Online gambling website, WagerWeb.com, refuses to pay one of its customers over $37,000. The sports betting firm, based in Costa Rica, claims the customer in question past posted his bets.

Sportsbook Review issued the following statement:

A player won $37,451 making over 60 football wagers through the month of October. At the end of October, the player requested his funds and was given $5,000, which equaled the total amount he deposited. He was told his winnings would not be paid due to wagering fraud. WagerWeb states the player stalled wagering phone clerks, giving him the ability to make bets after kick-off. The book has thus far provided evidence that the player bet six minutes after the start of one game. SBR has reviewed multiple examples of his NFL wagers which were found to have been placed prior to kick off. This dispute highlights WagerWeb's on-going problems with risk management and their inability to deal with issues in real time. If the book identifies a bet placed after the start of a game it is expected to cancel the wager immediately, informing the player of its error of failing to close the betting market on time- as opposed to allowing the player's funds to be risked and later canceling the bet upon auditing his wagering history. Regardless of past-posting claims, Wagerweb has unjustly punished the player labeling his account as fraudulent instead of addressing individual wagers. SBR has asked Wagerweb to address each individual bet and to pay the player for all wagers where he was allowed to put his funds at risk.

While many will say "To Hell with the player who is blatantly past posting", the issue goes somewhat deeper. As SBR points out, WagerWeb routinely allows betting past the start of game time, as do some other bookmakers.

Had the player complained that Wagerweb canceled one bet after the game due to it coming in late, it would be a non-issue. His funds were risked and there was no attempt to let him know his bet was no good before the game ended.

When it happens 60 times it becomes clear that neither party is doing it by accident. The facts are the player bets late as allowed and WagerWeb allows late bets.

"Players such as these deserve NOTHING," said one gambler on the SBR Forum. "I don't care what you guys think. Book the Bet , Pay the Bet (Bull****). Dishonest whores like this should be getting zero."

Instead this becomes a clear example of what not to do in avoiding bad public relations.

Though few are going to sympathize with the player in this matter, the concern lies with the concept that WagerWeb does not have entirely clean hands in this matter either. The million dollar question can be asked: "Was WagerWeb allowing the past posts in hopes that the player would lose back monies previously won?"

The online gambling community needs to cut these "bad apples" the moment they are found to be past posting on more than one occasion in a given month (a past post once in a while can be deemed an honest mistake and given some slack, clearly this example shows a rather blatant trend). With that said, these individuals should be paid, showed the door, and blacklisted.

In the end, it's the honest gambler who suffers as was the case when the online gambling community had to tighten its bonus policies due to abuse.

WagerWeb, with its impeccable past reputation, should be above this nonsense.

Courtesy of Christopher Costigan, www.Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com