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Columnist Buzz Daly: Sports Book Scene

"Can't we all just get along?" asked Rodney King after sustaining a beating by L.A.'s finest, then seeing his tormentors convicted in court.

The incident, captured on videotape, enthralled the nation and, not surprisingly, was subject to startlingly different interpretations.

A similar Rashomon-like occurrence is playing out on the Internet. We heard about it from Dalton Wagner, who runs several well-regarded Costa Rica-based sportsbooks including Players SuperBook (www.players-sb.com) and MVP Sportsbook (www.mvpsportsbook.com).

It seems he was running a promotion designed as a lead generator for one of his books, BetVSI (Virtual Sportsbook International, at www.betvsi.com). He offered a free $10 three-team parlay. According to the rules, participants could enter only once.

However, one aggressive bettor signed up 19 times, says Wagner. In fact, he did so over the phone. When the player was busted by the book, long after the signups had been accomplished, the player went on various Internet posting forums berating BetVSI.

Typical was this thread posted at MajorWager on June 5: "I just got screwed by BetVSI!"

Like the Rodney King incident, this one has many perspectives, depending on who is relating the story. It could easily be characterized as much ado about nothing, but that would be simplistic.

Posting forums exist to air gripes. The size of the gripe is in the eye of the beholder.

We're not going to take either side, except to point out that we believe there's a certain amount of culpability on both sides.

The book didn't take enough safeguards to preclude an opportunist from signing up multiple times, in clear violation of the book's rules and fair play. "Players frequently come in under multiple accounts which must be consolidated," explained Wagner.

But by making it easy for someone to circumvent the rules, the book in a sense was encouraging what happened.

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche says she has, " ... always relied on the kindness of strangers." That is not a viable modus operandi for a sportsbook.

The player tried to pull a fast one, was chagrined at being caught, and decided to engage in a little payback by taking his story all over the Internet.

Based on responses at M-W, that was not a fully realized strategy. "The more you post about this the more stupid you look," asserted one regular.

Even one of the forum's principals, The Major, questioned the propriety of opening 19 accounts under one name.

In the dog days of summer, incidents like these get blown out of proportion due to a lack of substantive issues.

Dalton Wagner runs successful books because he exercises a great deal of professionalism, is eminently fair with his client base and has a reputation for prompt payments. He cited other books that use the same type of inducement, but with larger free bets.

When we asked him if this signup incentive was worth it, he replied, "Generally, they work as a good lead generator, and actually produce a good turnover. That is, we convert enough trial players to make it worthwhile. But now I am questioning its effectiveness, especially when I have to spend two days battling in the posting forums over $10."

Wagner noted that this type of incentive produces highly qualified leads. It attracts people who know how to place a parlay which, unlike a straight bet, actually takes a reasonable knowledge of betting.

That qualification could easily include opportunists who look to take advantage of a book's inadvertent soft spots.

Wagner did the math and suggested that with 19 accounts, the player could play round robins against each other, narrowing down the accounts to six or seven, then make bets on opposite sides of a game.

Eventually there would be one account with a substantial amount of money, which the player then would most likely close.

Maybe if the books tightened up their procedures and stopped being easy targets, those who probe the books' offers with larceny in their hearts would get frustrated and look elsewhere.

People went back and forth on the posting-forum thread for several days. But we agree with a post that asserted: "Just forget it already." Amen.

Internet Gaming Under New Attack. Those wonderful folks who think they have the right to tell the rest of us what to do with our lives have cyberspace gaming in their cross hairs once again.

Anti-gaming leader Tom Grey, and his merry band of holier-than-thou zealots, is trying to enlist Attorney General John Ashcroft in a crusade to crack down on Internet gaming.

Grey attributes many of the ills of society today upon the negative effects of gambling, as documented by his agenda-driven ribbon clerks.

When a bill to ban gambling on the Internet is introduced later this month by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-VA, Ashcroft is expected to help steamroller it through Congress. It brings to mind the words déjà vu and Janet Reno.

Unfortunately, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Especially in politics.

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