CreditWagering

Bet on Credit

Attempting to blend the best of both the online and the real worlds, the book offers credit wagering of up to $400 before a player is required to “settle up” and deposit money to the book. The book gives you a balance to begin of $1,000.

So this means that similar to a real world, underground bookie, you don’t have to actually post the funds right away or up front.

Players must roll over the money (bet the money) 5x before withdrawing, according to the site’s terms and conditions. (I could not get on the official site since it seems to be down right now).

However, not all news is good news when it comes to CreditWagering. Actually, when we look at the facts, it appears none of the news is good. We highly recommend you stay far, far away from CreditWagering. Here’s why.

Slow Pays and No Pays

CreditWagering has always had a history of at least being very slow in paying clients. Sportsbook Review initiated their coverage of CreditWagering in 2008 at a less than stellar D, just above complete fraud. This rating came about because of many reports of slow pays from people that never filed previous complaints.[1]

Also, Sportsbook Review is pretty sharp and they always advise caution when a bright, “new” idea comes up that seems a little too good to actually be true.

The slow pays officially total at least 13 players for a total of at least $21,000. Many players who have honestly settled up after being down at least $400, have later tried to cash out winnings and have been slow rolled.

This has dragged on for months on end with no clear path in sight to a payout. The site will not return emails or phone calls, and there is of course no legal recourse through police or courts, so players are stuck trying to plead their case to impartial sites such as Sportsbook Review.

Players claimed all sorts of tactics have been used to stall and not pay. Some players were promised to be sent a debit card that was to then be loaded with their winnings. Not only were the cards late in coming, but they came preloaded with $0. When players tried to contact the site with the card details to attempt to get paid, the site either ignored them or lied and said it was processing, pending, or under review.

Of course, some players are not very honest, and have not squared up after losing the initial credit granted by the site. However, even in this area, CreditWagering has been trying to angle shoot its way to more of players’ hard earned money.

Using Fake IDs and Names To Build A List of “Stiffs”

CreditWagering has had legitimate cases of players betting, losing, and not settling up. This is, of course, to be expected. With no legal recourse, no harm to your credit report, and no actual way to collect, many bettors simply figure they can bet and freeroll the site.

If they win, of course they will cash out. If not, oh well, forget about it and move on. Nothing will happen. So in this area CreditWagering does have a legitimate beef with certain customers.

However, the problem is that they have destroyed all credibility by forging a list of “Stiffs” who did not pay! The list is very poorly done, and is actually quite amateurish. This brings us up to 2010, and somehow the site remained in business for that long.

Allegedly, CreditWagering has a list of players who did not pay, but the names do not match up with the IDs in the pictures! One of the only requirements to attain credit at the site was to send a valid ID, and some players undoubtedly are on the Stiffs list who actually were winners, or who lost and actually paid.

Such is life dealing with CreditWagering.com. Anyone involved could be caught in the crosshairs at any time. Again, it is best to run far, far away and never look back.

A Pyramid (Ponzi) Scheme Gone Bad

A common theme amongst scam books is to model after traditional, Bernie Madoff style Ponzi schemes. At first, you put out a legitimate facade, and take normal deposits and make payouts as best you can for as long as possible. As long as new money is coming in, things are fine.

Problems start to arise when players request some of their money back, for whatever reason. This usually occurs right around the same time as the original fraudsters are busy spending all their ill gotten gains.

Part of this article, supposedly updated in 2009, gives an example of how some were sucked in to this seemingly great offer to wager on credit, on the internet:

“The ultimate question for creditwagering.com, or any relatively new sportsbook, is ‘Are They Safe?’

There isn’t any easy answer to that, but what I do know is that so far creditwagering.com has been meeting its obligations to winning bettors.”[2]

Of course, this has not proven to be true. Sure, maybe for a short time players were getting paid, but over time, the amount of players who figured out it was easy enough to simply walk away from their losses far outweighed the legitimate folks who wanted to square up, win or lose. But as we saw above, we cannot blame players for the book’s failure to pay.

Quite simply, if you take a bet, you must pay to remain in business. You cannot take bets on both sides, and only have one side pay, and hope to remain in business either. So this “business model” was flawed from Day 1, but they failed to adjust and it has cost them.

The site currently is down, with no way to log on or even sign up as of right now. It is just another in a long line of red flags when considering CreditWagering.com.

You are better off playing your local lottery or some Keno at the casino than trying to get money on this site. At least if you win with those bets, you will get paid. CreditWagering, not so much.

References

[1] Thread discussing the alleged “Stiff” List – The official site is down at the time of this article. Refer to post 5 in the thread for more details.

[2] “Credit Wagering Sportsbook” – Link to About.com Article.