No, I'm going over the top. It probably isn't a problem. But my comparison is I just don't see how your likelihood of getting paid is any more than posting up at the book itself. It just seems that an agent could easily walk with your money as much as the book could or run into any other myriad of problems and not pay you and I would argue it is higher than the book itself.
The advantage for large bettors of course is that they don't need to put up any money and can bet probably large sums of money on credit. That is where they think my line of thinking is nuts because they don't want to leave a large sum at the book. But the problem is you're in the same boat if the bets actually win. And I'll argue that your credit risk is far worse winning this way then just having the money at the book to begin with. You can sleep most nights until you actually win 30K and then you find out if you really get paid. When you're money is posted up I guess you don't sleep any nights because you're worried about the credit risk of your money sitting at the book if you won 30K (or deposited 30K so you could get the same action as you would with a credit account). In other words if you win big, that is when they get you anyway. And winning big can happen fast.
But once I'm owed 30K I want Pinnacle, Greek, etc. to owe me the money not some guy who is an "agent". My assumption here is that the bets are with the agent not with the book itself. If Pinnacle is A+ I have a hard time believing the Pinnacle agent is A+ that is for sure.
Obviously if you have confidence in your agent and they pay that is good. But correct what they're doing is illegal. I don't think you'll have any problem but if he gets busted, I have to think you don't get paid or there is a high chance you don't get paid. Bodog gets busted. You know what you might get paid IMO.
The offshore is risky of course but places like William Hill are public companies. Betting online is obviously legal in a few major countries. I don't think this activity is legal or illegal in Canada. I watch CFL games and bet365 is featured in the back of the end zone with advertising. You probably won't see that in an NFL game soon.
The scam sports books are another issue and they're obviously out there too. That is also an offshore problem but I'm not ready to group them with William Hill that is for sure.
