The Illinois Gaming Board has looked into a recent dispute between a sports bettor who claimed to have rightfully turned $500 wagers into a $389,999 payout by betting on the Chicago Bulls versus the Indiana Pacers.
Honest Mistake Saves BetMGM from Paying Out $389K
The NBA clash would theoretically bring good fortune to the bettor, but none of this materialized after BetMGM informed the punter, one Mark Aiello from Chicago, that their payout had to be voided, with the original $500 returned to the player’s account.
BetMGM simply stated that it had made a mistake in offering the odds at which Aiello had placed his selections, and as such, the “obvious mistake” entitled the sportsbook to void the wagers and the subsequent payout. This was, the sportsbook said, as per its terms and conditions.
Naturally, Aiello took issue with the bookmaker and demanded that the regulator intervene and restore his winnings. No such thing happened, with the regulator accepting BetMGM’s argument and acknowledging that in such instances, “obvious” mistakes allowed for wagers to be cancelled.
In this case, the BetMGM trading team had placed odds at +17500, +25000, and then two other selections at +35000. The way this works is for every $100 placed, a person can expect to win the designated amount, i.e,. $17,500, $25,000, and $70,000 split between the two individual wagers.
The BetMGM team made their mistake shortly after the bets were placed, adjusting the odds to +1860, +2700, and for the last two bets, +3200 and +3600. Aiello himself had placed a four-leg parlay, which turned out to be a success.
However, this is not the regulator playing favors to an industry stakeholder. Instead, the regulator explained that all the mistakes were corrected prior to the game in question getting started, so that made the regulator side with the operator.
No Human Error Involved in the Lines Pricing, Says Regulator
Another important reason was that the regulator found no evidence of the BetMGM team making a human error that priced the odds incorrectly. Had this been the case, the sportsbook would have had to repay the bettor the full amount. However, the ruling was clear:
“This conclusion is corroborated by the fact that all meaningful actions BetMGM took to correct the error occurred prior to the commencement of the subject Bulls-Pacers game. Thus, all evidence is consistent with a good faith effort by BetMGM to correct the human error it made before the game.”