BetMGM Won't Pay Chicago Veteran $389K

Last year, BetMGM tried to void $200K of winnings from a Virginia teacher, now it looks like they're attempting to withhold payment of $400k from an Illinois veteran and dad of a young daughter.

The local Chicago CBS affiliate began covering this story on Wednesday.

Military veteran Mark Aiello took a gamble on civilian life when he started a family and moved back to the Chicago suburbs.

"I really enjoyed my time in the Navy, and I'm enjoying my next chapter here," Aiello said.

The State of Illinois needs to fine or suspend the @BetMGMCasino online gaming license over crap like this. Almost $400,000 in winnings vanished and they refuse to provide a public explanation. Great way to treat a military veteran with kids. Sickening. https://t.co/lrTjTwR4aj

— Tim Froehlig (@TFroehlig) March 19, 2025

"I was sitting here looking around at my daughter's toys and thinking, you know, all the things that I could give her," Aiello said.

It was Sunday, March 2. A Chicago Bulls-Indiana Pacers game was scheduled for 4 p.m. About seven hours earlier, Aiello opened up the sports betting app BetMGM and put money on the matchup.

"When you have a little skin in the game, it's exciting," Aiello said.

Aiello placed four $500 bets on rebounds and assists by certain players. Six aspects, or "legs," of the game needed to go his way to win.

"350 to 1 is definitely like hard odds to hit, so it's unlikely," Aiello said. "Once the game was over, I was just, my heart was racing. I was incredibly excited."

His winning bets banked $389,000, or so he thought. 

"I was just thinking about my daughter in that moment," Aiello said.

But a moment was about all it lasted.

"I looked at my BetMGM app, and I noticed that it looks weird," Aiello said, "like all of the bets were grayed out."

His bets were canceled just prior to tip off.

"it's discouraging," Aiello said. "It's confusing and it makes you angry.

Aiello got the same explanation. He was sent the message, "These wagers were voided due to an obvious error."

John Mehaffey on Twitter wrote:

"Obvious error" strikes again on a big BetMGM win. The bettor says it was reviewed before being accepted, only to have hundreds of thousands taken away from winning parlays. BetMGM has refused to explain what the error was.

Those on Reddit chimed in.

YYqs0C6oFH had this to offer:

"But MGM noticed the error and cancelled his bets before tip off. His account never showed the tickets as winners or that he won $400k.

"Cancelling bets prior to tip is the best way to handle these type of situations. Waiting until after is scummy because they'll just keep the wagers if it lost. Dude found an error, shot his shot and got caught before tipoff. It sucks, but he certainly knew that was a possibility when he found an SGP error and unloaded big on it. Now he's shooting his shot by trying to use media to pressure MGM into paying it out (which worked for the Virginia man, but his case was a bit different because the bets were only cancelled after the fact)."

BestBettor writes:

"It voided his bet before the game, I don’t care if he gets his money, the 1 game parlay was voided before the game and they don’t give any reason why. If it was no reason or was unfair he would’ve said that, but seems like he’s just mad about his lottery ticket getting voided then it winning later."