New Jersey officials ordered a British online gambling company to refund customers who won bets more than a half-million dollars after shorting them on payouts by unilaterally changing the odds on the bets.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement ordered bet365 to return more than $519,000 to 199 customers who were shorted on the payouts.
Bet365 told the regulators that it changed the odds because of "obvious error."
The acting head of the enforcement division said any company wanting to void or change a payout must first seek approval from the agency, saying the company actions were "a prolonged and unacceptable course of conduct."
"These types of multiple and serious violations cannot be tolerated in the New Jersey gaming regulatory system," Mary Jo Flaherty, interim director of the enforcement division, wrote in a July 22 letter to the company, the the Associated Press reported.
"No further such violations relating to the unilateral voiding of wagers will be tolerated," the letter continued.
The company did not contest the order and declined to comment.
New Jersey said the gambling company changed the odds on events in which bets had already been placed and won between 2020 and 2023 and paid out less than they were entitled under the originally posted odds.
The events ran the gamut from a table tennis match, NFL games, college basketball, mixed martial arts and the Masters golf tournament.
