Las Vegas Sports Bettor Claims William Hill Screwed Him Out of $40K PGA Bet

A Las Vegas sports bettor thought he was flush with cash when he backed outsider Joel Moscatel Nachshon to win the first round of the 2023 Australian PGA Championship via William Hill.

Now the bettor claims he was shortchanged by nearly $40K by the Caesars Entertainment-owned sportsbook, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The gambler, whose name hasn’t been made public, placed $200 on Moscatel to win at odds of +20,000. The little-known Spanish golfer was ranked 1,162nd in the world at the time, but for that day only, he played like the number one.

Moscatel finished the tournament in seventh place with an 11-under-par score, but his Day 1 performance had made the gambler $40K richer – or so he thought.

Odds Slashed

When the bettor tried to claim his winnings, he was told the odds of +20,000 had been posted in error and that the real odds were +400, leaving him with just $800 in winnings.

It’s not clear why William Hill would have offered such short odds on a player ranked 1,162nd in the world, even less so why anyone would have taken such a bet. But the aggrieved sports bettor wants to find out.

The sports bettor claimed that the winning $40,200 ticket (winnings plus stake) was in his William Hill account for five days before the company switched it for the lower ticket without explanation.

Small Print

William Hill’s terms and conditions state: “We reserve the right, pending regulatory approval, to correct any obvious error made on a wager placed in one of our betting Live markets and settle at the correct odds or terms, which were available with William Hill Sportsbook (absent the obvious error) at the time the wager was struck. … Where the incorrect odds or terms are less advantageous than those available with William Hill Sportsbook, the odds or terms will be amended to the correct odds or terms available.”

In September 2022, the NGC fined William Hill $100K after a glitch in its systems duplicated roughly 55K bets, shortchanging customers by around $1.3 million.