odiousgambit's Blog

Eye-Popping T&C Text

I've also looked into the Terms and Conditions of Fanduel and William Hill for Virginia 

As suspected, deal-breaking content in both. And I might as well indicate the bothersome text for MGM too. 

MGM, Bad:"to facilitate these Security Reviews, You agree to provide such information or documentation as We, in Our unfettered discretion, may request." 
Worse: "Your acceptance of these Agreements serves as acknowledgement that the Form 1099-Misc may be issued by Us by January 31 following the year of the receipt of a prize consisting of cash or merchandise for which a 12 month accumulated value of six hundred US dollars ($600) or more won by using the Services are subject to the IRS regulations."
_

William Hill, skipping just 'bad', it's there, and on to Eye-Popping: "To verify Your identity, We reserve the right to request satisfactory proof of identity (including but not limited to copies of a valid passport/identity card and/or any payment cards used), a photograph or picture of You holding up your valid passport/identity card and satisfactory proof of address"
_

Fanduel T&C: overtly not as bad perhaps, covertly perhaps, see this from Fanduel FAQ ... Eye-Popping:

"Attempting to withdraw deposited funds
The withdrawal process is intended only for winnings. If you would like a refund on one of your recent deposits, please contact our Customer Support Team."


Who agrees to this stuff?

Well, Well, Well !

After applying for it again, this showed up this morning in my paypal account:

BetMGM LLC
+ $13.00 
April 4, 2021Payment received
Paid byBetMGM LLC
Transaction ID [deleted]

Looks like I have to take back what I said. Partially. Though these at-heart nefarious people can't resist messing with you... and I am sticking with the reasons they have for doing it as I outlined... as you can see I finally got my 13 bucks and $3 profit. BetMGM-VA was entitled to decline paying me according to the T&C I did read, but they paid me anyway. Good for them, considering the amount. 

To be sure, I'm not going to be depositing any more money. The question "will possibly they try to mess with me?" has been answered. I will take advantage of any further freebets offered, however. Surprisingly enough, they are still coming. Currently a $5 freebet that may have only come my way because the withdrawal request was reversed at one point. That is delicious, and I won't decline just because it makes me look greedy. I'm a gambler and when it comes to gambling, it's all about seizing the moment, you see, some of the rules are unwritten. Of course, it's only $5, not worth my time or their attention either, so I won't try to cash out winnings unless these keep coming. Possibly that ultimate cashout will be denied unless I deposit $10 again, fair enough. But they are letting me make the bet. 

I'll keep you posted. T&C on the $5 bet is below. 

tip on 'joke' in previous title: connect the *two previous* titles.  

Terms & Conditions
 
   
Introduction
1.1 These Terms and Conditions apply to the specific promotional offers in our sports betting and live betting line-up called and displayed as "FreeBet".
1.2 In addition to these FreeBet Terms and Conditions, our General Terms and Conditions and our Standard Promotional Terms and Conditions apply.
1.3 In the event of any conflict or inconsistency between these FreeBet Terms and Conditions, the Standard Promotional Terms and our General Terms and Conditions, these FreeBet Terms and Conditions shall prevail, followed by the Standard Promotional Terms and Conditions and then the General Terms and Conditions but only to the extent necessary to resolve such conflict or inconsistency.
FreeBet
2.1 Where offered, a "FreeBet" entitles You to place a bet without prior deduction of the stake from Your account balance. The amount that is used for the calculation of the possible winnings of this bet ("FreeBet Value") will be displayed as "Stake".
2.2 FreeBets can be subject to certain restrictions: they can be e.g. only valid for certain sports or leagues or for bet placement on specific devices. In such cases, the respective restriction will be displayed in the FreeBet overview.
2.3 If the selection in your bet slip can be played with a FreeBet, the respective FreeBet will be offered to you automatically in your bet slip. You can then play the selection as a FreeBet or use the FreeBet at a later point in time.
2.4 Available FreeBets are displayed on the website above the bet slip. By clicking on this area, you can open the FreeBet overview which lists all of your Freebets that can still be used.
2.5 Unless otherwise stated FreeBets will only be available to real-money players and you are required to make an initial deposit of at least $10 into your account in order to participate.
2.6 Where a FreeBet is settled as "won", you will be credited with FreeBet winnings which will be equal to the FreeBet value multiplied by the odds stated on the bet slip minus the FreeBet value.
2.7 If a bet placed using a Freebet is settled as ‘cancelled’, that Freebet will be deemed invalid.
2.8 If a FreeBet is settled as a ‘dead heat’ (d/h) and the corresponding dead heat odds become < 1.0, no funds shall be deducted from You.
2.9 A FreeBet can be placed as one straight bet or one parlay but the FreeBet value cannot be split between various bet placements. Multiple straight bets, Round Robin bets and bankers are excluded from FreeBets.
2.10 Where offered, a FreeBet can only be used once and within the time frame displayed on screen. If the validity time expires without the FreeBet being used, the FreeBet will become invalid.
2.11 A FreeBet can only be used for our sport betting or live betting line-up. All other products are excluded.
2.12 Where there are specific conditions that apply for selected betting options, for example minimum odds, parlay restrictions etc., these restrictions will also apply for FreeBets.
2.13 Where the player's betting limits are less than the FreeBet value, the FreeBet will have to be forfeited. 
2.14 The company does not guarantee the availability of FreeBets on all devices and browser versions.

