Are Sportsbooks Starting to Ban Gamblers Who Win Big?

The customer is always right … unless they are right too often about which team is going to win.

At sportsbooks in the United Kingdom and increasingly in the U.S., customers who win their wagers too frequently are starting to be banned from placing bets, according to ESPN.

Sportsbooks across the pond have closed as many as 50,000 betting accounts and restricted others to low betting limits simply because the owners of the accounts have been winning.

Legal in the U.K. and the U.S., the practice is reportedly becoming especially prevalent at the Las Vegas branch of U.K. bookmaker William Hill, a group of serious 20 bettors told ESPN. “In our world, our community, everyone knows you’ll get thrown out of there,” said bettor Joe Fortuna.

The decisions about whom to ban are reportedly made at a weekly meeting during which CEO Joe Asher will look through a list of accounts and make a note about any that are winning too much. Unless there’s a reason not to, the sportsbook will stop doing business with those accounts.

In a statement, William Hill totally refuted what the group of bettors had told ESPN.

“It is completely false to say that we ban people simply for winning. There are literally tens of thousands of customers in Nevada that are winners at William Hill. That’s one of the great things about sports betting – a lot of customers do win. In the rare situation where we do prohibit someone from wagering with us, there are a variety of reasons why. They include the sharing of accounts (usually tied to someone who previously has been banned), betting on behalf of third parties, screen scraping and other efforts to ‘game’ the system, as well as compliance reasons or being offensive to staff and/or other customers.”