Human error is apparently the cause of the Bellagio suffering the biggest sportsbook loss in the history of Las Vegas. The resort and casino took a beating after it allowed a quarter-million dollars in winning wages to be placed on Chinese and Korean baseball games that were already in progress on Sunday, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
The mix-up was due to a manual entry that resulted in the listing of incorrect start-times. The games kicked off between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., but the slip-up allowed for bettors to put down wages between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. One winner received $137,107.38 on a $250 10-leg parlay, the outlet noted.
Several longtime Las Vegas bookmarkers said they could not recall a bigger loss.
"It’s happened to all of us. I think every sportsbook probably since the beginning of time has dealt with this at some point," said Westgate sportsbook director John Murray. "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."
In instances like these, where there is a dispute in excess of $500, the Nevada Gaming Control Board conducts an investigation and then makes a ruling that must be followed by the books. In the past, bettors have been given two options: take the earnings and be given a permanent ban from the casino or continue to return at any time by forfeiting the earnings. Under these circumstances, Walker said the GCB tends to side with bettors.
"We had gaming come out several times," he said. "We got ruled against most of the time."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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