Minnesota Man Avoids Prison in Proxy Gaming Case

A Minnesota man who ran a remote gambling scheme on social media has avoided a prison sentence after submitting a guilty plea. Instead, he received a fine and was placed on probation.

The Man Ran a Proxy Gaming Scheme

In 2023, Blake Carl Fitzgerald, 41, was accused of offering remote gambling via livestreaming on TikTok and Discord. According to an earlier criminal complaint, he placed bets on behalf of others at the Lake Casino & Resort and Treasure Island Casino in Minnesota and streamed the wagers.

The complaint said that Fitzgerald would call out a subscriber’s name during the stream, asking them to say which machine they’d like him to play. If he ran out of time, he would return his subscribers’ money.

Fitzgerald would charge a subscription fee of $5.99, which followers paid through CashApp and Venmo. He was said to have received some $65,000+ from his followers. In addition, he would keep more than half of the winnings.

An anonymous complaint eventually tipped the Minnesota Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division off about the scheme.

Fitzgerald Avoids Prison

Fitzgerald was originally charged with three counts of running an illegal gambling operation. This would have carried a sentence of up to three years in prison and potentially thousands of dollars in fines.

However, Bring Me The News reported that, per the terms of his guilty plea, Fitzgerald will only serve two years of supervised probation and will have to pay a $488 fine.

Bring Me The News also reported that Christopher Mattison, Fitzgerald’s brother, served as an accomplice and was also given probation time and a fine.

Fitzgerald was also banned from the Lake Casino & Resort and Treasure Island Casino, and the Mystic Lake Casino where he operated an earlier scheme. Both Fitzgerald and Mattison received additional probation time for that case too.

Minnesota Considers Giving Sports Betting a Chance

In the meantime, Minnesota lawmakers are considering launching a sports betting framework that would allow the state’s 11 Native American tribes to offer retail and online wagering products. The North Star State is one of the few US jurisdictions that have yet to legalize wagering.

Since talks about sports betting have been all the rage in the state, officials are also exploring how the vertical can contribute to social harm. Some have expressed concerns about problem gambling and the harm betting can cause to more vulnerable groups.