When Anthony Prince laid down a bet on the Broncos vs. Raiders game on Sunday, he had a feeling what he was seeing might be too good to be true. What he saw was the odds for the Broncos to win being posted at 750-1 underdogs. At the time the live odds he was betting off of updated, Denver was trailing Oakland 19-17. The Broncos had just driven down to the Oakland 18-yard line, and were in comfortable field goal range with only seconds left in the game.
As most any gambler would do when faced with those odds, he laid his bet of $110 and hoped for the best. The field goal was easily made, and Prince was holding a wining ticket for a serious payout. The problem is, when he presented the ticket for payment, FanDuel, who runs the sports book at The Meadowlands, refused to pay out, according to ESPN . Representatives of FanDuel told him that the odds that were posted were obviously a palpable error, or a “palp” as known to gamblers, and that they would not pay out the amount the ticket showed.
They claimed that the odds should have been set at -600, which would have instead paid out a profit of $18.35. FanDuel then countered by saying they would pay him $500 for the error, and comp him tickets to three Giants games, as reported by News 12 New Jersey . Prince declined their offer, and instead has sought out an attorney to take up his case to secure the full payout reflected on the ticket.
NJ Probes FanDuel Refusal To Pay $82K On Wrong Football Odds https://t.co/B1UzmgjPoW
— cwphilly (@cwphilly) September 19, 2018
Palpable errors are considered a part of gambling. In general, in any regulated gaming system that has some form of government oversight, when palpable errors occur, the wager is paid out in full. If the problem happens too often, investigators are brought in to get to the bottom of why a particular book is having trouble posting correct odds. Even in unregulated betting scenarios, bookies will still tend to pay out on palps, however they may refuse to accept any action from people that take advantage of them at a later date. The same is true of some regulated books as well.
FanDuel, which is headquartered in the U.K. and owned by Paddy Power-Betfair, stated to ESPN that the ticket was obviously generated off of a mistake and should be voided. He feels returning the amount of the bet is all that is owed to Prince. The state of New Jersey may take a different stance on that, as it appears an investigation has been opened, and litigation will soon be on the way.
