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MGM Springfield has been fined $25,000 after Massachusetts regulators found that the casino briefly offered wagers on a 2025 Northeastern University men’s baseball game, despite state restrictions on betting involving college teams.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission approved the penalty at a meeting earlier this month. Investigators said wagering on the game was available for approximately two hours before a gaming agent discovered the issue, according to a recording of the meeting.
No wagers on the Northeastern game were accepted, said Diandra Franks, the commission’s enforcement counsel. Franks said MGM cooperated with the investigation and was “in agreement” with the recommended penalty.
Massachusetts law prohibits betting on collegiate sports teams unless those teams are participating in national tournaments. The prohibited market involved Northeastern’s April 5 matchup against Campbell University in North Carolina, the second game of a three-game road series. Northeastern won 8–1, with starter Aiven Cabral, a Lynn native and Atlanta Braves draft pick, pitching 6.2 innings.
The penalty follows earlier enforcement actions against MGM Springfield for improper college sports wagering. In 2024, the casino was fined $47,500 for accepting wagers on two college basketball games in 2023 involving Northeastern and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, respectively.
The year before, the casino was penalized $20,000 after offering wagers on two Harvard University men’s basketball games. Regulators said in that decision that BetMGM, the casino’s vendor, had erroneously designated Harvard as being in Connecticut.
State regulators also fined Fanatics in November for taking wagers on a 2024 Boston College football game against Michigan State. According to a recording of the meeting, the sportsbook accepted 83 wagers totaling $3,325 over several days after an employee erroneously disabled limits on the game.
The commission fined Fanatics $20,000, though at least one commissioner said the penalty should have been harsher.
“I’m not satisfied with the fine,” said Eileen O’Brien, pointing out the company’s history of offenses. “I think only going up $5,000 each time they do this is not much of a deterrent on the operator. Hearing that someone who made a mistake loses their job is …[putting] the risk on the employee and not the company.”
“Three times in a couple of years with a smack on the wrist, I think there needs to be more done to make sure this doesn’t continue,” she added.