The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) on Wednesday unanimously recommended that the state ease its rules on how sportsbooks respond after detecting that they erroneously accepted bets on sporting event outcomes that have already been determined.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board has proposed lifting a regulation requiring sportsbooks to gain state approval to cancel past-posted bets. The change would ease workload congestion at the state gaming regulatory agency. (Image: Nevada Gaming Control Board)
Known as “past-posted wagers,” a term that originated from horse racing and parimutuel bets made after the horses are called to the post, or starting gate, the NGCB endorsed an amendment to Regulation 22.060 and 22.115 that would lift reporting rules for accepting such late bets. Under the NGCB’s recommendation, Nevada’s licensed sportsbooks would no longer be required to seek approval to cancel past-posted bets.
The Nevada Gaming Commission is expected to adopt the proposal during its Aug. 22 meeting.
Under Nevada’s current sports betting regulations, when a sportsbook becomes aware that it accepted past-posted bets, the book must inform NGCB Chair Kirk Hendrick before canceling the action. Licensees also must submit supplemental data on the incident within 45 days.
Operational Fairness
Hendrick said during Wednesday’s meeting that the regulation adjustment lifts an unnecessary workload from the NGCB and its staff while easing licensees’ reporting requirements.
This is about trying to be fair, which is an overarching and important goal for the board, to both the patron and licensee,” Hendrick said.
The NGCB chair said that with the bulk of sports bets in Nevada now being made online and the in-person customer relationship with bookmakers no longer prevalent for most bettors, removing the past-posted reporting requirement makes sense.
In the digital age, there is an opportunity that if past-posting happens, a knowing or unknowing individual could place a bet on an event that has already had an outcome and cash that out and leave that electronic book,” Hendrick said. “They don’t care about the relationship [with the book].”
Hendrick went on to say that if an event already has an outcome, there can be no wagers under Nevada law.
“That’s a simple fact,” the board chair continued. “You can’t place a wager on [a decided outcome.] You can’t file a patron dispute if you knowingly or unknowingly place a bet on something that has already been determined.”
‘Nothing to Rescind’
John Michela, the senior deputy attorney general of the Gaming Division of the Nevada Attorney General’s Office, told the board that the lifting of the reporting requirement does not impact books’ house rules because there is technically no betting involved.
“What we’re saying in the draft language is that there’s nothing to rescind,” Michela responded to a question posed by NGCB Member Dr. Brittnie Watkins. “If a bet’s placed after the outcome has already been determined, it’s just flat-out not a wager. There’s nothing to rescind.”
NGCB Member George Assad, a retired judge, called past-posted wagers “legal fiction” that “didn’t happen.” Assad explained that legal bets are contracts between books and bettors mutually agreeing to terms on an undecided outcome.
If the Nevada Gaming Commission approves the board’s recommendation, sportsbooks would still be required to submit reports of canceled past-posted bets every 45 days to the state but would be free to rescind such bets without first gaining approval from Hendrick.
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