Delays and risks with payouts from Bodog to U.S. players

Last update: December 10, 2008

by Michael Bluejay, assistant to the Wizard of Odds

U.S. players are now getting checks from Bodog in 2-3 weeks, which is a respective timeframe considering the banking problems that are plaguing the industry. The article below remains for historical purposes only. It was last updated in September 2008.

Old, obsolete article (for historical purposes only)

Before we talk about the problems with payouts, let's be clear that they don't affect everyone. Payouts are a possible issue only if all the following are true:

You play at Bodog for real money. If you just play the free games, which we recommend, you won't need a payout.
You win, or at least have money left over when you're done. If you bet all your money away like most gamblers, you can't get a payout.
You're in the U.S. It's easier to find banks to handle payouts to citizens of just about every other country besides the U.S.
You requested your payout by check. Bodog currently has at least one other payout method which is faster than check, but a little more cumbersome.

If you're a U.S. player playing for real money, the Wizard recommends you call Bodog at 1-888-263-0000 to find out about current deposit and withdrawal methods (and timeframes) before making your next deposit. Here's why.

As most of you know, the fall 2006 UIGEA law made it illegal for banks to process online gambling transactions. Most operators stopped serving the U.S. market at that point, but Bodog continued to serve U.S. players. Things continued without incident until recently when two things changed:

Payment delays. It's become harder and harder for Bodog to find processors willing to handle its transactions and able to do so quickly, so many U.S. players now have to wait up to two months to get a payout by check -- sometimes longer.
Threat of fed action. The federal government clamped down on one of Bodog's previous processors, and many observers think the feds will go after Bodog or its current processors next. If that happens, Bodog funds could be seized. There's precedent for this -- a while back the feds froze Neteller's accounts, even though Neteller was located offshore, and it took players months to get their money out. The Wizard knows this well, since he was personally affected.

Now, if you're a U.S. player who has been waiting for more than two months for your payout, then by all means please let the Wizard know. We have a direct line to Bodog and we'll do our best to get that cleared up for you.

How we've dealt with all this

When we first started getting complaints about slow payments from Bodog we immediately took that up with Bodog management. We asked them to be more up front about the payment delays with players, and we also said that to be honest with our readers we needed to either post prominent disclaimers about the payment delays and the risk of further fed action on our site, or end our advertising relationship with them. Bodog agreed to post more useful information about the payout timeframe on its website, and tells us that such updates are imminent. They also agreed to our posting the disclaimers.

Going forward

Even with the current problems, we still feel that Bodog is a solid operation, and we feel that all players will be properly paid, even if it takes a while. Even if the feds take action against Bodog, the Wizard feels it's likely that players will still be able to get their money back, just as Neteller customers were able to get their money after the feds cracked down on Neteller. It just might take a while, as it did in the Neteller case. And we still feel that Bodog offers several things not available anywhere else. That's why for nearly three years the one and only advertiser we've had on WizardOfOdds.com has been Bodog. In fact, we're not sure there even is another operator which offers all of the following:

Free-play games which you can play without registering an account.
Free-play games which play right in your browser.
Free-play games that are Mac-compatible.
Ability for U.S. players to play for real money if they so choose.
Casino games, poker, and sports betting all playable from the same account.
24-hour phone-based customer support, with support staff not handling multiple different casinos at once, and where the reps speak fluent English.
Hassle-free signup bonus, with no games excluded from the playthrough requirement.
Excellent odds -- for example, Pick 'em Poker with a 99.95% return.

The Wizard and I will continue to keep a close eye on these issues, and as long as there are payment delays or (we feel) a significant risk of the feds seizing Bodog funds, we'll continue to run the prominent disclaimers. Integrity is important to us, and we always intend to be 100% completely up front with our readers.

(Message approved by the Wizard of Odds.)

Links

A post at Covers.com explains how payment processing works and why casinos are having a hard time getting them to process checks for U.S. players.

The Wizard's other sites: Wizard of Macau, Sweat the Money, Math Problems