The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is investigating an apparent admission of proxy sports betting by Bill Simmons, the Boston-bred sportswriter and cultural critic.
Simmons lives in California, where sports betting is not legal.
On his podcast Sunday, Simmons laid out in detail why and how he recently asked the Massachusetts-based boyfriend of his daughter to place bets on Simmons’s Massachusetts FanDuel account.
Allowing another person access to a sports betting account, or proxy betting, is illegal in Massachusetts and is forbidden by FanDuel, which is a sponsor of Simmons’s The Ringer media platform.
“We are aware of that activity, it is sitting with the proper staff members in this building,” said Mass. Gaming Commission chair Jordan Maynard on Tuesday. “I am very careful — as chair of the commission, I have the power to hold hearings and so I don’t ever want to prejudge a matter that hasn’t come before me.
“I’m not trying to be cagey. It’s here at the commission. We’re aware of it, and we’ll take whatever actions we have to take.”
A FanDuel spokesperson said that in addition to voiding the bets, it also responded by “actioning the account,” a phrase that could mean that Simmons’s FanDuel account has been suspended or faces suspension.
“We became aware of the issue and handled it consistent with our terms and conditions and Massachusetts Gaming Commission regulations, including reporting the matter to the MGC, voiding the bets, and actioning the account,” read the FanDuel statement.
Asked to clarify what “actioning” could entail, the spokesperson said it is FanDuel’s policy not to comment on individual actions.
Asked for examples of what actions could be included, the spokesperson sent a link to MGC regulations.
The terms and conditions spell out, in part, that any registered sports bettor in Massachusetts is required to acknowledge that they are prohibited from allowing any other person to access or use their sports wagering account, and that unless there is a pending investigation, the sports betting operator can suspend or close any account.
The regulation also says an account “shall be suspended” when an operator has evidence that indicates “the patron has violated the account’s terms and conditions.”
Simmons addressed the issue on his podcast Tuesday night, saying it was a “lesson learned” for him, that he was unaware that “apparently” proxy betting is not allowed.
He added a joke that not only were his bets voided, but that his daughter will now have to break up with her boyfriend.
Simmons said he will be back in Boston and “maybe at some point I’ll make some more wagers down the road. There you go. Lesson learned.”
Here’s the full snippet of Simmons’s remarks: “I talked about how I got my daughter’s boyfriend to place some bets for me in Massachusetts because I was in LA. Did not know about the proxy rules. Yeah, there are some real rules with this stuff and they’ve ruled that not only are the bets going to be voided — and I learned my lesson, apparently proxy betting not allowed, I actually thought it was, but that’s fine — and now my daughter has to break up with her boyfriend, that was the other thing. No, I’m kidding, they’re going to stay together. But yeah, I did learn, not allowed to do that. So, all those bets went out the window, all that special time I had with Hank out the window, as well.
“The good news is I’m going to be in Boston and maybe at some point I’ll make some more wagers down the road. There you go. Lesson learned.”
Pending investigation, the boyfriend of Simmons’s daughter also could be placed on a prohibited bettors list in Massachusetts.
The Ringer podcast episode in which Simmons decided to detail his actions came out this past Sunday and was titled “The Annual AFC Over/Unders with Bill Simmons, Cousin Sal, and Joe House.”
After first saying he was not going to talk about some “moves” he had to make to place some bets a month ago, Simmons decided to talk:
“My daughter’s boyfriend, Hank, who’s a great kid, both turned 21 this summer, as did my daughter, and FanDuel is in Massachusetts obviously and there was a couple of bets I really wanted to get in,” said Simmons. “I wanted … there was UCLA overs, but Houston, the market had not shifted appropriately yet. I can’t have my daughter do it. My dad would have no idea how to do it. But Hank, I really trust Hank. I let Hank log into my FanDuel as me. I get the code to make sure it’s me to my phone. I give him the code. He logs in, and I have all this money that I had from last year because I actually hit a bunch of futures last year, and he’s putting in bets for me and, honestly, it was the closest I’ve ever felt to Hank. It’s a real bonding moment for us. A week later, called him up and ran it back. We did some more.”
Michael Silverman can be reached at michael.silverman@globe.com.