On Tuesday (18 June) morning the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) continued to refine its rules, approving a change to its advertising and promotional rules and expanding the scope of what integrity monitors may do. At about the same time, Michigan regulators said they weren't "trying to shut down" amusement businesses.
Both of Ohio’s amended rules must still go through the state’s Common-Sense Initiative office and the legislative Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review. The proposals would go before the OCCC again later this year before final approval.
In Ohio, which already has some of the most stringent advertising and marketing rules, the OCCC voted to ban gambling companies from offering promotions as part of a “non-gaming, consumer transaction”. The prohibition would apply to consumers under the age of 21, the legal age for gambling.
This would mean, for example, that a company like Fanatics Sportsbook could not offer promotions to a high-school aged customer buying team merchandise. The rule would further ban the offering of promotions to anyone on a voluntary or non-voluntary exclusion list, those with a gambling problem, or any other “vulnerable individuals”.
Regulators in Massachusetts are considering a similar change to their rules.
Expanding integrity monitoring also being considered
The Ohio regulator is also moving toward expanding what it requires with regard to integrity monitoring. Under the current regulation, integrity monitors must key in on “unusual” or “suspicious” gaming activity.
The amended rule requires that independent integrity monitors “collect and analyse information to identify integrity concerns”. In essence, rather than flagging unusual or suspicious activity, the integrity monitor should be seeking to identify such behaviour.
Among the issues discussed around the integrity monitoring rule change were how to create situations in which athletes could anonymously report concerns. In addition, the Ohio regulator is hoping the new framework will allow whistleblowers to safely flag concerns.
How the information would shared will be at the discretion of the OCCC executive director.
Michigan: No “trying to shut down” Dave & Busters
At the Michigan Gaming Control Board’s (MGCB) monthly meeting on Tuesday, director Henry Williams urged participants to stop suggesting that the board was “trying to shut down businesses like Chuck E Cheese and Dave & Busters”.
Williams was referring to the MGCB’s recently expressed “serious concern” over Dave & Busters’ plan to allow customers of legal age to wager against friends when playing the venue’s games.
The adult amusement company is considering allowing loyalty members over the age of 18 to bet against each other via its app. Users would be able to put real money into a peer-to-peer betting environment developed by gamification software company Lucra.
Nevada regulators have already told Dave & Busters such betting is not allowed. Illinois lawmakers considered a similar prohibition, but the proposal did not get to a final vote before the session ended.
Nicole Macedo contributed to this report.
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