sportsbook on May 18. The IGC’s director of sports wagering subsequently notified PSI that its responsible gaming page did not include verbiage required by state law. The PSI executive then followed up with the regulator to reveal that r*equired language for terms and conditions and house rules were also missing*.
An investigation by PSI found that final policy documents for the responsible gaming, terms and conditions and house rules had not been placed into production, creating a situation where 3,972 sportsbook users were prompted to agree to blank terms and conditions. The house rules were also blank because links were not working.
The IGC said that when PSI finally had the correct documentation deployed, all of the affected users were required to accept the terms and conditions the next time they logged into the sportsbook.
“Questionable” TikTok video also cited
A 12-second TikTok video was at the heart of the second count against Penn.
According to the IGC, on March 30, Penn’s vice president and chief compliance officer had informed regulators that a junior member of Barstool’s social media team had posted the video, which discussed gambling losses, on an official Barstool TikTok account. The IGC described the video as “questionable.”
Although the video was removed after Barstool’s social media manager became aware of its existence, it had been live for 12 hours. The video was subsequently clipped and shared by others on Twitter.
Company executives informed the IGC in May that the employee who posted the video was suspended without pay for one month, and that the entire company had received refresher training on responsible gaming. Penn also clarified that the video was a selfie posted to a Barstool social media channel, not to a channel related to or controlled by the company.
The IGC did not provide specifics over what state gaming laws were violated, but it did cite requirements that sports wagering operators not make false or misleading advertising over its sports wagering operations. Operators are also required to conspicuously display responsible gaming language on its website.
Penn agreed to pay a $5,000 fine to settle the former count and $7,500 to settle the latter.
The Barstool Sportsbook operates through the license of the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg. IRC data for August, the most recent month with figures available, shows the sportsbook had a handle of about $8.6 million and gross receipts of $347,000.
