Lawmaker: DCI used Iowa Capitol to test tech for sports gambling probe

DES MOINES — An Iowa lawmaker says state investigators monitored mobile devices at the Iowa Capitol as they tested geofencing software before it was used to pinpoint online sports wagering by student-athletes on Iowa campuses.

During floor debate Wednesday on a spending bill providing funding to the Iowa Department of Public Safety and its Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), Rep. Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids, said it appears state investigators tested software on the Iowa Capitol before using it to monitor athletes at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University to see if they were using smartphone apps to place illegal sports bets.

Dozens of student-athletes at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University were investigated by the state for illegal sports betting in 2023.

In March 2024, prosecutors in Story County dropped charges against the Iowa State student-athletes because the prosecutors believed state investigators exceeded the permitted use of geofencing technology in their investigation.

The next month, 26 student-athletes sued the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation alleging their constitutional rights were violated by the investigation because it occurred without a warrant.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and assistant prosecutors, in a motion seeking to dismiss the case, argued the athletes had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the location data, which they “voluntarily” shared with third-party sportsbooks, and that no illegal search or seizure occurred.

Jones said the discovery of geofencing at the Iowa Capitol was revealed through filings in lawsuits by the former and current college student-athletes suing the state, DCI and other officials over the sports betting probe.

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Iowa lawmakers legalized online sports wagering in 2019. The law required online sportsbooks to monitor geolocation activity in order to reject bets attempted outside permitted boundaries. Gambling regulations also require monitoring to detect fraud and other suspicious wagering, which sportsbooks must report to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

To comply with these requirements, online sportsbooks use the services of a company called GeoComply. The company supplies a software tool that can render geolocation data viewable on a pindrop map. This viewable data is anonymized.

The sportsbooks notify their users through their user agreements, terms and conditions, or privacy policies that location data is monitored and may be shared for various reasons with third parties, the government, or law enforcement.

Iowa Department of Public Safety spokesperson Tawny Kruse did not refute Jones’ assertion. Kruse, in an email responding to questions from The Gazette, said “different geographical areas were used for demonstrative purposes only to plot anonymized datapoints” during the course of training on the platform provided by the geolocation vendor.

“At no point was any personally identifiable information accessed or used in any fashion,” Kruse said. “It merely showed the existence of an anonymized datapoint that indicated a sportsbook app had been opened.”

‘People are furious’

Jones expressed outrage over what she called a potential violation of privacy rights, and said DCI refused to answer questions during a Feb. 12 Senate subcommittee hearing on legislation to clarify in state law that sharing sports gambling accounts with other bettors is illegal, and that state law enforcement officials have the authority to investigate those alleged crimes.

“Last year we had issues with DCI doing warrantless geofencing on our dormitories, and I've heard rumors they also did a geofence on the Iowa Statehouse. Is that correct?” Sen. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, asked a DPS representative during the February hearing.

“I am not going to speak to that,” the DPS official said.

Jones said lawmakers asked for meetings with DPS officials, and were referred to the governor's office.

“People are furious,” she told reporters.

“I am not alone in my rage,” she said on the House floor. “… And what was the probable cause? I see none. This was a fishing expedition.”

Jones said she and other lawmakers have concerns about the culture in the Division of Criminal Investigation and emphasized the need for an in-depth analysis of DCI's activities to understand the full extent of their actions.

“One lawyer pulled me aside and said this is going to be potentially the biggest class-action lawsuit that this state has ever seen,” she told reporters. “And you guys see this building, right? There's a lot of people in this building at any given day.”

She said everyone who enters the Capitol should have an expectation of data privacy, and that would be violated if their phones were being monitored.

“This building is a place where people come to seek redress against their government, and people should be free to walk in the doors of this building and be free to speak their minds to their legislators and their government, and no one should feel that they are being spied on,” Jones told reporters. “… People should know when they walk in this door that their rights are protected, and never should there ever be a chilling effect on that right.”

Kruse, the DPS spokesperson, said the department “respectfully disagrees with those characterizations.”

Erin Murphy of The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.

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