The Massachusetts Gaming Commission held an Open Meeting on 27 November where four operators presented their Q3 results within the state. The four operators involved were Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, Penn Entertainment and WynnBet, with a focus not only on Q3 revenue but staff diversity and underage platform access in the quarter.
The meeting was led by Massachusetts Gaming Chair Cathy Judd-Stein, with other Commissioners in attendance including Bradford Hill, Jordan Maynard and Eileen O’Brien.
Digital Compliance Manager Curtis Lane Jr began the meeting with the sports wagering Q3 2023 report from Caesars Sportsbook. Total revenue for sports betting in the quarter was $3m, a 19% decrease from the previous quarter.
The company then went on to explain its diversity goals for 2025, alongside the current diversity metrics in the company's staff. Caesars Sportsbook aims to have women in 50% of leadership roles by 2025 and 50% of leadership roles to be filled by people of colour.
Statistics from Q3 2023 showed that women held 27% of manager and supervisor roles at Caesars Sportsbook and 9% of executive roles. Minorities held 29% of executive roles and 38% of manager and supervisor roles, while veterans held 1% of executive roles and 2% of manager and supervisor roles.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts residents held no executive roles and 1.5% of manager and supervisor roles.
A similar story was told in the report given by DraftKings, which was led by Senior Director of Regulatory Operations Jake List. Q3 2023 revenue was $54.1m compared to last quarter's $75m, reflecting a decrease of 28%.
Caesars Sportsbook aims to have women in 50% of leadership roles by 2025 and 50% of leadership roles to be filled by people of colour
The company then went on to explain its diversity stats, showing that it had a staff made up of roughly 32% non-white individuals and 27% women. By 2025 the company has set its goal of having 40% non-white and 35% female employees, with women holding 25% of senior leadership roles.
When diving into DraftKings staff in Massachusetts specifically, women from the state held 33% of senior leadership positions and 30% of management positions. This is in contrast to non-white position holders from the state, with people of colour only holding 4% of senior leadership positions and 14% of manager positions.
Underage access and account suspension on the DraftKings platform was reported in five cases in Q3 2023, compared to a combined six from Q1 and Q2. List made specific note of the KYC methods employed by DraftKings such as multi-factor authentication and requested ID uploads, but also noted the challenge of monitoring bad parenting despite existing safety tools.
The third company to present to the Commission on Monday was Penn Entertainment. Led by Senior Director of Compliance Adam Kates, the presentation began with a breakdown of Q3 revenue, which totalled $1.8m with taxes collected from Massachusetts sports wagering at $357,337.
Massachusetts residents held 4.5% of Executive roles at WSI but accounted for less than 1% of the overall workforce
State residents made up 5% of total Penn Entertainment employees, with 4% holding non-manager positions and 7% holding management positions and above. Meanwhile, people of colour made up 40% of total staff, with 23% in management positions and above; while women made up 34% of the workforce, with 26% of management positions and above held by them.
For Penn, underage access to its platform was down 40% from last quarter, with three instances detected. The detection methods used included ID matching and payment method matching, with Kates saying that while these are “not a silver bullet,” he can “sleep well at night” because of them.
The meeting's final presentation was hosted by Jennifer Roberts of WynnBet. The revenue report stated that Q3 earnings were just under $2m, a 3% decrease from last quarter and a 7% decrease from Q1. This culminated in year-to-date state revenue of $6.1m.
Roberts called natural attrition and jurisdiction re-evaluation the reason for the slight dip in workforce diversity between Q1, Q2 and Q3 at WynnBet. In Q2, 41% of WSI employees were women and 56% were people of colour; however in Q3, this slipped to 38% and 50% respectively.
Massachusetts residents held 4.5% of Executive roles at WSI but accounted for less than 1% of the overall workforce.
Right now, he could create an account with his mother's details due to having knowledge of them, suggesting that minors may be able to do similar
Across all three quarters of 2023 so far, WynnBet reported no minor access found or detected on the SW platform. This was something brought up in the closing conversation by the Board following the presentations, with Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner Jordan Maynard voicing scepticism about minor access to the operator's platforms being zero or a single digit number.
The Commissioner used the example that, right now, he could create an account with his mother's details due to having knowledge of them, suggesting that minors may be able to do similar despite existing safeguards.
Commissioner Brad Hill noted the issue of underage betting being flagged by the meeting, feeling reassured by the reports but highlighting the need for operators to keep the issue as a top priority; while raising concerns regarding getting the message about underage gambling to high schoolers in the state.
