What to do When the Sportsbook Refuses to Pay Your Winnings?

What to do When the Sportsbook Refuses to Pay Your Winnings?

A first-time bettor placed an $85,000 wager on Tiger Woods to win the 2019 Masters with 14/1 odds in one sportsbook. The sports event came to an end with Woods as the Winner. The bettor won a million-dollar. But when he was about to withdraw his winning the sportsbook refuses to pay. Okay, that didn’t happen.

The story though is true. In 2019, James Adducci who claimed to be a first-time voter won approximately $1.2 million dollars and set a new record for the largest paid-out future bet. But what if that time, the sports did not pay his winnings for some reason. What will you do in this situation?

This is the fear of many punters, especially in online sportsbooks. Many bettors online manage to avoid this by sign up or playing on a reputed casino website like 188bet. However, there is no denying that this situation happens more times than you can imagine. Good thing most of the situations like this are caused by misunderstanding and were resolved with the help of third parties.

Always take a screenshot of your activity

Taking a screenshot of your activity on the sportsbook website is a good practice when you place a bet online.  This will be useful when things went serious. Take screenshots of your balance, your account, your transaction history, and your winning. If possible, take a screenshot also of your winning moments while playing the game.

Contact customer support team

Before you make any actions, try being in touch with the customer service team. Typically, the sportsbook’s customer support is available 247/7. Aside from email, many websites have live chat support that can respond faster to queries. 

Sometimes the customer service can solve your problem especially when the problem is in their system. By contacting the customer service you’ll also have a background of what might be the reasons why the casino refuses to pay. Take also screenshots of your conversation. You might be needed when you decided to take legal action.

Contact the Gambling Commission

Quality sportsbooks have licensed issued by a gambling commission. These regulators usually hear and take actions on player complaints they received. If you have proven that you haven’t done anything wrong, then there’s a chance that you will get your winnings. Quality sportsbook online also are scared of losing their license because it will affect their reputation.

Hire a lawyer

Hopefully, you won’t reach this step because it is going to be an expensive action. A regular lawyer can’t help you with this case. You should find a lawyer that specialized in international law. Before you make a complaint, you should be honest and consult everything to your lawyer. Show him or her your documents, your screenshots, and your account. From the consultation, the lawyer will give insight on whether or not you should take legal action against the online casino. 

Use casino forum or third-party website

This should be your last resort. It is easy yet it is proven to be effective. Many websites today help punters solve their problems with the casino. In fact, there are huge websites today that can force casinos and sportsbooks to reply to forums and take actions to players’ problem. We have read several cases where a third-party website became a mediator to solve problems with withdrawals. As mentioned, quality websites care about their reputation online.

Possible causes why sportsbook refuses to pay

Before you start making a complaint, you should understand why a sportsbook won’t give your payouts. The most common reason is that you breach the sportsbook terms. If you are placing a wager online, you should understand that all sportsbook website has terms and conditions. Never skip reading this page because it contains some rules on how you can use the website. When you accidentally broke its rules, it’s enough reason for the website to not pay your winnings.

Other reasons are not that serious. Perhaps you just requested a too small or too big withdrawal. Many sportsbooks online impose a withdrawal limit. This is the amount you can withdraw per day or per transaction. You should make sure that the amount that you have requested is in between the withdrawal limits. Don’t worry when your winnings go above the website withdrawal limit for the day because you can still make another withdrawal request the next day. If the website is legitimate, you shouldn’t encounter any problem.