Ohio Senator Coley: Considering a Sports Betting Database

Ohio sports betting database

Ohio State Senator William “Bill” Coley made an appearance during a sports betting industry webinar that was hosted last week to discuss legislative developments in various states across the country. In addition to his role as an Ohio legislator, Senator Coley also serves as the president of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS).

During his segment, Senator Coley discussed a range of issues related to the types of betting products that can be offered and the effects of tax rates on illegal gambling. He also pitched the creation of an Ohio sports betting database designed to track every wager placed with licensed operators. This data would then be used to detect money laundering, problem gambling and other criminal activity.

The following is taken from my personal notes of the webinar, which were rushed in an effort to keep up with the conversation. I was unable to transcribe his comments perfectly, but I was able to follow the general gist of what Senator Coley envisions for his database proposal.

Sports Betting Database to Combat Problem Gambling and Criminal Activity

In short, Senator Coley advocated the construction of a “data portal” that would be used to track all information about every bet placed throughout the state. All bets would be funneled through this portal to track the who, what, when, where and how much associated with every wager.

This portal, he said, would “scare the bejeezus” out of anyone attempting to launder money or engage in match fixing. The database would leverage massive amounts of data in order to identify or assist with:

  • Problem gambling
  • Money laundering
  • Consumer protections
  • Sports integrity
  • Tax collection

He also said the portal would be able to track the lifetime bets of an individual in order to detect any troubling patterns or unusual behaviors. He envisions the database as being able to collect information across multiple betting platforms and potentially even across state lines if he could convince legislators in other states to get on board.

Senator Coley believes such a database would aid in drawing connections between associates engages in a criminal conspiracy, even across state lines. Additionally, it could assist in identifying problem gamblers who spread their action across multiple sportsbooks.

The senator used two examples, one from the real world and one theoretical, to show how the database could be put to use.

In the first example, Senator Coley explained that he spoke with Sportradar about the work they did in a 2016 Senegal vs. South Africa World Cup qualifier match. In that match, Sportradar and other integrity monitoring agencies notified FIFA that they had detected suspicious betting patterns during the match.

These unusual betting patterns, combined with outrageous decisions made by the referee in charge of the match, led to the referee receiving a lifetime ban and the match being replayed. The replay of the match in turn led to a change in who got into the 2018 World Cup.

Senator Coley then used a theoretical example to further bolster his argument in favor of a central sports betting database. He said if you imagine a group of gamblers going around and routinely placing bets in the range of $10,000 at 15 different sportsbooks, it might not raise suspicions when they suddenly increase that bet to $20,000 at 15 different sportsbooks when the fix is in.

Without a central database, such activity may go unnoticed. A central database, however, would flag such betting patterns and spur regulators to give that particular game a closer look.

As far as funding goes, Senator Coley said he doesn’t necessarily believe sportsbooks should be forced to pay an integrity fee, but also that he doesn’t believe the cost should fall squarely on the leagues’ shoulders.

Coley also said the portal would be able to collect tax revenues from sports betting, which in turn could be used to support the regulatory structures in place and fund efforts to combat problem gambling. Senator Coley acknowledged that sports betting would not bring in a huge amount of tax revenues, but that we should ensure the state has enough money to support the portal and empower gaming regulators to go after illegal operators and those who frequent illegal operators.

Senator Coley reiterated the importance of convincing other regulators to join the database and empower it to work across state lines. Doing so, he said, would strengthen the value of the data in such a portal.

Senator Coley a Fan of Gambling Databases

This is not be the first time Senator Coley has advocated for a database in a gambling context. Back in 2013, he proposed requiring Ohio casinos, racinos and internet cafes to install facial recognition technology that would be used to compile a database of gamblers’ photos.

Senator Coley used a similar line of reasoning back then as well to support the 2013 proposal. At the time, he said it would combat money laundering and other criminal activity. Here’s what he said at the time:

“At all casinos, racinos and any place you can go in and buy chips and then cash them in later, we’re going to capture images of those people. If law enforcement is concerned that a person is engaged in money laundering, they can pull five years of data from a casino and look at it.”

Naturally, privacy-minded types were not enamored with the idea, comparing it to an Orwellian surveillance system mandated by the state. Others said the technology wasn’t fully there yet and that running photos of a face through a recognition system does not always return reliable results. This would add an increased expense as employees would be forced to sift through results manually.

Senator Coley’s surveillance proposal was stripped from the 2013 state budget and hasn’t been seen since. The idea of taking photos of every casino patron and storing them in a database was just too unpopular to pass outright. A digital database, while sure to be unpopular among privacy advocates, may prove less alarming to the general public.

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