The seriousness with which Massachusetts views proxy sports betting was on display again Wednesday, as the head of the state’s gaming commission told a Congressional subcommittee that it is illegal in the commonwealth and may be used to skirt age restrictions.
- Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Jordan Maynard says proxy betting is illegal and could allow underage individuals to bypass gambling age restrictions.
- The commission is investigating Bill Simmons for allegedly placing more than $20,000 in FanDuel proxy bets through an acquaintance in Massachusetts.
- Potential penalties include fines for sportsbooks that fail to prevent proxy betting and bans on individuals involved.
Those comments, made by Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chair Jordan Maynard to the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, followed the MGC voting last week to hold an adjudicatory hearing for a proxy betting matter involving Bill Simmons.
According to the commission, the California-based Simmons allegedly made more than $20,000 in proxy bets with FanDuel in Massachusetts using an acquaintance who was physically present in the state.
A “preliminary review” of the matter has been done by MGC staff, which will investigate further before the issue comes back before the commission at a later date.
Chair Jordan Maynard will testify before Congress tomorrow, Wednesday, November 11, about the Commission’s efforts to protect young people from the risks of sports wagering. More information on the hearing can be found here: https://t.co/DX9ct7uRKD
— Mass Gaming Commission (@MassGamingComm) November 10, 2026
What Maynard was doing Wednesday was testifying to the subcommittee for its hearing on "The Rise of Sports Gambling on College Campuses.”
And, in the MGC’s eyes, proxy wagering could be contributing to underage gambling. Maynard told the subcommittee that Massachusetts requires its bettors to be 21 or older, but that young people “still find ways to bet.”
“Some use a parent, a sibling, or an older friend's account, and this is known as proxy wagering,” Maynard said. “It's not harmless; it's illegal.”
The proxy betting issue wasn’t explored much further on Wednesday, but the MGC is set to dive deeper into the subject.
Specifically, commissioners have said they want more information about how FanDuel handled the Simmons situation, and enforcement staff have said they haven’t ruled out any outcomes yet.
What are you gonna do about it?
So what could Massachusetts possibly do about proxy betting? The short answer might be: fines and bans.
The Massachusetts sports betting law explicitly states that operators “shall employ commercially reasonable methods to ... prohibit persons from placing wagers as agents or proxies for others.”
That same law says the MGC may “assess a civil administrative penalty” on a sportsbook operator that fails to comply with the law, house rules, or the commission’s regulations. It also says the MGC or an operator can ban anyone from sports betting under the state’s rules.
Soooo the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is going to get a presentation today about the Bill Simmons proxy thing. According to a memo to commissioners, "FanDuel reported that the matter involved 22 wagers with a total handle of $21,800." https://t.co/ZfPuQwIHwb
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) November 5, 2026
Those rules say that the commission can ban someone from sports betting (“an individual may be placed on the exclusion list”) if they have “violated or conspired to violate” the wagering law or if their betting “presents the potential of injurious threat to the interests of the Commonwealth,” among other things.
Moreover, an online sportsbook's internal controls must include ways to prevent a “prohibited person” from placing a sports bet, and those prohibited persons can include “any individual placing Sports Wagers as agents or proxies for others.”
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For its part, FanDuel said it reported the matter to the MGC, voided the bets, and took action against the account.
Any additional enforcement measures could be further fleshed out as the MGC continues to dig into proxy betting. At a minimum, the MGC could let the public know more clearly and loudly about how the state views proxy wagering.
“I've been a little disturbed by the lack of full appreciation, I think, in general to the fact that it's illegal,” MGC Commissioner Eileen O’Brien said last week.
