The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) has denied a request from DraftKings to void $934,147 that a user won from a series of parlays made during this year’s ALCS. The Boston-based operator said it mistakenly offered several “hit total wagers” for the same player during the MLB playoff series. The total handle was $12,950 across 27 bets.
lets the customer receive higher-than-usual odds without any additional risk
The customer created a single parlay wager for Nathan Lukes of the Toronto Blue Jays to record 5+, 6+, 7+, and 8+ hits in the series. DraftKings blames a configuration error during the market creation for mistakenly offering the bet. It usually doesn’t allow a selection on a player within the same market to be added to a parlay, as this lets the customer receive higher-than-usual odds without any additional risk.
DraftKings claimed that doing so was unfair to other patrons, and the customer knew what they were doing, noting that the payments that day were greater than the account’s lifetime deposits. The operator believes a relative of the customer in New Jersey placed a similar type of parlay the same day.
The payout had remained unsettled until DraftKings received regulatory guidance on the matter. The MGC had its last meeting of the year on Thursday and unanimously denied the operator’s request:
Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner Nakisha Skinner said that the error was a “cost of doing business,” and that in-house controls should have caught the mistake sooner. Commissioner Eileen O’Brien was even stronger with her comments, saying that she takes issue “with casting aspersions on a patron, calling them dishonest, making allegations about relatives.”
