{"id":76391,"date":"2018-09-21T11:28:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T18:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=76391"},"modified":"2018-09-21T11:47:32","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T18:47:32","slug":"slippery-slope-not-paying-wager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/slippery-slope-not-paying-wager\/","title":{"rendered":"The Slippery Slope of Not Paying a Wager"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not far from the Lincoln Tunnel and just off the NJ Turnpike is the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Two NFL teams call this complex home. There is an arena in the Meadowlands as well as a harness racing track. However, what grabs your eye is a huge multi-colored slanted building known as American Dream. It\u2019s been in development for over 15 years and eventually when it opens it will be the first indoor ski slope in the Western Hemisphere. Over the course of this post I\u2019ll explain why this isn\u2019t the most slippery slope in the Meadowlands this week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Background<\/h5>\n

As you may have heard, a bettor placed an in-game wager at the FanDuel sports book on Sunday on Denver to win its game against Oakland as the Broncos trailed 19-17 late in the 4th<\/sup> quarter. FanDuel had offered a line of DEN +75000. The bettor wagered $110 at the betting counter and a clerk accepted the wager and printed the ticket. Denver kicked a Field Goal with :04 remaining and won the game 20-19. The bettor soon learned that FanDuel was refusing to honor the wager and instead offered him $500 and some tickets to a future NY Giants game.<\/p>\n

FanDuel claims that the line was an obvious pricing error and they don\u2019t have to pay lines they deem as being wrong. Two days later, after the story broke, FanDuel\u00a0said it was willing to pay the wager according to the line as it should have been posted. However, to add insult to injury, FanDuel claimed that the correct line should have been -600. The patron\u2019s $110 wager would win $18.35, not $82,500.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Slippery Slope<\/h5>\n

In general, the response to this story has been that this patron must have known that the line was completely off and was taking a shot. My opinion is that this isn\u2019t about a man taking a shot at a sports book; it’s about a sports book taking a shot at a man. A slippery slope is the perfect way to describe this situation. While the majority of people would feel that getting paid 750-to-1 on this wager is egregious, at what point does it become not so? Who decides where that line falls? Why should we let the sports books decide where the demarcation lies between value and mistake? If I make a wager for +150 and that same wager is available elsewhere for +100 will a sports book contend that its price was incorrect and refuse to pay me?<\/p>\n

Many have invoked the old slot machine adage that a malfunction voids all pays. However, sports wagering is different. A sports wager is a contract agreed to by two parties. A sports book lists available wagers. The patron offers to enter into a contract on an offered wager. The sports book accepts the wager and a contract is born. The most remarkable part of this story is that the patron placed this bet at the counter with a human clerk. Apparently, FanDuel has no checks in place to manually review wagers which have a large payout. If they do, someone failed to do their job. None of this was the fault of the patron.<\/p>\n

This was the promise of regulated legal sports wagering. We would no longer be subject to the whims of faceless offshore management. We would finally have rules, regulation, and recourse. No longer would justice be unbalanced when it came to sports wagering outside of Nevada. Proponents of legalized betting promised we could root this out of the sports wagering industry. There would finally be an ombudsman. In this case, the ombudsman is the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Do The Regulations Say?<\/h5>\n

In an effort to whisk sports wagering to the people, New Jersey approved emergency regulations to govern the industry. The temporary regulations should be approved sometime this fall, but in the meantime they’ve taken several steps to protect both the consumer and the operator. In this instance, the most relevant section is NJAC 13:69N-1.11(d):<\/p>\n

\u00a0A wagering operator shall not unilaterally rescind any wager pursuant to this chapter without the prior approval of the Division.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The chapter it is referring to presents the rules laid out by the NJDGE for who is permitted to make a legal wager. It would appear that by unilaterally rescinding the patron\u2019s wager, FanDuel has violated this stipulation. Furthermore, by not notifying the NJDGE and attempting to negotiate with the patron, it appears it committed a further violation. Meanwhile, in its house rules, FanDuel states they reserve the right to cancel a wager or change the pricing thereof. How could the NJDGE approve an operator’s house rules that are in direct contradiction to its own regulations?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is This Publicity Worth it to FanDuel and Betfair\/Paddy Power?<\/h5>\n

A key point lost in this debate of whether FanDuel should have to pay the wager is the negative publicity that FanDuel is generating. There are many people on social media saying that this is typical of the DFS company. They cite the pricing issues FanDuel had when it entered the sports betting market earlier this summer. They cite the high margins DFS players have had stacked against them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, FanDuel\u2019s parent company is Betfair\/Paddy Power. Paddy Power has never been one to miss out on generating positive publicity, sometimes at its own expense. For instance, in 2016 they famously paid all bettors who had Hillary Clinton to win the presidency days ahead of the actual election. When Trump won they paid Trump bettors too. It was a move that cost them a reported $4.5 million but generated worldwide publicity. It would seem that this is a perfect opportunity for Betfair\/Paddy Power to help reverse the tarnished image of their US-facing arm and generate good and powerful publicity by paying the wager.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Happens Next?<\/h5>\n

The NJDGE has stated that it is investigating this issue. It will be their job to decide if a sports book should be allowed to use a mispriced line as an excuse not to pay a wager. In doing that they\u2019ll need to decide at what point a mistake becomes a mistake. The NJDGE will also need to resolve how a sports book\u2019s house rules can circumvent the state\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n

It would seem that the NJDGE has the ability to put this entire industry on notice. To explain that this brave new world of legalized sports wagering is not a case of business as it\u2019s done elsewhere. That a ticket goes as written. A contract between two parties should be honored. Otherwise, they\u2019re perpetuating a slippery slope of unbalanced justice. This is a key time when other states are closely watching what happens in New Jersey. The fate of bettors across the country is actually at stake here. This is less about a single wager paying 750-to-1 and more about protecting future bettors betting against the odds.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not far from the Lincoln Tunnel and just off the NJ Turnpike is the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Two NFL teams call this complex home. There is an arena in the Meadowlands as well as a harness racing track. However, what grabs your eye is a huge multi-colored slanted building known as American Dream. It\u2019s been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":63070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[1861,1457,230,1859,1863,1862,1860,1458],"yoast_head":"\nThe Slippery Slope of Not Paying a Wager - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/slippery-slope-not-paying-wager\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Slippery Slope of Not Paying a Wager - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not far from the Lincoln Tunnel and just off the NJ Turnpike is the Meadowlands Sports Complex. 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