Mik Ado About Nothing

Nothing but 10 bucks anyway. 

A hearty "hiyo silver!" to anyone who gets the joke in the title. It's a convoluted path to it, and of course having to explain your joke is the sure sign of a bad joke. 

After my previous blogpost about why I had decided against getting in on the goodies offered by the competing online gambling venues newly authorized in my state, highlighting MGM in particular, I decided it was only right to go back and see just what they were up to recently.  The initial $500 freebet offer had timed out, but they replaced it with a $50 freebet offer that required a player to deposit $10... just deposit it, you didn't have to bet it, the 50 bucks was yours to use [though you didn't get to keep that portion, only any winnings]. Additionally there was an assortment of $2.50 freebets up for grabs, and all of these freebets had T&C clearly spelled out, with no play-through to do. 

At this point I felt I might as well just see what happens, I'm thinking blowing $10 just to satisfy my curiosity is worth the price. And it will be $10 down the drain if they hit me with a withdrawal hassle, something they have already said they reserve the right to do. But I paypal them this amount in the hope that since it is paypal, I'll get no hassle when withdrawing, while honestly fully expecting that they will pull that stunt. Yes, I repeat, I think it is a complete scam to freely allow deposits while demanding scrutiny only on withdrawals. 

I was more interested in having more than $10 to cash out than making a 'good bet'.  I figured the trial withdrawal needed to have winnings included or they might OK it without scrutiny if it was only the amount I deposited. I picked a -250 hockey moneyline bet for my $50 freebet.  Hockey this year has featured a few teams at the top of a division winning 75% of their games, while the teams on the bottom have been correspondingly awful. But the day I picked was a good day for upsets and sure enough the $50 freebet went bye-bye. Fortunately not all bets bombed, so I had $13 in the account after all bets were settled. 

I was now ready to test the withdrawal experience and started the withdrawal request March 30th in the morning. An email acknowledgement indicated I might have to wait 5 days for a response. Well, on the morning of April 1st, April Fools, I see the indication that the withdrawal has been "reversed" ... this took 2 days.  This is the way I would expect my account to show if I had cancelled the request myself, since they wanted to give me every opportunity to change my mind every time I checked up on the request, constantly posing for me the icon to click on with the word "reverse" prominent. But I had not clicked on 'reverse'. 

I have a very strong suspicion that this was done in order to claim that I activated the reverse myself. Or perhaps to get an employee's boss off the underling's back. I can easily imagine this going on in such an organization: "you're granting too many requests!"



That no email was received as explanation* amounts to support for my theory. Or perhaps this is even standard procedure, a way of denying my request without having to explain. Might go like this, "Reverse that, just see if the guy drops it, most of them do for that amount, and he might just keep on gambling, many go ahead and deposit more money. When and if he ever wins big and wants his money, that's when we'll finally reveal all of his winnings were just a pipe dream." At least a dream when it comes to getting it without a big hassle. 

Well, as of now, I have put the request in again, it isn't tagged as un-withdrawable, a category that evidently exists. Should it go through this time maybe I'll revisit the whole matter.

*as of 4 days past request date, 2 days after reversal

A Pondering Gambler I

A Pondering [Online] Gambler I ... or actually, An Abstaining Gambler Me [that loses something though].

Apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan in any case

So now there are half a dozen different outfits offering online sports betting in Virginia, generally with fairly lucrative joining offers. Yet I have declined to participate ... so far. 

I've mentioned before I fit the profile for a typical gambler in some ways, but not so in many others. I certainly have a list of types of gambling I simply have no interest in, notably lotteries, and a list of 'just-not-going-to-do' as a matter of self-control. Pertinent here: online casino gaming , ain't doing that. However, though I admit sports betting should make me hesitate for all the same reasons, I confess I'm willing to take that particular plunge. Ummm,  'Depending'. 

I suspected my first problem was going to be that I am a holdout against getting a smartphone. Since I really don't want one, I resent the current trend towards apps exclusive to them. I discovered, however, that even though these outfits favor the use of phones, at least some of them realized there were a few old coots out there without one who might give them some business. Investigating MGM's Virginia venture first, I did see they were attempting to do business using just a home computer.

