Vegas Bettors Bank Nearly $250K in 'Pure Theft'

Las Vegas bettors racked up nearly $250,000 in winnings last weekend in what might be the city's biggest sportsbook loss ever. The cause: an apparent manual-entry error that allowed people to bet on Korean and Chinese baseball games that had already started, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. "This was like going to the casino cage and sticking a gun in their faces," a Vegas sportsbook executive tells the Journal. "There's no difference. What these guys did was pure theft." Indeed, a Twitter user posted a photo of a Bellagio betting slip that turned a $100 bet on eight Korean baseball games into $11,156. Another $250 bet on 10 games was turned into $137,107.

Seems the nearly 50 wagers were made at self-serve Bellagio kiosks last Sunday between 1:30am and 3am for games that had started at 1am and 2am. The Nevada Gaming Control Board is said to be investigating, per ESPN, but the board has sided with at least one other "past post" bettor before. After all, the sportsbook BetMGM made the apparent blunder, even if bettors pushed the ethical envelope. It's not an uncommon occurrence, either: "We've had past post situations where our employees put in the wrong time or put in the wrong number or they forgot to close something," says Westgate sportsbook director John Murray. "It's manual entry and humans are going to make mistakes." (More Las Vegas stories.)