Why Bookmakers Close or Limit Accounts

From time to time, bookmakers will decide to limit a customer’s account. When
an account becomes limited, it means that the amount that they can wager is
restricted. Often, bookmakers will limit accounts that are winning too much or
are suspected of doing something else that is against the rules. The goal of
bookmakers limiting an account is to help protect themselves. It’s worth noting
that in some circumstances, a bookmaker may close an account entirely if they
feel that the gambler is too much of an issue.

If it’s ever happened to you, you know how frustrating it is. After getting
yourself settled into a sportsbook, you then all of a sudden find your account
limited or closed. It’s no fun, and it’s a complete pain.

Dealing with a limited or closed betting account is something that you should
understand even if it has never happened to you before. In this article, we’re
going to help you gain a greater understanding of why bookmakers limit accounts.
Ultimately, our goal is to help you understand why accounts are limited and how
you can hopefully avoid it happening to you.

Top Reasons Why Bookmakers Limit Accounts

We’ve collected detailed information about the top reasons that bookmakers
might limit a betting account. After reading this section, you’ll have a better
idea about what bookmakers take into consideration when it comes to limiting
accounts. Make sure to keep this information in mind as you execute your sports
betting moving forward.

You Win Too Much

If you end up winning too much, there is a high likelihood that your betting
account will be limited or even potentially closed. While this might not be
obvious to you, this is, in fact, the most popular reason why betting accounts
are limited or closed by a sportsbook. It’s obviously great if you’re winning
too much as that means that you’re making money. However, it’s not great if that
ends up limiting or closing your betting account.

At the end of the day, sportsbooks are in the business to make a profit.
Sportsbooks don’t mind clients that win here and there. However, if you end up
winning more often than not, that means the sportsbook is losing money on you,
and they don’t like that. While it might not seem fair that they can limit or
close your account because you win too much, it is within their rights to do
this.

Bonus and Promotion Abuse

Another reason why sportsbooks will limit some accounts is if the client has
abused their bonuses and promotions. While it is very common for online
sportsbooks to offer tons of promotions and bonuses, they also don’t want you to
abuse them. Sportsbooks are offering these promotions as a way to help bring in
new customers while also keeping current customers happy.

From an abuse standpoint, sportsbooks will pay attention to how often you are
betting on promotional offers.

By only taking advantage of bonus
and promotional wagers, the odds are that your account is most likely not a
profitable one for the sportsbook. If you are not betting on things occasionally
that are not tied to a bonus offer, your account might be at risk of being
limited or closed.

Potential Arbitrage

Sportsbooks are not fans of arbitrage. If you’re not sure what arbitrage is,
allow us to get you up to speed. Arbitrage (also known as arbing) is when you
place wagers on both outcomes of an event when there is a large gap between the
odds at two different sportsbooks. If you’re able to identify a large enough gap
in the odds difference, it is possible for you to make money regardless of the
outcome of the sporting event.

Since the goal of arbing is always to make a profit, that means that
sportsbooks tend to lose more often than not. Therefore, sportsbooks will seek
to identify accounts that are potentially using arbitrage and limit or close
them to help limit their exposure to loss. One of the red flags for sportsbooks
are accounts that nearly always bet non-round wager amounts.

Potential More Than One Account

One of the things that sportsbooks hate the most is people that open two
different accounts. Often, people will try this in an attempt to abuse bonus and
promotional offers. For example, a guy with his own account might also open an
account under his wife’s name so that he can double up on the initial welcome
deposit bonus match. Unfortunately, this isn’t cool in the eyes of online
sportsbooks, and they will usually close accounts quickly once the duplicate
account is discovered.

Over the years, online sportsbooks have developed lots of tools to help them
identify potential duplicate accounts. We know that they use IP address tracking
on a basic level, but it gets much more advanced than that. Many of their
methods and tools to identify duplicate accounts are trade secrets. A sportsbook
will close a known duplicate account, but they might also end up limiting or
closing an account if they have their suspicions that it may be a duplicate
account.

You Bet Weird Amounts

Something that will get your account quickly flagged is if you end up betting
weird amounts. By weird amounts, we’re referring to non-round wagers.

Arbitragers, otherwise known as arbers, are usually professional gamblers.
They’ve used their systems and methods to make calculated bets down to the
penny. Therefore, arbers end up placing frequent wagers at weird amounts. Since
sportsbooks are not fans of arbers, as they tend to cost them money in the long
haul, you’ll want to do your best to avoid betting like one to keep your account
from being limited or closed.

