Not there for the food
The success of one bettor in Washington, D.C. made the D.C. Lottery change its rules over the summer. According to an article Tuesday in The Washington Post, a 27-year old former data scientist did so well by gaming a flawed system that state regulators put strict betting limits in place to prevent others from running up the score, though they say it is for the safety of bettors.
GambetDC, the government-run sports betting operator that uses Intralot’s platform, has betting kiosks all over the city. The anonymous bettor wagered over $1 million at Abunai, a poke restaurant in Northwest D.C., profiting more than $100,000. Why Abunai? It was first in the phone book.
The key for the bettor was that he was playing at a kiosk, not using the GambetDC app. GambetDC is known – in a bad way – for its terrible pricing. It’s so bad that expects advise against using GambetDC and instead going to a retail sportsbook at a professional sports venue. The thing about GambetDC, though, is that its lines are more inefficient than its prices are bad. Some lines are so out of whack when compared to other sportsbooks that observant bettors can take advantage of them and sometimes even guarantee a profit.
The Post gave an example from the NFL’s Week 1, where GambetDC had the Kansas City Chiefs as the favorites over the Detroit Lions with a lines of -263. If you bet on the Lions, you could get a +265 line. That meant you could make a tiny profit if you bet the same amount on both teams.
The house doesn’t like a winner
What exactly this anonymous bettor did was not divulged, but suffice to say he saw massive inefficiencies in some lines – most of them golf – and pounced on them. He did it at first on the app, but GambetDC was able to restrict his action because he won too much. He did not have to create an account or give his personal information at the kiosk, though, so he was off and running.
At the same time, Abunai made a killing off of the bettor’s patronage. In one week this spring, the restaurant took in $670,000 in bets, largely thanks to this one person.
“By July, Abunai had collected $197,445 in commissions since getting its kiosks in 2021 — about $107,000 more than the next-highest licensee,” reported The Post.
Though the bettor did not have to provide any identifying information on the kiosk, he did have to take winning tickets of more than $600 to the Lottery’s Prize Center for redemption, so he was eventually discovered.
In early June, he received a letter from the D.C. Lottery’s Regulation and Oversight Division informing him that he was now restricted to a $60 maximum per bet at a kiosk and $1,000 per day. Later that month, before he could have his appeal hearing, the Lottery make a blanket policy change, applying that same rule to all gamblers.
“Emergency action is necessary to promote the immediate preservation of the health, safety, and welfare of District residents,” the Lottery said.