Barstool Sportsbook agrees $12,500 Indiana RG settlement

Barstool Sports has agreed to pay penalties totalling $12,500 to the Indiana Gaming Commission (IGC) after Hoosier State regulators identified failings in its sportsbook policies.

The Penn Sports Interactive (PSI) subsidiary was censured on two counts relating to responsible gambling misconduct following its launch in the state in May 2021.

The first count relates to a lack of up-to-date responsible gambling information on the firm’s mobile sportsbook app and its so-called house rules documentation.

A further investigation by IGC found that terms and conditions documentation, house rules documentation and RG policy documents had yet to be produced despite the launch and as such, resultant links were not working.

This failure led to mobile app users accepting what were effectively blank terms and conditions. PSI later confirmed that 3,972 mobile users of the Barstool Sportsbook were affected.

IGC regulations require operators to clearly display house rules, either in a retail environment or online, with links to house rules included in all terms and conditions documentation.

Barstool’s second breach of Indiana codes related to the posting of a 12-second TikTok selfie video by a junior member of the firm’s social media team featuring comments on gambling losses to a social media channel not related to or controlled by Penn, PSI, or the Barstool Sportsbook.

The video was deleted by Barstool as soon as it was identified by a Barstool social media manager but was accessible on the site for more than 12 hours before it was removed.

However, a reduced version of the video was later reposted on Twitter via a third-party account.

The employee concerned was suspended without pay for a month, with all staff given a refresher course on responsible gambling 24 hours later.

The breach was reported to the IGC by Penn National Gaming VP and chief compliance officer Christopher Soriano as part of his role with the firm.

Indiana regulations state that sports betting operators must not advertise or distribute marketing materials which give a false or misleading view of sports betting.

This includes a liability clause for the actions of all employees, meaning that if an employee posts something non-compliant, the operator is liable.

As part of its settlement with the IGC, PSI has agreed to pay $5,000 for the first breach and $7,500 for the second.

The firm has also waived all rights to a judicial review of its conduct, on the condition that the IGC takes no further legal action in the case.