A Nevada man is legally appealing a payout of $1,000 from sports betting operator William Hill U.S., as he says he is owed $40,100 instead.
Late last week, the unnamed gambler took his appeal to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. He says he placed a $200 bet on a rank outsider to win the first round of a golf tournament, and the sportsbook offered him odds of +20000 on the wager.
The bet came through, which would have won him $40,100. However, Caesars Entertainment-owned William Hill says the odds were posted in error and should have been +400 instead. It paid the gambler $1,000.
Last Thursday, the NGCB heard from William Hill and the gambler’s legal team at a hearing.
Although not regularly heard of in Nevada, this is far from the first case of a sportsbook contesting a payout and changing the odds on a bet after the event, then claiming it as obvious error. Sometimes, the regulator’s decision goes the way of the sportsbook. But in some states, operators have seen hefty fines for retroactive odds-changing.
The Odds Change
In November 2023, the unnamed male gambler from Nevada was in Las Vegas when he placed a bet on the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
He says he placed a $200 bet on the Spanish golfer Joel Moscatel Nachshon to win the first round of the tournament at displayed odds of +20,000 (or 200:1, to if you prefer a decimal.)
The gambler had the betting sheets from his William Hill Sportsbook online account screen-shotted, which he claimed as proof of the original odds.
Moscatel has never cracked the global top 250 golfers list. However, in the first round of the tournament, the heavy underdog finished in first place. Along the way, he equaled the record score at the Royal Queensland Golf Club course.
Moscatel couldn’t keep the performance up, and finished the whole tournament in seventh place. Not that the end result mattered much to the bettor, who thought they had won $40,000 after correctly predicting the first-round winner.
However, when the bettor came to collect his winnings from an in-person William Hill location in Las Vegas, things did not go the way he expected.
Staff at the ‘book told the gambler the original odds of +20,000 were posted in error, and should have been +400. Meaning he would get a much-lesser payout of just $1,000.
The Hearing
The gambler has now appealed the decision to the Nevada gaming regulator. William Hill Sportsbook has so far claimed it is well within its rights to change the odds. The +20,000 line was an “obvious error,” it said in front of regulators. It also read out its house rules and stipulations, to which the gambler agreed before placing his bet.
“We reserve the right, pending regulatory approval, to correct any obvious error made on a wager placed in one of our betting Live markets and settle at the correct odds or terms, which were available with William Hill Sportsbook (absent the obvious error) at the time the wager was struck. …” its terms and conditions say.
The gambler’s legal team hit back, showing evidence that the winning bet was sitting unclaimed at the original odds for four days. Lawyers also said the gambler was aware of other gamblers who placed bets on the same tournament and hadn’t had their odds corrected.
The gambler also told his lawyers to point out that part of the reason he decided to make a regulatory claim was that he had read about previous fines against William Hill for making payout mistakes. In 2022, the operator was fined $100,000 for a glitch that put hundreds of bettors’ wagers down twice.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board said it and the Gaming Commission would make a decision on the matter in the coming months.
David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.
