Move over, Chris Kattan, there’s a fresher Mango in town.
That town would be in Massachusetts, whose gaming commission was informed of sports wagering violations involving BetMGM and FanDuel’s handling of LPGA bets in the state during a public meeting Thursday. Between March 20, 2023, and May 14, 2024, BetMGM accepted 1,934 bets in Massachusetts on LPGA events, while FanDuel accepted 7,155 such wagers between March 23, 2023, and June 6, 2024.
The problem is, for whatever reason, LPGA events were not approved for wagering in Massachusetts until June 6, 2024, meaning all of the aforementioned bets were accepted illegally. Diandra Franks of the commission’s Investigation and Enforcements Bureau (IEB) reported that these thousands of illicit wagers were discovered in response to a May 15 email specifying that LPGA betting was not allowed at the time.
Hence, BetMGM and FanDuel are subject to punishment — including fines — for these oversights. That much was clear, but Commissioner Eileen O’Brien was curious as to what took the IEB so long to detect the malfeasance.
And that’s when Mango chimed in.
‘He Makes His Displeasure Known’
Mango is O’Brien’s cat. He has longish orange hair and is believed to be either a tabby, Maine Coon or some combination of both.
After O’Brien said she was “leaning toward” asking for an adjudicatory hearing to get to the bottom of the length of time it took for the IEB to discover BetMGM and FanDuel’s infractions, the IEB countered that it could provide an “autopsy” of how that all went down, along with its disciplinary recommendations, at an upcoming meeting.
At this, Mango — seated on the floor to O’Brien’s left in her home office (she was offsite and visible via livestream) — unleashed a guttural “meow.” And judging from an IEB staffer’s reaction, Mango is a known quantity around the Bay State halls of gambling justice.
“He makes his displeasure known,” O’Brien told Action Network after the meeting.
Despite Mango’s apparent unease, O’Brien and her fellow commissioners agreed to the IEB’s plan of action.
Later in the meeting, Mango climbed onto O’Brien’s lap. Clearly, the cat had made his peace with the commission's decision.
