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A few points.......
It should be noted that many of the books that are reputable, and have paid their dues in this industry by doing things "right" have in fact recently come forward offering to do what they can with this latest Action Sports fiasco. A situation like this takes away from all of the hard work these good books have done over the years. Simply because you can be sure there are several players who were "on the fence" as far as posting up with an offshore book, only to read this recent horror story.
To the new guy, just discovering the internet and offshore wagering, there is no difference between Action Sports and SOS or Victor Chandler for example. One bad egg gives all the good guys a black eye. It's just the way it is. Hats off to the books NOT willing to tolerate this garbage.
As far as a "central clearing house", the idea sounds good, but then the 3rd party would have to have one hell of a repuatation going in, in order to gain the trust of the players overnight.
An association of books, in a situation where all of the books involved agreed to cover each other in case one went bad, would be the ultimate. The books that were a part of the association would also agree to transfer between each other, which would also eliminate the need for a central clearing house.
You the player would know going in, that your money was safe with any of the books belonging to the association, and would also know that you could simply transfer you funds to and from any of these books. The books involved would get just about all of the business, as very few players would do business with books not willing to adhere to the rules of the association.
The solid shops, coming together to police the industry, is probably the best way to go. A 3rd party involvement would more than likely raise too many questions as to what their agenda was.
Just my opinion........ -
Jeff, Dana
I doubt seriously that a monopoly of large books or solid books will ever happen.
Most books are totally independent of each other, not even caring what the other guy offers. In some sites they don't even want clerks from one place talking or associating with clerks from another establishment.
Would it really be in the best interests of the readers of this forum?
If the books got together and took away the sign-up perks. Because they didn't have to give them when the guy next door wasn't doing it anymore.
If places like ABC started charging vig on teasers.
If everyone started charging for payouts.
If everyone started using the same software with almost the same lines.
Maybe some kind of fund set up by the member books with a watchdog group to handle disputes would work. But the outlaws will always be out there looking to rob the public because thats what they do.
I have a feeling that we only read about a fraction of the people that get beat by some of the scam artists that are out there posing as bookmakers. Most people that get beat are embarressed to admit that they got taken.
THE DEVILComment
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Jeff/Don Best:
We agree whole-heartedly. The formation of a special interest group intended to police the "off-shore" gaming industry would do wonders for the credibility of the books involved.
All of the reputable books operating offshore have spent millions of dollars in licensing fee's, legal fees and have been scrutinized up and down by the U.S. government over the past few years.
We, as a whole, can ill afford the deceptive, thieving practices of individuals
such as the scamsters "boomer" was robbed by.
This incident has placed a blemish on us all.
I spoke with boomer a few days ago to see if we could help him out. We placed a call into the office of ASW and it has yet to be returned. We will continue to phone them until the call is returned.
Please post additional info regarding the Costa Rica meeting as it becomes available. We will try to participate one way or another.
Sterling Management.
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Are the offshore books considering getting rid of the dime line for baseball? Is that subject on the agenda for this meeting in San Jose?Comment
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The combination of high limits and the dime line resulted in several books having a losing baseball season last year.
Baseball season has always seemed more of a loss leader to keep customers for the lucrative football season.
With this in mind I suggest the books who lost last year with the baseball dime line simply reduce their limits, thereby keeping all their 97% of their clients who expect a dime line happy (and keep them sticking around until baseball season) while at the same time not losing money.Comment
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I joined 2001 sportsbook about 4 months ago and in those 4 months i made my initial deposit plus 4 more deposits into my account well 2 weeks ago i called to make my first and only withdrawl from my account and after having to ask twice for my dough they did send me a check IT BOUNCED!!!!!!!!!! what does licenced and insured mean and who do i see about this? i'm in arizona and they are down in costa rica! whats to keep these want-to-be bookies from screwing us? dadada...dadada...dadada-daaaaaa (shafted)Comment
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Interesting ideas. I think a 3rd party would have, as Jeff stated, certain credibility problems. The whole watchdog thing is already a bit thin even though most gamblers don't even know of their existence. By that I mean organizations like OSGA and CSBC. I mean I don't know, don't they already claim to be watchdogs or arbitrators?
I must say, on a different note, that I am encouraged by the active role that some books are taking to help in the whole Action Sports bs. It wouldn't be right to let the whole thing fade away without it being resolved.Comment
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I'm glad to hear that the Carribean sportsbooks are talking about getting more organized. Books from UK or Australia get instant credibility just because of their governments, in general much more so than a book from Costa Rica or even Antigua.
The idea of an independent third party just hasn't caught on. The books don't want them (witness OSGA and others that have tried). The only thing that might work here is a democratic group, made up of a rotating election of individuals from the participating books. In other words, a sort of confederation of representatives to self-govern some aspects of the busines. They could, among other things, serve to (a)help police the integrity of the industry, (b) offer arbitrage to player-book disputes, and (c)draw up a set of fair-play guidelines on so many of the gray area topics that we debate here.
As far as putting up money in one place and playing at multiple books: Jeff said it right, credibility of the central financial clearing house is the main obstacle. A big international bank with a good reputation could do this, for example. But not a new 3rd party organization. It's hard enough to trust each book with some of your money; trusting any one source with all of it would be much harder.
Devil, you are right about one thing here: too much collaboration would result in reduced competition, and not in the players' best interest.
Dana, I hope to see the day that trading sports futures is like a stock market. I'd like to point and click on the Don Best odds feed to make my investments directly.Comment
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Excellent point about the European and Austrailian books.
The chances are, they would never get involved with something like this. They don't need to.
When you take a look at a book like Victor Chandler, which has operated legally for decades in the UK, there would seem to be little need for them to get involved. Likewise books like Canbet, Intertops, etc.
There are still alot of books that prefer to do their own thing.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the future, but I wouldn't look for any widescale cooperation, for the simple fact that this industry is global.
People can't agree with their nextdoor neighbors, nevermind trying to unite people from across the globe......Comment
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I think it will in the interest of all players if we can have 1 account that let us make wager with several books
Players will also feel more safe playing with these books since they will police the industry and dump the bad books from the organization.
The problem with this kind of organization is it tends to be a cartel in the long run just like OPEC. They will start eliminating the competitive part of the business by offering clone lines, no reduce juice, no more dime lines, no sign up bonuses, etc.
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