Massachusetts goes after Bovada in yet another blow to the website

Bovada must be feeling the ground shrinking underneath its feet, as a growing number of lawmakers, public servants and watchdogs are going after it in the United States.

The latest such move comes from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office which issued a cease-and-desist letter to Harp Media B.V. and Hove Media, the operators behind the Bovada brand, a highly regarded sports betting and gambling website, which nevertheless has no license to offer any of its products in the Bay State.

Bovada will have to leave yet another US state

This is the latest such move against Bovada, as the website has found itself under mounting pressure in multiple states. Most recently, the company was asked to fold operations in Michigan, Connecticut, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, along with Kansas, and Louisiana.

The inclusion of Massachusetts to this list means that the website has been ousted from 15 jurisdictions in the US alone. If previous experience is any indication, Bovada is going to comply quietly, swiftly changing the terms and conditions of its website without much fanfare to note that players from the Bay State would no longer be accepted.

The AG’s letter is dated October 3 and has a 14-day compliance period. The Attorney General’s Office has accused Bovada of violating state gaming and sports betting laws, as well as consumer protection laws.

"The letter demands Bovada immediately stop all of its services to users in Massachusetts and refund all such users in the form of US currency," the statement specifies.

The Attorney General’s Office has done its research indicating that Bovada has presented itself as a "legitimate American gambling operator" since 2011, but it has not in fact secured or sought a proper Massachusetts license.

Unlicensed operations coming under heavy criticism

The letter reminded that unlicensed operators were indeed a "substantial danger to consumers," because they failed to undergo the same rigorous screening processes as their licensed counterparts do. Bovada has not given any indication of what it intends to do as to its future operations, since the United States is one of its core markets.

However, one thing is clear – the time of reactive regulators is gone, and as gambling garners a more prominent place in public opinion, so are lawmakers, regulators, and enforcement agencies more likely to act against unlicensed websites.

In the meantime, the American gaming industry has been eyeing a popular form of entertainment, sweepstakes and social casinos, with a similar degree of suspicion. The American Gaming Association has gone so far as to claim that those companies were indeed operating an unlicensed form of gambling.

Image credit: Unsplash.com