Sports911.com News Story
Online Gaming
By Christopher Costigan
So often I hear players bashing sportsbooks and online casinos for their often arrogant stance when it comes to handling disputes. Over the past year and perhaps longer, players have complained about everything from bonus confiscation, failure to honor bets, refusals to pay and just about everything else in between.
These individuals may want to point the finger at fellow players for the online gaming industry's hard line stance however.
One of the biggest obstacles facing online gamblers today is the heavy, sometimes intrusive, amount of paper work needed when signing up via a credit card.
This isn't something that the books and casinos just imposed for their own amusement but rather the increased security came as a result of an unprecedented number of charge backs, some of which were covered in the mainstream media.
I've personally witnessed gambling firms require electric and cable bills to supplement photo IDs prior to payouts being issued, especially when faced with a change of address. A lot of this also stems from the rise in identity theft crimes. While customers may feel as if they are going through hoops to get paid, the irony is that such measures offer much better protection for the player.
Sportsbooks are less inclined these days to honor bonuses to those they deem as "sharp" or "wise guys". It was always a widely accepted practice that the larger syndicate groups would forgo any bonuses at most Don Best Line Feed books. Unfortunately, many of these individuals started getting greedy over the years. Wagering shops like CRIS and BetHorizon held their own against accused "wise guys" demanding a bonus.
Bonus abuse stemming from all spectrums has resulted in tighter controls. Whereas few books offered maximum limits on the amount of money available for bonuses prior to 2000, the majority of companies now impose a dollar value, some as low as $100.
It used to be that players could receive limitless number of bonuses from sportsbooks and online casinos by taking advantage of the buddy referrals. Some people would go as far as to invent family members.
One of the most notorious bonus shoppers was David Morse and his clan. Morse single handedly forced shops to impose stringent bonus policies. While the name "David Morse" is synonymous with bonus whoring among industry people (in fact, he may very well be the first known "bonus whore"), fact of the matter is the guy probably saved many of these companies tons of money down the road.
Much of today's popular gambling posting forums are used to perpetrate scams. Granted it works both ways, unscrupulous sportsbook and online casino operators use this medium the same way that players do. While one might victimize the other and vice versa, we are now noticing an inevitable trend that should be of no surprise, players screwing other players.
Just like with most chat mediums, hucksters find no shortage of vulnerable prey on gambling boards. Especially with gambling forums that probably include several times more "suckers" than scammers, this is bound to be a recipe for disaster.
Once in a fellow member's good graces, they may decide to place friendly bets with that individual. Lately, more and more posters are getting exposed for owing substantial amounts of money to other members on these message boards. Of course, these scammers rely on winning to make money from seemingly honest forum participants while incurring zero risk should they happen to lose (which appears to happen more often than not). What a great scheme!
In the end, players need to hold each other accountable for the tighter restrictions and lack of cooperation we encounter from online gambling establishments today, which is not to suggest these companies are always in the right by any means.