I signed up with "Bet MGM Virginia", giving name, address, d.o.b., and phone number. Quite eager were they to get a deposit immediately, and boy was that going to be easy, multiple ways to do it. But thanks to paying attention to what people have said at WoV, I knew I was going to have to be happy with terms and conditions. So I did spend some time pouring over them; you know, really, with most internet things I just skip doing this, so it was almost like a new experience. Most of the time just trusting that the other side isn't up to something works fine. But this is gambling, and we know the nature of that. 



As I suspected, there it was, the deal-breaker. They reserve the right to give you a hard time when it comes to withdrawals. Name, address, phone no., some claim about d.o.b., that was fine for deposits, but withdrawals? It seems they need more, a lot more. The perversity of that is remarkable. You might want to defend them and say they need to be sure you are who you say you are, and that you're not fraudulently accessing funds. In order for me to buy this explanation, though, I'd like to find out why they don't insist on this level of scrutiny right from the beginning. That they *do not* suggests a special kind of casino perspective: it's no problem to take in fraudulent funds if you refuse to pay winners. All those winnings, in this case, are just pipe dreams, not affecting the house. When it eventually is revealed the player shouldn't have had access to the funds he used, overall losers included, then there is the possible pain of returning those funds, but it was all make believe money anyway for any wins. But there is also the percentage of those funds that will never have to be returned, almost for sure a nice hefty slice. There's the expression 'easy come, easy go' but this is switched to, 'easy come, ain't gonna go'.  Not all of it anyway, maybe not even most of it, these funds that the online gaming should never have received in the first place. Far be it for Virginia to have insisted all scrutiny be in place for deposits as well as withdrawals, they've just plunged into this allowing the gambling interests to do whatever they want, bringing with them much of the nefarious doings they learned from overseas operations. 

There will be plenty of guys who provided funds legally just deciding to postpone withdrawing in the face of onerous identification demands, while continuing their betting. This means increased likelihood the money will dwindle away in the meantime, of course. Don't think that isn't a known factor. 

I couldn't find anything indicating I might not get the withdrawal scrutiny if I used Paypal. But I did wonder if that might not be the case. A betMGM offer for a free $10 no deposit bet came up, so I thought that might be a good test to see if I'd be hassled if I won the bet and tried to withdraw the winnings. I started the process and found I had to download something to verify my location. My operating system completely rejected this download, with a big warning, and giving no option to bypass the rejection. I waited a couple of days and the problem had been fixed. Unfortunately I was then informed I had already used up my free bet, which I never was able to make. Well, well. 
 
I've read accounts of players getting into it with casinos over disputed this and that on WoV, and sometimes prevailing, but I have to say it is the last thing I want to find myself doing. Depending on the amount, I'd likely be happier kissing the money goodbye rather than going through something like that. It would totally destroy my enjoyment, the only reason I would be betting in the first place. I think this also separates me from many other gamblers. 

A certain person, not a gambler I think, might ask why bother with withdrawing when it is -EV in the long run. Well, I do know that in the long run my bankroll is likely to dwindle away. But I don't know if I'll stick to a particular outfit. But more than that, to decide something like that is just too much, too much. I'd suggest to such a person that if they can make a decision like that to give up any gambling they do or dont start. It's just wrong!

In case I didn't make it clear, if they did have you give extraordinary evidence you are who you say up in front, before making a deposit, I would decline to do so. I don't want them to have that much information on me. I just like the way that is done that is still available at some times in some places. You walk in and anonymously place your bet, keep your slip, and anonymously collect any winnings too. It may be they open such betting parlors in various places near me. Looks like I'll be waiting for that.

Not Loving It

Two developments with the dice-setting:

* It must have been noticeable that I was getting different results than the Wizard with the 6.04 shooter. Then it occurred to me that the Wizard was using a modified formula that incorporated the lower HE you get with full odds using the 3x4x5x free odds. I had dismissed that, thinking someone with skill would not want to use the free odds, since they add variance without changing the EV. That was stupid: if you can shoot with less 7-outs, the free odds benefit from it enormously in fact, in the player's favor that is ... it's no longer the same matter of not changing the EV. So this explains the difference and why such a small change as one less 7 rolled in a thousand rolls can pretty much take away house advantage as the Wizard shows. Though he doesn't put it that way and we are having to rely on my conclusion that 6.04 means one seven rolled per 6.04 rolls, which no one has confirmed.

* I have arrived at the Greenbrier. The Craps minimum has been raised to $25, yuck. And they have decided that a max of three players are allowed, one on each end and one just to the *left* of stick. All this including the $25 min due to the virus I guess. I mentioned it's nuts to think you can accomplish anything from one end of the table [12 ft here] and my new throw is too hard to pull off left-handed [for me] and would be even worse to try right handed from left of stick [it's quite different]. So after getting all worked up over it I can't try it. Great. And the new minimum means minimal time at the Craps table as well ... I've never wanted to spend much time at a $25 Craps table.