FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

ikeboy | 163 points

Yeah, a quick read of the relevant regs tells me Fanduel is gonna lose this one (Unless i've missed something)[1,2]

The law on this is pretty clear, and they can't unilaterally decide not to apply the gaming regulations of the state, or change them through their contracts.

(They can decide not to do business in states they don't like the regulations of course)

BTW, somewhat hilariously, the part they "..."'d is just 4 words.

[1] http://state.nj.us/lps/ge/docs/Regulations/CHAPTER69N.pdf

[2] (c) Upon accepting a wager pursuant to this chapter, a wagering cashier shall cause the wagering system to generate a wagering ticket.

(IE them generating the ticket is acceptance)

(d) A wagering operator shall not unilaterally rescind any wager pursuant to this chapter without the prior written approval of the Division.

(h) Winning wagering tickets shall be redeemed by a wagering cashier after verifying the validity of the wagering ticket through the wagering system.

(IE they should have redeemed it because it was valid)

(k) No wagering ticket shall be voided after the start of the wagering event on which a wager has been placed

Another reason the could not have voided it.

Essentially the best argument they have is that it's a house rule under 13:69N2-2 . This only works if their internal controls were approved by the division. Even then, a reasonable court would likely find that clearly contrary to the written regulations (and thus, not a reasonable interpretation of the regulations by the commission).

DannyBee | 6 years ago

And yet, you can bet that they'd collect if the error were in their favor. And they probably have.

Absolutely disgusting.

wccrawford | 6 years ago

It's a nice reminder to stay away from the gambling industry. Any company that doesn't play by the same rules as you, doesn't deserve your business. Try voiding a bet you made due to your algorithm error once. I'm sure they would just laugh.

hailmike | 6 years ago

Owned by Paddy Power. Not surprised they are welching on the bet, they make a great play on what good sports they are in their advertising but will ban you if you show signs of not being a complete mug.

barking | 6 years ago

Our system has this exactly backwards. An individual should get the benefit of the doubt, and their mistakes should be mitigated. An individual human gets tired, hungry, emotional, etc and other such experiences which cloud judgement. A corporation on the other hand is supposed to systematically avoid these things.

Because of this, mistakes in the interaction between an individual and a corporation should favor the individual. However, it seems that the system favors the corporation.

Gaming companies are especially bad about this. Their whole setup is designed to take advantage of human weaknesses in evaluating risks. However, when they make a mistake they are often the first to say that the bet is invalid.

RcouF1uZ4gsC | 6 years ago

>>> industry practice, which specifically address such obvious pricing errors.

I am in two minds here. Firstly this is a "contract" - honour it.

Secondly, I understand the industry practise, but Indont think it is in line with society needs - that is a human bookmaker would never have given 750-1 with the team leading and minutes to go.

So either you write software that won't do that and take the risk, or you stop using software to rinse every last penny out of human addiction

my preference is that mistakes in the software can bankrupt you. That way you pay attention to the software process

lifeisstillgood | 6 years ago

I feel like we need the Second Software Crisis movement to address the bug riddled software were still making, it’s as though we’re just acclimated to bugs everywhere as being expected. Perhaps in 2100 they’ll look back on this time in software as we do on the early automotive industry today.

xae342 | 6 years ago

Obviously from reading these comments, most people here are not gamblers and prob do not have much interaction with bookies.

With bookies your honor and reputation is #1.

When you gamble, you take a risk and the counterparts takes a risk. Then it is up to Lady Luck to decide.

If you take a bet, you can’t back out. Just don’t take the bet in the first place.

In this case the guy sure had his stars aligned. To not honor that is insulting to all gamblers who respect the unknown and risk taking. They broke the social contract between the gambler and bookie.

Fanduel absolutely does not deserve to be company and should be grouped together with all the shady overseas bookies.

turtlecloud | 6 years ago

This is why smart contracts aren't nearly as good as people make them out to be.

zacharycohn | 6 years ago

Surprised at most of the comments here. If the line error had been for $82,000,000 would you have expected them to honor it as well?

Whenever there's doubt side with the customer but this was such an obvious error that any reasonable better would have realized it. Had the better lost the money I'm pretty confident they would have refunded the bet as well (since the bets were voided).

librish | 6 years ago

This is pretty standard. I've had a really angry email from a bookmaker after betting on a line that was like 10% off. From the bookmakers POV if they had to honour these bets either a) spreads would be much or higher or b) spreads would be so high there would be no market for bookmakers. I would hope the bookmakers do the honourable thing and void all bets on the misplaced line, not just the losing side. It's pretty scummy to freeroll your customers.

benmmurphy | 6 years ago

In this case the punter must have known it was an error, so it doesn't seem moral to pick up the 82k.

Somehow everyone else seems to think otherwise, so maybe I'm just a sucker.

fabricexpert | 6 years ago

Surely there's insurance for such errors?

kolanos | 6 years ago

Oh a "line error". That explains it.

Wait - what? What the hell is a line error?

noja | 6 years ago

At Vegas sports books I have personally seen tickets invalidated due to error. It is not just FanDuel, this practice happens industry wide.

nodesocket | 6 years ago
[deleted]
| 6 years ago

They will settle this for half.

ReedJessen | 6 years ago

You might want to reconsider using “welching” in this context. And don’t change it to “gyping”, either.

drfuchs | 6 years ago

This will just add to the (necessary - don't get me wrong) tax on society that is our legal system. It's pretty obvious what should happen here because, as humans, we understand and allow for the possibilities of mistakes.

Fan Duel should send him some tickets to a game, try to create a positive interaction for him, and let's move on.

blah-blahblah | 6 years ago