Read this thread: https://twitter.com/capjack2000/status/1374397790898384900

Or for more info, you can read this article about it: https://www.cobets.com/william-hill-parlay-void/

If you don't feel like reading it, I'll summarize it for you.

A sportsbettor in Colorado signed up for online legalized betting site "William Hill", which is huge and operates a lot of the sportsbooks in the US, both online and in-casino.

As a new customer, he received a deposit bonus of $500 on an initial deposit of $500, making his balance $1000, of which $500 was bonus money.

He then made a $500 parlay bet which paid $2537.19 total, and it won. So now his balance was $3037.19.

He went to withdraw money, and was told he could withdraw the whole balance, so he submitted that. However, his withdrawal was denied, his bonus $500 was confiscated, his winning bet was voided, and his balance was back down to his original $500 deposit! They also suspended his account!



Well, it turns out that, like most sites, you can't withdraw funds until you've rolled over the bonus sufficiently (that is, bet the required amount on their site). However, the industry standard is to simply deny the withdrawal, and then inform the customer to keep betting the amount necessary! They don't confiscate the winnings and snatch away the bonus!

These sounds like the actions of a shady offshore sportsbook, not a legalized and regulated Colorado book!

However, after a 3-month investigation, the Colorado Gaming Commission denied his request for help, stating that the William Hill terms and conditions noted this potential consequence. Therefore, as he violated the "early withdrawal" term, he must forfeit everything!

Is this bullshit, or what?

The terms state:

A Participant who requests a withdrawal without first wagering the Deposit Match Bonus associated with the Qualifying Deposit may have that Free Bet voided at the sole discretion of William Hill.

So there's no question that he broke the terms, but so what? These are stupid and industry non-standard terms, and they can't expect the average sportsbettor to go through all the fine print. There needs to be some leeway which both protects the site and avoids screwing the bettor.

It seems likely to me that this dude was just a novice bettor who didn't understand that you always have to rollover bonus money. A sports advantage player or bonus whore would never make this amateur mistake. This was just a guy who was enticed by the bonus, got lucky, and wanted to lock up a $2500 payday.

While the site had every right to deny the withdrawal, confiscating the money was a complete joke, and shouldn't have been allowed.

This is the problem with all of these new states legalizing sportsbetting so quickly. Many of these gaming commissions don't understand the industry well, and make nonsensical rulings often unfairly favoring the sportsbook.