Nevada bettors who place a sports wager after an outcome is known will have their tickets voided by the sportsbooks without the books needing to seek help from Nevada gaming regulators.
The change adopted by the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday deals with what’s called “past posting,” placing a bet on a sporting event that has already started or when the outcome is known. That can happen when a sportsbook accidentally leaves open the betting option due to computer or human error, including by having the wrong starting time, which has happened with events outside the U.S. when starting times are changed.
Previously, sportsbooks had to reach out to Gaming Control Board Chair Kirk Hendrick to cancel the wagers, rather than do so on their own. Sportsbooks will still be required to report their action to regulators immediately and deliver a supplemental report within 45 days.
Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General John Michela said a previous draft regulation would have given sportsbooks broader discretion to void wagers without Hendrick’s approval. That wasn’t recommended by the Gaming Control Board.
“The Board’s enforcement division reviews house rules and they must be approved by the Board chair. Based on that, the enforcement division was concerned it would be inundated with new and novel house-rule proposals allowing recessions without Board chair approval under a myriad of circumstances,” Michela said. “To address this potential issue, the proposed changes to the regulation have been limited to specify that Board chair approval is not required to recognize an attempted wager placed after the outcome of an event has been determined is void.”
All other circumstances under which a sportsbook might want a wager rescinded remain unchanged. The operator must request approval from Hendrick to rescind those, Michela said. “These issues are not voluminous, totaling 10 recission requests over the last 4-1/2 years.”
Commissioner Brian Krolicki said given artificial intelligence and internet speeds, he wondered if someone could beat the system and place a wager knowing the outcome. “You could in theory submit a bet with the same minute stamp as the event concluded. How do they referee that?”
Michela said in that case, it would still be subject to filing a patron dispute with the Board. In large part, they would rely on the licensee to confirm.
“Many sporting outcomes are determined in the final seconds of play and somehow, if I was able to make a wager knowing the kick was good or bad is that feasible from a technology standpoint?” Krolicki asked.
Michela said most of the situations being highlighted are cases where it’s evident the event outcome was known. He noted that time-zone changes are the main reason that wagers continue to be booked after an event has concluded. He cited two Caribbean soccer matches where the starting time was changed and the licensee and information service weren’t aware of it. Some people tried to place wagers on those matches, knowing the final scores.
“Money was taken and that’s what this would cure,” Michela said.
In 2020 in a high-profile incident, regulators approved BetMGM’s voiding more than $200,000 in parlay bets made on the operator’s mobile app and at Bellagio kiosks on baseball games in China and Korea that had already started in the early-morning hours.
