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SportsTranscript
00:00Let's let's get let's get to Bovada.
00:05Bovada is a company for those of you who are unfamiliar that was very popular in the gray market black market in the United States prior to the legalization of sports betting.
00:16I have been one that's been pretty cynical about the idea that states would ask Bovada to leave and not operate in their state because again if they're operating illegally and still doing it for years.
00:26Why would they even listen but I've been wrong Pat.
00:29I've been wrong about this.
00:30Massachusetts is the next state that's asking Bovada to bail out of their state and they seem to be complying with this which to me is very surprising because they've taken so many risks being offshore all of these years and I and I wonder how the risk has changed for them now.
00:47You know and it is an interesting question because yeah what kind of power do these states have to actually say whoa you can't operate here and control what's going on where they're based.
00:57But yeah sure enough Massachusetts is the latest state to send a cease and desist letter to Bovada and I guess to your I mean this is something we've been talking about all summer is a lot of states starting with my state of Michigan has sent a cease and desist letter
01:12to Bovada saying hey you're not legal.
01:15Let's you got to stop.
01:18And there were a few notes in the letter from the Attorney General in Massachusetts, including that it's in violation of multiple laws in Massachusetts, including saying they're based in the US they're in America's number one sports book.
01:34You know they say they're misleading consumers in that sense.
01:37And sure enough I mean Bovada for some reason, to your point, has been listening to these states and saying, nope, we're out there up to, I think it was before the Michigan cease and desist earlier this summer.
01:51They were restricted in about three markets I think it was in the US now that's up to 14 markets. And that's, I mean, to your point there's they're shutting down and saying okay this isn't for us.
02:01There certainly is something behind the weight of these regulators.
02:05And this is something that's been kind of snowballing the last couple of years you know we saw the American Gaming Association in 2022 say asked the Department of Justice to help crack down on offshore sports books.
02:19Then last year we saw a group of regulators send a letter to the Department of Justice saying let's crack down on this. We haven't yet seen the federal government really come into it like they have with some other industries in the past but it certainly seems to be working at this point at least for Bovada.
02:37You're seeing some action on other operators by states, you know, Michigan is kind of the lead here because Governor Whitmer gave earmarked quite a bit of money last year for the Michigan regulators to kind of combat offshore and illegal gaming.
02:51And so they've been really active they sent another four or five cease and desist letters last week to operators that aren't licensed in the state saying hey you got to stop.
03:02And so far they've been listening to the Michigan regulators and kind of cascading to other operators so it's, you know, something to watch but Massachusetts just the latest and I would expect more to come.