Because they have to report to the IRS, and they want to ensure that you don’t go out and get 200 Visa gift cards and create 200 accounts to take advantage of their “bet $5, get $150 in free bets!” promo.
Casinos don’t ask for your SSN until you try to cash out winnings above a certain limit, so that one isn’t really necessary. So it’s purely for the promotions thing I guess.
Obviously they aren’t being dicks. They are required to do it or they wouldn’t do it. Why would they want to do something to dissuade people?
The promotional thing is giving you money which is taxable.They will send you a 1099 and tell the IRS if it’s over $600 in winnings and you can write off gambling losses against the winnings.
Is the $150 bonus taxable, even if you don’t win anything with it? That’s a complete dealbreaker then.
And casinos don’t require any info until your winnings pass $600. It would be trivial for them to tell you up front that they either can collect your SSN now, or if you cash out > $600 you need to provide it then to get the money.
Net gambling winnings for the year are taxable. Even if it’s $10. It’s income. The company is only required to report it to the IRS and send you a 1099 if it’s over $600 so let your conscience be your guide.
Edit: I am not 100% positive if them giving you $200 is taxable but I’m pretty sure it is. If you lost $50 and they gave you $150, the $150 is taxable.
And it’s over all gambling. If you spent $100 on lottery tickets and didn’t win anything then that’s a write off against those earnings.
The promotional money they give you isn’t real withdrawable money - it’s just bets you can make within the next 7 days, and you only get the winnings, not the stake, so I would think the $150 promotion is not taxable in and of itself. If I bet the $150 and lose it all, my net winning/losing is $0. If I bet the $150 on an even bet, and win $150, then withdraw that $150, my net winning is $150, not $300.
We are getting into the weeds here. This isn’t a matter of opinion to argue about. There is settled tax law on this and as I said I am not 100% positive but I think that the net winning is what you take out which is your profit.
If you get their fake $200 and make a bunch of bets and break even and take out the $200, your income is $200. If you lose it all, you have no income. It’s simply easier to ask for a SSN for all signups. If they don’t end up needing to use it, no biggie. They have no incentive to make it easier for people like you (and me in the future) who are gaming the system.
Except that there’s yet another entity, certainly with an unsavory past, that now has your SSN.
And the reason that I was harping on the tax issue was it totally changes the equation. If the fake $150 is taxable, then, legally, using this scheme you would wind up with $450 of taxable income but only $150 in your pocket, so depending on your tax bracket you’ve made very little or even lost money.
If that’s a deal killer for you, so be it. I can’t really argue with you. Again, real customers for them aren’t going to have an issue with it plus it has the benefit of screening out some non-customers getting the deal.
But let’s be real. If I had your first and last name and where you live (maybe also your age if you have a common name) I can get your SSN in ten minutes for $75.
You seem to be more confident about this happening than a few other people I know. Remember, since the gambling ban is in the state Constitution, it requires a ballot measure, and not just a legislative bill signed by the Governor, to change it, and of the two that were on the ballot in 2022, one got a 2/3 “no” vote, and the other a 5/6 “no” vote. There are a couple of bills currently in the petition state, one of which would allow the legislature to pass a bill allowing for sports betting, but I don’t think they’re going to qualify for the 2024 ballot.
It’ll be a while but I think it will happen. The gambling interests have super deep pockets and are playing the long game. They had no expectation that it would pass the first time. All of that marketing for DraftKings or whatever during sports events will push the envelope.
You make it sound like DK didn’t market its 2022 one. On the contrary - the first commercial supporting the measure that switched from “It will create income/jobs for the tribes” to, “It’s legalized online betting!” aired less than 15 minutes into Fox’s first NFL pregame show this season. The problem was, and almost certainly will be next time, for every one of those ads, there were two or three of some combination of, “You can’t prevent your kids from betting online!” and “DraftKings and FanDuel will pocket pretty much all of the money and keep it out of California.” I hadn’t seen such an organized anti-gambling effort since the state tried to legalize dog racing.
I know what a parlay is. I was trying to agree with you–that the odds in a parlay are not necessarily what one might think they are.
This doesn’t appear to always be the case, as sometimes it seems that the book will skew the odds the other direction.
For instance, on DK today, ‘Nelson Agholor anytime TD scorer’ is listed at 6.00. ‘Lamar Jackson first TD scorer’ is listed at 7.00. Using your calculation, the parlay odds should be somewhere around 42.00. But if I add those two bets to my bet slip as a parlay, the odds are 48.00.
Why? I have no idea.
(For the examples above, the ‘American’ odds are Agholor +500 and Jackson +600; the ‘Fractional’ odds are Agholor 5/1 and Jackson 6/1.)
I’ll take your word for it. I don’t watch very much sports. Why then would they drop tens of millions for a lost cause?
Seems clear. The 6.00 on Agholor does win if he scores 1 and only 1 TD and it’s the first of the game. That situation will guarantee your bet builder loss. Odds for “Agholor scores at least one TD that is not the first of the game” would be higher, and that’s what you need if your Jackson bet is going to win.
It’s not real money, so it’s not taxable. You receive $150 in free bets. You cannot withdraw that money and put it in your pocket.
As others have said, if you win some money with those free bets, then, yes, it’s income. But it won’t be reported by the book unless you have a big enough winning to generate a 1099. AIUI, you can have a shit-ton of smallish wins and none of them will be reported, much like if you hit several good spins at a slot machine. But if you bet 3000 bucks, hit the bet, and win 2500, then it will be reported, just like if you hit a 2500 dollar jackpot on the slot machine.
I honestly have no idea - maybe they’ve been boosting parlay odds lately. I know they advertise the hell out of them on my social media feeds, they’re always showing “this bettor just hit on a six-leg parlay!!” type ads.
Interesting - i wonder if that’s it. Railer, can you build another parlay of just anytime TDs and see if there’s an odds boost?
Certainly.
As I said above, Agholor anytime TD is listed at 6.00. Jackson anytime TD is listed as 2.05.
Building a parlay of those two bets yields odds of 11.00. Which is right in line with the ‘odds-shaving’ that @Munch was describing.
Great catch, @colinfred!
FWIW, I did go ahead and do this. Somewhat more annoying than I originally figured. I tried to do it from my laptop, and fanduel kept telling me it couldn’t verify my location, even after I installed the plugin so I had to install it on my phone. mgm had no issues.
Fanduel gives you $150 in bonus bets to use anyway you want, mgm gives you $50, $50, $58 bets, which have to be used individually. So I had to find 3 games with the same spread on each site & close to even odds to get the most guaranteed winnings. I wound up betting both sides of the spread on a basketball game & both sides of the over/under on 2 hockey games.