DraftKings looks to limit some bets by nixing duplicate wagers

A sign went up on the kiosks at DraftKings’ retail shop in Atlantic City that has stirred the ire of seasoned sports bettors.

“Duplicate wagers placed on the kiosk that exceeds [sic] our house limits will be canceled. Any questions see sports book manager.”

DraftKings almost surely created the policy to shield itself from bettors trying to blow past the sportsbook’s desired limits. They certainly have the right to protect themselves from nefarious actors, but this isn’t the way, industry experts say.

For example, let’s say the most DK wants to allow for the over/under on how many assists Joel Embiid has in a game is $300. A bettor who wants heavier action than DraftKings wants would bet $300 multiple times at a kiosk, exploiting the anonymity that comes with playing at the automated machines.

Under this policy, DraftKings will pay the first winning bet, but all others will be canceled and a refund would be issued. A message left with DraftKings was not returned.

» READ MORE: D. Wayne Lukas looking for Secret Oath to become seventh filly to win the Preakness Stakes

“This is the definition of free-rolling your customers,” Jeffrey Benson, operations manager at Circa in Las Vegas, tweeted recently. “These are the kind of things that operators do that continue to cause the bookie/bettor relationship to be adversarial.”

So, in our case, the person who made multiple successful $300 wagers gets paid only up until the limit. Everything else is canceled, and the original stake is refunded.

But what happens when that bet loses? The law of unintended consequences.

“It seems that only DraftKings has this issue,” said Jack Andrews, co-founder of Unabated.com, a website geared toward educating novice bettors. “Any sports book that has kiosk wagering is aware that this is a blind spot where maybe a sharp bettor who you wouldn’t want to take action can get down anonymously. … FanDuel doesn’t have this problem. I know for a fact that if you go to FanDuel and you attempt to make a wager repeatedly, your kiosk suddenly shuts off. And if you move to another kiosk and try it, you’re going to get a tap on the shoulder and get told sternly, ‘If you keep that up, you’re out of here.’ ”

News: Kansas recently became the 35th state to legalize sports betting. Wisely, there are no restrictions against wagering on college teams (like in, ahem, New Jersey) and the state will take a 10% cut of all bets. The Kansas City Star reports that some of that revenue will go toward investigations involving illegal gambling, as well as toward the “Attracting Professional Sports to Kansas Fund,” which could – among other things – help lure the Kansas City Chiefs out of Missouri.

MLB: The Astros had won 10 in a row when “Mattress Mack” put $4 million down on them to win the World Series. Since those wagers ($3 million with Caesars, $1 million with WynnBet), Houston is 4-3 entering the weekend and lost starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi for several months with a leg/ankle injury.

MLB: Caesars took a $25,000 play from an Arizona customer on the Phillies at +850 to win the NL East right after they took three of four from the Dodgers out in L.A. They were 5 ½ games back at the time. Entering Friday’s rematch series in Philadelphia, the Phillies were seven games back.

News: South Philly native Anthony Buchanico recently was named director of retail sportsbook operations at the Hard Rock in Atlantic City.

NHL: Midway through the third period of Wednesday’s game between Edmonton and Calgary, the over-under was 15.5. Calgary won, 9-6. Fifteen-and-a-half. LOL.

Turns out the story of the Borgata ticket writer who helped a customer win $800 on Rich Strike at the Kentucky Derby was peanuts.

» READ MORE: Epicenter, Secret Oath, Happy Jack? A look at betting the Preakness field

A woman on Derby day came to Anita Poma’s window wanting to bet a trifecta box of 3-10-20 (Epicenter-Zandon-Ethereal Road), except Ethereal Road had been scratched. So Poma suggested Rich Strike, the No. 21 horse who took Ethereal Road’s place in the lineup just the day before. Rich Strike won the race at 81-1, Epicenter finished second, and Zandon came in third. The trifecta paid out $29,741.40.

For what it’s worth, Poma, who “knows next to nothing about horse racing” according to sportsbook head Tom Gable, likes Simplification (the 1-horse at 6-1) for Saturday’s Preakness.

Some ‘books took some interesting action on Tiger Woods for this weekend’s PGA Championship, including a $20,000 play at Caesars when he was 60-1 to win the tournament.

Jeff Davis, a golf trader at Circa, welcomed the activity.

“There’s a bunch of liability on Tiger, but there’s no nerves,” he told NESN analyst Sam Panayotovich prior to the tournament. “I’m actually going further and further out on the price. Since Tiger is not going to win, I might as well raise him.”

Woods was 104-1 at Circa before he shot a 4-over 74 in the opening round.

Circa then priced Tiger at +235 to make the cut, -280 to miss it.

Old friend Scott Hanson, who once toiled at then-Comcast SportsNet at Broad & Pattison, has become a national celebrity for the NFL Network. Recently, he revealed on Twitter that he had jury duty. Even stars must do their civic duty.

Hanson’s most popular work is as host of “Red Zone,” which tracks every score of every NFL game on Sundays. It has grown as sports betting has exploded; and fantasy footballers can’t live without it, either. Some of the replies to his jury duty tweet were humorous.

*Let them know you are only available on Sundays for seven hours, the trial must be commercial-free, and all exhibits must be presented in octobox form.

*When they are about to present closing arguments, say “Welcome to the witching hour where wins become losses and losses become wins.” See which lawyer handles it better and vote for that side.

*Whatever you do, don’t tell them you’re really good at sitting in one place for a really long time with little to no breaks.