Iowa Fines DraftKings And Two Casinos For Violating Regulations

• DraftKings was fined by the state of Iowa for failing to download new self-ban list information.
• The Rhythm City Casino was fined for not having working surveillance cameras.
• The Diamond Jo Casino was also fined for surveillance cameras.

DAVENPORT, Iowa – The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has dropped the hammer on several sports betting entities for violating state regulations.

The Hawkeye State has fined DraftKings sportsbook, the Rhythm City Casino, and the Diamond Jo Casino all for separate situations of violations.

The violations involved DraftKings being late to download new self-ban list information, and the retail casinos for having security camera malfunctions.

Sports Betting Fines

Legal sports betting in Iowa is taken extremely serious when it comes to its regulation rules and all operators must agree to and follow these regulations if they wish to operate in the Hawkeye State.

DraftKings was audited by the commission and from the audit, it was determined that the required self-ban list was indeed not uploaded within the seven day period. No one from the ban list signed up and played, however.

“DraftKings agreed to a stipulated agreement in the amount of five to 20-thousand dollars. The Commission reviewed the facts and set the penalty at $5,000,” said Brian Ohorilko, Racing and Gaming Commission administrator.

Following DraftKings, the Rhythm City Casino operating out of Davenport failed to have functional surveillance cameras in key areas for months due to system issues. This was in clear violation of regulations.

“There was an instance in November of 2018 — the facility started experiencing some surveillance system issues — there was a complete loss of coverage on January first of 2019,” said Ohorilko. “It did include critical areas of the facility. There was a second situation in February where there was the intermittent loss of critical areas for approximately four-and-a-half-hours. In that particular situation, the commission and DCI were not notified.”

The Rhythm City Casino was promptly fined $7,500 for the violation. Diamond Jo Casino also had a similar issue where camera outages. These were caused by a result of some upgrades being performed and a malfunction occurred.

The Diamond Jo Casino was spending approximately $750,000 which played a factor in the decision to fine the casino just $7,500. The fines were given out at a recent Racing and Gaming Commission meeting.

While legal sports betting in Iowa has been a major success, the regulation must be followed at all times. This is to ensure the legitimacy of sports betting and the safety of patrons.

News tags: Brian Ohorilko | Davenport | Diamond Jo Casino | DraftKings | Iowa | Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission | Rhythm City Casino