Bellagio Sports Betting Error Was Biggest Ever in Vegas

Longtime Las Vegas bookmakers say they can't remember a bigger blunder in that city's history of taking sports bets.

It happened last week when gamblers exploited a mistake by BetMGM and wagered on Korena and Chinese baseball games that had already started.

These bets were permitted because incorrect start times were published for a number of Korean and Chinese baseball games due to a manual entry error.

One bet was a $250, 10-leg parlay that paid out more than $137,100. 

“It’s happened to all of us,” Westgate sportsbook director John Murray said. “I think every sportsbook probably since the beginning of time has dealt with this at some point.

“We’ve had past post situations where our employees put in the wrong time or put in the wrong number or they forgot to close something. It’s manual-entry and humans are going to make mistakes.”

The Nevada Gaming Control Board is currently investigating.

Popular New Jersey-based professional sports bettor Gadoon “Spanky” Kryollos believes the books will have to eat the mistake, noting that it is common for books to leave NFL games up a few seconds past post time in order to accommodate customers.

“Bookmaker’s error” is obvious in most cases; however, a 3rd party regulatory body should make the determination. Good example is many bookmakers leave NFL games up seconds after kickoff to accommodate customers. Can’t have a bookmaker cry past posting here. https://t.co/EOMAXCCRtT

— spanky (@spanky) July 5, 2020

Spanky blames what he calls the "dying relationship between bookmakers and customers".

"It’s sad how the bookie bettor relationship is dying. It’s all kiosks and apps. The Us vs Them mentality is at an all time high It will never be like it once was. The greed of European companies has taken over If you’re considering coming into this industry today, stay far away."

- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com