Ignoring Bonuses and Promotional Offers

Another item that could have your account flagged as a potential professional
gambler is if you completely ignore bonuses and promotional offers from a
sportsbook. Let’s be honest, everyone likes free money! However, many
professional gamblers won’t waste their time dealing with bonus offers. For
them, they tend to come in knowing their exact game plan for bets, and they
won’t monkey around with the promotional offers.

Even if not intentional, your lack of use when it comes to a site’s
promotions might get your account limited or closed. By using at least an offer
or two on your account, you should most likely be in good shape to not look like
a professional gambler.

Your Behavior

In their search to identify potential professional gamblers, bookmakers will
also keep an eye on user behavior. One of the things that they look for is how
long you hang around on the site when you visit. If you’re a typical
recreational sports bettor, you’ll hang around on the site and poke around into
many different things as you search for potential wagers. In some cases, you
might also stick around to watch live matches through the bookmaker’s website.

However, professional gamblers act very differently than recreational ones.
For a professional, they’ll simply log in to the site, place the wager, and then
head off to another sportsbook’s website to place more wagers. You won’t find
professionals hanging around just simply to check things out.

Is It Legal?

In short, it is not illegal for a sportsbook to limit your account, close
your account or not accept your wager. Even though a sportsbook might advertise
a bet with specified odds, they are under no obligation to accept your wager.
Said differently, you can’t force someone to take a bet.

While this might be a tough pill to swallow, it is the truth. We’d suggest
that you read our section below relating to tips for avoiding having your
account limited. There, you’ll find lots of helpful guidance on how you can try
to limit your chances of having your account limited since the sportsbooks are
within their legal right to do it if they see fit.

Is It Ethical?

Now that you know that it is not illegal for a sportsbook to close your
account, limit your account or not accept your wager, you might be wondering to
yourself if it is ethical on their part. It is important to remember that
sportsbooks are in the business of making money. To protect their profitability,
they will take actions from time to time that might seem unethical or unfair to
the end users. Ultimately, sportsbooks are free to accept or deny wagers from
any client based on their own determinations.

Tips to Avoid Having Your Account Limited

In this section, we wanted to provide you with our top tips on how you can
avoid having your betting account limited or closed. While none of these are
fail-safe methods; these are all great to keep in mind as you place your sports
wagers. Using this information, you’ll be able to better protect yourself from
dealing with a limited or closed betting account.

Bet Round Numbers

One of the biggest tips that we have for you to help keep your betting
account from being limited is to bet in round numbers whenever possible. By
round numbers, we mean that you’ll want to place a wager of $55.00 rounded to
the dollar. What you want to avoid doing is placing a wager of $55.47. If you’re
not using round number wagers, you’re likely to be flagged as a potential
arbitrager.

Start Small

Sportsbooks, in general, are not huge fans of professional sports bettors. In
general, professional gamblers tend to take out more money than they put in.
That means that the sportsbooks are typically losing on professional gamblers.
It is due to this likelihood of losing that sportsbooks don’t like professional
sports bettors.

Assuming you’re not a professional sports bettor, you’ll want to make sure to
do your part to not look like one. To accomplish this, one of the things that
you’ll want to do is ease your way into betting when you’re new to a sportsbook.
What you’ll want to avoid is coming in with a massive deposit and then begin
making massive wagers using more complicated bet types.

Our suggestion would be for you to begin with a modest deposit and then begin
to start with some smaller and simpler wagers. The good thing is that this
allows you to get a feel for betting on the sportsbook platform while also
keeping your account from being flagged as a potential professional gambler.

Cash Out and Deposit Less Often

Every time that you deposit and withdraw funds from your betting account, it
costs the sportsbook a fee through their bank or payment processor. While it is
ok to make deposits and withdrawals as needed, your goal should be to make sure
that it doesn’t become too frequent. Sportsbooks will be less likely to limit
your account if you do not cost them an arm and a leg in fees.

Many sportsbook bettors like to withdraw their earnings after every time they
win a bet. Some do this just because they like the thrill of getting the cash
into their own account. However, others do this because they are worried about
the temptation of keeping too much cash in their account. These individuals are
worried that they might spend it if it is there.

