Limiting players’ betting limits is an issue that digital sportsbooks in the United States would prefer not to discuss, but a panel of professional sports bettors, including the iconic Billy Walters, spoke against the capricious rules of U.S. mobile sportsbooks and believes they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with arbitrarily limiting bettors.
What’s the Problem?
Before the age of online sportsbooks, old-time bookies used to open early for the wise guys and allow them to bet their sharp plays in the early evening before opening to the general public. This way the bookmaker could sharpen their lines, using the wise guys’ early bets as a kind of world-class handicapping service without having to pay upfront for the information.
The wise guys don’t always win of course, but permitting them to wager early allowed the bookmaker to adjust the lines. Thus, all those who followed their plays, commonly referred to as “the steam”, would be getting a bad line while all who went against the steam were taking their chances.
It generally worked out and a solid layoff office attracted the attention of big-money gamblers, some of whom were not sharps but just bettors who liked to be able to bet at one shop with high limits rather than call several to bet the same game at smaller amounts.
Modern Sportsbook Management
Those were the old days, but there are still some retail and mobile sportsbooks that have that maverick-style management behind them like Circa out of Las Vegas. However, the heavyweights of the industry like FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, BetMGM, and several others are much more cautious and don’t have the same knowledge or innate feel for bookmaking.
These days, the mobile sports betting industry is run by software engineers and mathematicians who rely on algorithms to change the lines. However, it is their proprietary protocols for limiting or banning players that have generated much interest recently.
The U.S.-regulated mobile sports betting industry has been around since 2018 and it was only a matter of time before enough people would begin to sit up and take notice. Because more states are legalizing sports betting, more people are wagering, and, by default, more bettors are being what appears to be arbitrarily limited in how much they can wager or given an outright ban from betting. The common denominator appears to be those bettors who are winning even if they are not historically winning sports bettors.
Billy Walters Offers His Opinion
Professional gamblers, Billy Walters and Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos, were asked to share their opinions on the state of the U.S.-regulated sports betting industry on Friday at the National Committee of Legislators from Gaming States held in Pittsburgh.
The topic of mobile sportsbooks limiting or banning their clientele without warning and almost haphazardly was one of the major points of interest and concern.
“The thing that I’m really concerned with for legalized sports betting is that we have disparities,” Walters said. “I think in the United States that we were all born and raised to believe in everyone being treated equally and being treated fairly. So, if you qualify for a sportsbook account and your money is clean, it’s legal, I think you should be treated equally legally.”
Walters, who has been seen on 60 Minutes, believes there is a real problem that is only going to get worse if it is not addressed.
“They are arbitrarily throwing people out of sportsbooks because they just want to throw them out,” Walters said. “They haven’t violated the rule. They haven’t done anything wrong, and the majority of time is because, frankly, many of these people who operate these sportsbooks don’t have the expertise to be an operator.”
Legislative and Regulatory Responses
Legislators and regulators are starting to take notice. Massachusetts gaming officials recently scheduled a roundtable discussion on banning or limiting players and they were snubbed by all the active sportsbooks in the Bay State. That didn’t sit well with Bay State regulators and they are scheduling a second roundtable that the operators have agreed to attend.
Ultimately, it is a concern for state regulators as it is their job to cultivate an environment that will maximize tax revenue derived from the sportsbooks’ profits. Yet, if customers feel they aren’t getting a fair shot, they will seek alternatives like the offshore sportsbooks that don’t pay taxes to the state, which will hurt all parties with a vested interest in the domestic sports betting industry.
