Ontario Fines theScore Bet CA$200,000 Over Two Cash-Out Offers It Did Not Honour

Ontario's regulator has given theScore Bet the largest penalty it can impose for a single breach of its igaming standards, after a player accepted two cash-out offers on a CA$1,000 parlay and received neither. The ruling turns a cash-out figure on screen into something an operator must be able to pay.

• The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has issued a CA$200,000 monetary penalty, approximately $140,000, against Score Media and Gaming Inc., operator of theScore Bet, for cash-out offers that were not honoured
• A player who placed a CA$1,000 parlay on 14 March 2025 accepted a cash-out offer of about CA$380,000 and, four minutes later, one of almost CA$100,000; theScore honoured neither and the bet settled as a loss
• The Registrar found that neither offer was achievable as presented, which the AGCO treats as a breach of Standard 4.07, the rule that information shown to players must not mislead them
• CA$200,000 is the maximum the AGCO's schedule allows for an operator's breach of the Registrar's standards, and theScore can ask the Licence Appeal Tribunal for a hearing within 15 days
• It is theScore's second Ontario penalty in a year, after a CA$105,000 order in October 2025, and follows the CA$100,000 penalty on NorthStar Gaming in August

theScore Showed a Player Two Payouts It Would Not Pay

The AGCO announced on Tuesday 6 October that it had issued a CA$200,000 monetary penalty against Score Media and Gaming Inc., the PENN Entertainment subsidiary that operates theScore Bet, for "presenting cash-out offers that were not honoured", according to the regulator's news release.

The case turns on a single bet. On 14 March 2025, a player staked CA$1,000 on a multi-leg parlay covering NHL, NBA and NCAA basketball games played that day, with a potential payout of more than CA$1 million, approximately $700,000. After every leg but one had won, theScore offered the player a cash-out of approximately CA$380,000, about $267,000. The player accepted at once, but theScore rejected the transaction during automated verification after the odds changed, according to the AGCO.

Four minutes later theScore presented a second cash-out offer of almost CA$100,000. The player again accepted immediately, and that offer was not honoured either. The bet ultimately settled as a loss and the player received no payout, the regulator said.

The Registrar found that neither offer was achievable as presented. The AGCO cites Standard 4.07 of the Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming, which says information provided to players before and during play "shall not mislead players or misrepresent games" and, at a minimum, must not describe outcomes, prizes or features that are not achievable. In the release's formal wording, theScore is alleged to have failed to comply with that standard, contrary to section 3.8 of the Gaming Control Act, 1992.

"Operators have a responsibility to ensure that the gaming opportunities they present are accurate and can be honoured as described," said Dr Karin Schnarr, the AGCO's chief executive and registrar. "By imposing the maximum monetary penalty available, we are sending a clear message that these expectations are not optional."

A Maximum Penalty, and a Second Order in a Year

The figure is the ceiling. The AGCO's schedule of monetary penalties under the Gaming Control Act sets a maximum of CA$200,000 for an operator's failure to comply with the Registrar's standards under section 3.8(3). Larger totals have come from multiple breaches: in January the AGCO ordered FanDuel to pay CA$350,000 over failures under two standards on suspicious betting on Czech table tennis.

The release says an operator served with an Order of Monetary Penalty may request a hearing before the Licence Appeal Tribunal, part of Tribunals Ontario and independent of the AGCO, within 15 days. It does not say whether theScore has done so. The regulator also says its action is separate from any route the player has to resolve the individual dispute, and that operators remain responsible for handling complaints under Ontario and Canadian law. The AGCO does not say whether the player has been paid anything since.

This is the second penalty against theScore in a year. On 7 October 2025 the AGCO issued a CA$105,000 penalty over alleged responsible gambling failures involving a patron who wagered CA$2.5 million and lost approximately CA$230,000 over eight months, according to that release.

PENN describes theScore Bet as an online sportsbook operating in select US states and in Ontario, and rebranded its US sportsbook from ESPN Bet to theScore Bet after its agreement with ESPN ended on 1 December 2025, according to its annual report. PENN shares closed 5.36% higher at $15.91 on Tuesday, Gaming Intelligence reported.

A Cash-Out Figure Is Now a Promise, Not a Quote

The finding does not say operators must hold a price while odds move. It says that what the player sees must be achievable. theScore displayed a number, the player accepted it, and only then did a verification step the player could not see decide the offer no longer stood, twice in four minutes. Ontario's standards already list cash-out options among the things players must be told about under Standard 4.06, and Standard 4.25.1 requires bets to be settled fairly under the terms the player accepted. Other regulators approach the same problem from the bet itself: New Jersey's rules bar an operator from unilaterally rescinding a wager without the Division of Gaming Enforcement's prior approval, including wagers taken on trader or feed errors or wrongly posted odds. Ontario has reached a similar place through disclosure rules rather than settlement rules. For operators running in-play cash-out on parlays, the practical question is whether their acceptance logic can still reject a price the customer has already taken.

The Penalty Is Capped, and It Does Not Pay the Player

CA$200,000 is small against the CA$380,000 the player was first offered, and it goes to the regulator, not the customer: the AGCO says money from monetary penalties is used only for education, training and public awareness. That leaves the player's loss with theScore's complaints process and the courts, which the regulator expressly keeps separate. Schnarr's emphasis on "the maximum monetary penalty available" also shows the limit of the tool: a single breach of a single standard cannot cost more, whatever the sums at stake, in a market whose operators generated CA$396.3 million of gross gaming revenue in August alone, according to iGaming Ontario data. The AGCO's board guidelines list an operator's discipline history among the factors the Registrar weighs, and theScore now has two orders in 12 months, though the AGCO frames both as alleged breaches and the latest can still be taken to the tribunal.

Ontario has told its market that a cash-out button is a commitment, not an estimate. Whether that changes how operators build cash-out will depend less on a capped fine than on whether the next case escalates beyond one.