Trouble Depositing Can Really Ruin a Weekend

  • In Offshore Report
  • Fri, Dec 2nd, 2011 1:44:00 am
  • By Jim Quinn - exclusive to OSGA


A ‘regular Joe’ had his weekend pretty much ruined due to a simple miscommunication and lack of knowledge of today’s offshore betting environment.

In the last couple of weeks we have just been getting shellacked with new complaints rolling into our email inbox and being aired on our chat and phone lines. There was one, and we have had a couple of very similar complaints this year, that really stood out, mainly because a ‘regular Joe’ had his weekend pretty much ruined due to a simple miscommunication and lack of knowledge of today’s offshore betting environment.
 
“Regular Joe” has been playing offshore for the last 7 or 8 years. He played at a few outfits over the years and never really has run into any significant problems. His most recent account is with Legends. We rate Legends at our highest level, "Elite", because they have a many solid years in the business, pay winners and do a good job of customer service. Legends is a medium-size outfit in Panama that gets high marks from everyone in the industry and takes both small bettors and some sharper players.

“Joe” called Legends on Saturday morning bright and early to get the information required to send a person-to-person transfer to fund his account for the weekend of wagering. The call took only a couple of minutes and Joe headed off to make the transfer. Now Joe doesn’t have an outlet to do this right around the corner like many do, so from the time he got the info until the time he sent the money, it had been nearly two hours.
 
Joe went back to his house, an hour back, and waited another half hour to call Legends back. When he did, his weekend started to spiral downward. Joe’s $150 was never picked up. In fact, the name that he was given was no longer a good name. The real problem for Joe was that he had deposited in time to get some action on a 3:30PM NCAA Football game. It was now well after 2 and there was no way that Joe was going to get all the way back to the place where he had sent the money to pull it back and resend it under the new name.
 
In years past, reputable Sportsbooks would put in the money with the deposit still ‘pending’ while the player went to fix the problem. But, due to the high rate of fraud, this rarely occurs anymore. As part of "standard operating procedure" in today’s Internet gambling climate, Legends told Joe that he had to resend the money to the new name, and that no bets could be placed until the funds were received.
 
Back in the car and another hour drive, Joe gets the funds sent to the right name and heads back home again. This time the money goes through with no problems and Joe places a few wagers on the later games. Meanwhile, his 3:30 PM wager that he couldn’t get in, cashes. As always happens when things go awry, the plays that Joe did get in, lost.
 
The bottom line is that Joe ran into a VERY common problem. We have heard of this problem at a half dozen or more outlets in the last few months. It is another casualty of the UIGEA and the tougher regulations for financial institutions that came  along with it. Online gambling companies all use third parties to handle all monetary transactions with U.S. players. These companies have strict restrictions on the amount of transactions, minimums and maximums and overall dollar volume. What happened to Joe is that the name and information he was given were ‘used up’ by the time he got his transaction sent. In other words, "Juan Valdez" had already picked up his maximum number of transactions and dollars allowed to stay ‘under the radar’ for one day.
 
Now of course neither the player, nor the gambling house, knows this when the information is given. Thus, this problem occurs to more than just one Joe every week.
 
Our suggestions, especially for players that have to drive a great distance to make a deposit, includes some common sense things to be aware of, now that this issue has come to light. For starters, once you get the information, GO! Head out immediately to make the transaction. Second, once you send the money and get your control number, stay close to the outlet and use your cell phone to call back and confirm that the deposit was received. And finally, if something does occur and your deposit does not go through, stay calm! This is a very common occurrence that we see happening more as the U.S. government continues to wage war against offshore gambling companies. New information will be given and your deposit can be re-routed. And finally, the most simple rule of thumb that all players should use: Give yourself some additional time to get a deposit through! Had Joe deposited on Friday for his Saturday afternoon game, any problems could have been corrected long before kickoff. Follow these simple suggestions to solve a common problem and you won't become another Joe.
 
Now Legends did understand the problem and did help Joe out a bit. They gave him a free play to win the $150 deposit that got fubared. Unfortunately, Joe missed out on the first winner, and that often can turn a whole weekend of betting around. Hopefully that free play cashes for him this weekend and he can get on a roll.


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