Why is it impossible to connect by phone with a sports book? I have a question about a Super Bowl prop. It's a yes-no answer. Is that too much to ask? But for some reason, the hotel operators simply refuse to connect me and won't say why. Why do they refuse?
The whole not-connecting-a-call-to-the-sports-book situation is a holdover from the old days. Back then, no calls could come in or go out for fear that sports-betting information would be transmitted over state lines, which was against federal law. The Wire Act, passed in 1961 during the John F. Kennedy administration, made it illegal to pass gambling information and instructions across state lines through the use of electronic wires, such as telephones.
But since the proliferation and ubiquity of cell phones and the end of PASPA in 2017, the rules have been relaxed. Apparently, however, many if not most casino PBX operators haven't gotten the memo.
That said, there are other reasons. First, the sports book office is usually treated as a specialized unit with limited direct lines to the public in order to manage to manage volume, much the same way that if you called and asked for the CEO or CFO, you probably won't be patched through. Second, public calls can complicate compliance procedures, such as verifying who is on the line, how old they are, and if they're on any self-exclusion lists.
Third, our guy in the sports books, Chris Andrews, director of sports betting at South Point and author of Then One Day and Then One Year, says it even happens to him when he calls other sports books. He tells us, "I've found that if you ask for whomever you’re looking for personally rather than the sports book in general, you have a better chance to get who you want."
Of course, that means knowing the name of someone, anyone, who works at a sports book that you can ask for.
An alternative might be making use of a chatbot from the big sports book platforms like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, or Circa Sports.
