11VAC5-70-230. Investigations; Reporting.

B. A regulated entity shall cooperate in good faith with an investigation conducted by the Director, a sports governing body, or a law enforcement agency.

C. A regulated entity shall provide or facilitate provision of account-level betting information and data files relating to individuals placing wagers and any other information necessary for investigations conducted by the Director or a law enforcement agency.

Comment: Subsection B lists three entities (Director, sports governing body, law enforcement) that are allowed to conduct investigations and require good faith responses by the permit holder. Whereas subsection C, D, and E of 11VAC5-70-230 do not grant investigative or regulatory powers to a “sports governing body”. To keep consistent, we ask that “sports governing body” be removed from subsection B. Granting sports governing bodies the authority to conduct investigations could lead to dual regulations/authorities and cause confusion as to which investigator has regulatory authority to investigate a permit holder. Lastly, two of the listed investigators in subsection B are state actors and the third is not a state actor but appears to be granted state-sponsored investigatory powers. If the Department wishes to grant some authority to sports governing bodies, we ask that the Director or law enforcement review, approve, and facilitate the request and exchange of information between the sports governing body and the permit holder.

K. A regulated entity shall promptly report information relating to conduct described in subdivision I. 2.- 4. above, to the relevant sports governing body and provide written notice of that communication to the Director.

Comment: We ask that the phrase “to the relevant sports governing body and provide written notice of that communication” be struck and replaced with “to the relevant integrity monitoring association”. We do not object to reporting information described in subdivision I. 2.-4. to the Director and, should the regulation require, to an integrity monitoring service provider; however, reporting the information to a sports governing body would create a regulatory duty that obfuscates the role and purpose of the integrity monitoring service provider and would lead to notices being sent to multiple organizations, one of which (sports governing body) is not required to be licensed by the Department. In addition, there appears to be no regulatory requirement, as there are for permit holders and licensees, that the sports governing bodies maintain confidentiality or limit the re-distribution of information.

M. If a sports governing body notifies the Director that real-time information sharing for wagers placed on its sporting events is necessary and desirable, and the Director determines in the Director’s sole discretion that real-time information sharing is necessary, a regulated entity shall share the same information with the sports governing body or its designee with respect to wagers on its sporting events. Such information may be provided in anonymized form and may be used by a sports governing body solely for integrity purposes.

Comment: We support this proposed regulation with the exception of the phrase “or its designee”. We ask that it be modified to “or its Director-approved designee”. We also request that the regulation state that the Director will limit the approvals to events and wagers that are limited in time, place, and manner and will not approve wholesale or continual requests of information that would be unduly burdensome on the industry or permit holder(s).