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Yikes!
SBC's Jessica Welman tweeted out late Thursday that BetMGM email blasted a bunch of minors in Massachusetts recently.
"Oops. BetMGM accidentally emailed 3,803 underage people over the course of a year in Massachusetts. That number may be higher because the app doesn't know the birthdays of recipients of another 37,000 emails it sent."
Oops. BetMGM accidentally emailed 3,803 underage people over the course of a year in Massachusetts. That number may be higher because the app doesn't know the birthdays of recipients of another 37,000 emails it sent.
— Jessica Welman (@jesswelman) February 12, 2026
The news emerged during a hearing set by the The Massachusetts Gaming Commission Thursday morning.
From Robert Linnehan - Regulatory Writer and Editor at Sportradar:
"BetMGM reported that 3,803 individuals under the age of 21, 19 individuals on the voluntary self-exclusion list, and 25 in a cool-off period received marketing communications through a third-party over eight dates between April 10, 2024, and July 25, 2025.
"This will be coming back to the MGC as an adjudicatory hearing. Commissioner Eileen O'Brien pointed to the disturbing scope and size of the error as reasoning enough for an adjudicatory hearing.
"Adjudicatory hearing unanimously approved.."
This news comes as investigations show thousands of minors are accessing betting apps through shared accounts, false identities, or unauthorized device access despite age-verification systems, according to RG.
From their findings:
Data from several states underscores the scale of the issue. In Massachusetts alone, thousands of attempted registrations by minors were blocked in a single year, while hundreds of accounts suspected of underage activity were suspended. Elsewhere, regulators have reported rising numbers of underage betting incidents, suggesting the problem is growing alongside the broader sports betting market.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