Our suggestion is for you to limit how much you have to deposit and withdraw
from your sportsbook account. By no means do you have to aim for something wild
like once a quarter, but you should make sure that you’re also not doing it once
a day. In short, the less frequently that you deposit and withdraw from your
account, the less likely it is that you’ll find your account limited or closed.

Make Smart Use of Promotions and Bonuses

As we mentioned earlier, you’ll want to make sure that you use the bonuses
and promotions wisely. Specifically, you need to make sure that you use some of
them, but also be sure not to abuse them. There is a fine line between none and
too much when it comes to bonuses and promotions.

On the one hand, you’ll want to make sure that you take advantage of some of
the bonuses and promotions that are offered. First, these are often great ways
to pad your account with some extra cash. We’re assuming that you, like us, also
like free money! Secondly, if you don’t use any of the bonuses and promotions,
your account might be flagged as a potential professional gambler. In many
cases, professional gamblers come in with a game plan and use bonuses and
promotions infrequently. Therefore, make sure that you at least utilize some of
the promotional offers available to you.

On the flip side of the coin, you need to make sure that you don’t abuse the
bonuses and promotions. While these promotional offers are a great way to earn
cash, you’ll want to make sure that you’re doing more than just betting on
promotional offers. While sportsbooks are happy to offer these bonuses and
promotions to attract new clients and retain current ones, they also still want
to turn a profit. If you’re only ever betting on promotional offers, the
sportsbook is less likely to profit and therefore they are more likely to limit
or close your betting account.

Utilize Mug Bets

If you are working on some system such as arbitrage to help you win more
often than not, you might want to consider placing mug bets from time to time. A
mug bet is used to help your account look more like that of a recreational
bettor. By placing mug bets, you’re less likely to have your account flagged a
potential problem account. As we’ve discussed before, sportsbooks are not a fan
of arbers so you’ll need to disguise yourself a bit if you are one yourself.

When it comes to mug bets, you’ll want to place bets just like the common
bettor does. Consider placing wagers on in-play action, and don’t always select
the best odds. Also, be sure that your mug bets are not tied to any form of
bonus offer. Essentially, just bet for the sake of betting. Meanwhile, you can
continue to run your systems in an attempt to win more often than not.

Betting Exchanges

If you’re worried about having your account limited, one great tip is for you
to try using a betting exchange. On a betting exchange site, you’ll end up
betting other fellow bettors without the use of an actual sportsbook. Thanks to
the lack of an actual sportsbook, you don’t have to worry about your account
being limited.

If you’re unfamiliar with betting exchanges, they are a great alternative to
your traditional sportsbook. You’ll be able to place your wagers with fellow
sports betting enthusiasts. In exchange, you’ll only pay a small commission to
the betting exchange. If you’ve never tried, be sure to give it a spin and see
what it’s all about for yourself!

Keep Track of Your Results

One of our favorite tips for helping you to limit the chances of your account
being limited or closed is for you to keep track of your profit or loss from any
particular sportsbook. Essentially, you should keep track every time that you
make a wager and every time that you win a bet. This is super easy to do with
some very basic math.

Keeping track of your results is great for two reasons. First, it helps you
manage your betting bankroll. By keeping a closer eye on your profitability, you
can better gauge if you should dial things back or up. When it comes to trying
to avoid having your account limited, tracking your results can help you know if
you’ve gone on a good recent run with a particular sportsbook. If you can
identify that, you might then consider taking a break from that sportsbook for a
bit and instead focus your efforts on another one. Keep in mind that winning too
often will more than likely lead to your account being limited or closed.

Don’t Duplicate Accounts

As we mentioned earlier, sportsbooks will not deal with people that create
duplicate accounts in an attempt to abuse bonuses and promotional offers.
Therefore, it would be smart for you not to attempt to open a duplicate account
under your spouse or anyone else. While you might think that you can outsmart
the online sportsbooks, we promise you that they’re already one step ahead of
you.

Unfortunately, people are constantly trying to game the system and abuse the
bonus offers through the opening of multiple accounts. Over time, online
sportsbooks have developed lots of technology and methods to help them identify
potential duplicate accounts. In some cases, people caught operating duplicate
accounts had to forfeit their entire account balances per the terms and
conditions of the online sportsbooks. Simply don’t open duplicate accounts and
you won’t have to worry about your account being limited or closed.