Cantor's Sports-Bet Spinoff May Lose License Over Illegal Wagers

(Bloomberg) -- CG Technology, the sports book operator spun off from Cantor Fitzgerald LP, admitted it accepted illegal online bets from outside Nevada, putting the company’s state gambling license at risk.

The Nevada Casino Commission voted Thursday to reject an agreement under which the company agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and find a new technology provider. CG, which runs sports betting at the Venetian, the Cosmopolitan and other Las Vegas casinos, alerted officials when it learned of the violations.

The vote means that CG and its attorneys must go back to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, a separate regulatory body, and work out a new agreement. CG has been fined twice previously in unrelated cases, according to Tony Alamo, chairman of the commission, who said those violations were factors in the panel’s action.

“There’s some members of the commission, myself included, that feel they’re not worthy,” Alamo said in an interview. “Revocation is not off the table.”

Originally called Cantor Gaming, CG was founded by the well-known brokerage firm as a way to bring financial market expertise to sports betting. CG paid the largest fine in Nevada history, $5.5 million in 2014, tied to a federal illegal gambling investigation. Two years later, the company paid $1.5 million to settle complaints that customers were underpaid, a deal that led to the exit of then-Chief Executive Officer Lee Amaitis.

Cantor CEO Howard Lutnick and a family trust own almost all of the company, according to Nevada gaming records. A spokesman for CG declined to comment on the commission’s decision.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum

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