Iowa Fines FanDuel For Offering Illegal Bets
Jesse M. Cox Published 05/08/2026
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission (IRGC) has fined FanDuel Sportsbook $95,000 for two counts of accepting wagers on unapproved sports events. The illegal bets involved events from the recent FIFA World Cup and from Asian basketball games. It's the second time that FanDuel has been fined by the IRGC for gambling violations in the state. Last month, FanDuel was hit with a $125,000 fine for offering illegal bets on the Super Bowl, golf tournaments and soccer matches. This fine also involved violations of state responsible gambling requirements.
FanDuel has also been fined for violations of state gambling regulations in Massachusetts and Ontario, Canada.
The IRGC worries that FanDuel isn't getting the message
The necessity to level a second round of fines has IRGC officials wondering what it's going to take to get FanDuel to follow state gambling regulations. It was just a month earlier that the sportsbook was fined for similar violations of the state's gambling rules.
Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission administrator Tina Eick admitted that the state regulators felt it was necessary to deliver a punishing fine to convince FanDuel that they are serious about enforcing the rules.
“FanDuel had previous violations, unfortunately, in both of those areas," Eick said in an interview with Radio Iowa. "And the commission wanted to send a strong message that they take those compliance issues very seriously. And so they issued the $95,000 fine."
At the time of the first fine, FanDuel appeared to express proper contrition and an understanding of the violations it had committed.
“We take responsibility for the matters represented in the settlement before the Commission today and understand that we did not meet the high standard that we hold for ourselves,” Radio Iowa reported FanDuel spokesperson Ben Roth saying in the meeting. The company promised that it would increase training, provide more detailed checklists and runbooks for the deployment of content and automation wherever possible to avoid the potential for further manual error.
The majority of Iowa violations involved prop betting
Most of the fines levied against FanDuel involve prop betting. Iowa's gambling regulations are more restrictive about the types of prop bets permitted than those of other states with legal and regulated sports betting.
“Particularly wagers that are determinable by one player in one play," Eick said. "Those just are integrity issues and have the potential for manipulation, and so we steer clear of those. But beyond those, things involving referees and the calls that they make are also off limits.”
Bets were accepted on yellow and red cards issued by referees at the World Cup, which were part of the violations for which FanDuel was fined.
There is also a prohibition against wagering on minor-league games in Iowa sports betting. FanDuel also ran afoul of this prohibition.
“You can’t wager on decisions made by an umpire or referee in the state, and so one of their counts involved a case where they offered wagers on yellow and red cards in soccer,' Eick said "And then another count involved offering a league that was not authorized. In this particular case, it happened to be Filipino basketball.”
Multiple previous fines were levied against FanDuel
In July, along with the Super Bowl, golf and soccer violations, FanDuel was also receiving a $30,000 fine. This amount was for not having working options available for responsible gaming.
FanDuel was receiving a $15,000 fine in Massachusetts for allowing ineligible bets. Ontario was hitting FanDuel with a $35,000 fine. This was for accepting hundreds of bets on a Czech table tennis league that integrity agencies were flagging for match-fixing.
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