Legal sports betting in the United States showed its inexperience this week after bettors at New Jersey’s Meadowlands racetrack left the venue without being paid their winnings.
The Meadowlands’ FanDuel-branded sportsbook hasn’t been open two weeks and its growing pains were on full display Tuesday night after winning bettors attempted to cash out following the conclusion of a marathon baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Initial reports via bettors’ social media feeds indicated that many bettors were unable to cash out their winning tickets, allegedly due to the sportsbook not having sufficient cash on hand. This mishap occurred despite some punters claiming that FanDuel staffers had told them that winning tickets would be processed following the game’s conclusion.
On Wednesday, ESPN scribe David Purdum quoted one of the aggrieved bettors saying he’d been told by FanDuel staff that the money needed to pay all bettors was “in the vault” and couldn’t be accessed until morning. The bettor, who was flying to Atlanta in the morning, said he and other bettors in his situation “kind of left disgruntled.”