The entire reason most of us open betting accounts is to try to place winning bets, even though we all know the old adage that the House always wins. Whilst that generally tends to apply to casinos, there’s another expression that you ‘never see a poor bookmaker’. This isn’t actually all that true, given that bookies need work hard to balance their books, but it is still the case that bookies, like casinos, are set up in such a way that they are all but guaranteed to end up positive in the long-run. With this in mind you’d think that they wouldn’t need to close down winning accounts?
As with any business, however, bookmakers are keen to make as much money as they can, whilst they can. It is with this in mind that bookies will tend to introduce limits to accounts when customers are particularly successful, doing things such as stopping people from stake large amounts of money and stopping winning punters from taking advantage of offers when they crop up.
They tend not to close accounts, yet the limits that are introduced are often so restrictive so as to mean that the account might as well be closed.
Can Accounts Be Closed?
The simple fact is that there are no rules or regulations in place to stop bookmakers from closing accounts if they wish to. The terms and conditions of bookies are such that there isn’t a lot they can’t do, as long as they stay without the right side of the law.
The reality is that the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, whose job is to control the betting industry and ensure that companies are obeying the rules of their licence, cares less about punters than about the betting companies themselves, which is why the rules are so unclear and in favour of the operators.
The truth is that if you are too successful, bookmakers will do what they can to limit how much money you’ll be able to take from them. This doesn’t typically involve completely shutting down your account, with limits with what you’re able to do introduced instead.
It might seem entirely unreasonable, given that the deal we all sign up to is that you’re trying to win from the bookie and they’re trying to get your money off you, but it is the case that if you take too much of their money then bookies will do what any business would do and look for a way to limit their losses.
This means that you’ll find that your bookmaker of choice has put limits in place to how much you’re allowed to deposit, for example, or how large a stake you can place. It might be that they put such limits in place on the subject that you’re particularly adept at winning on, such as horse racing, but allow you to bet what you want on topics that you don’t normally bet on, like Lithuanian football matches. Alternatively, it might be that the company puts a blanket limit on all bets that you try to place, stopping you from winning too much.
Why Accounts Get Limited
The next question that you’ll doubtless be asking is what things will cause a bookie to limit your account. The most obvious example is that you win too much money, though this can be done in numerous different ways.
You might be involved in the world of matched betting, for example, which is considered to be a form of bonus abuse. Equally, you may take part in ‘arbing’, whereby you spot discrepancies in the odds between different bookmakers and move to take advantage of that by betting accordingly.
Even if you don’t take advantage of promotions in order to take part in matched betting, it is still possible for you to abuse the free bets and bonuses that companies often dish out to customers. Doing this will be flagged up and your account will be limited accordingly, so it is worth avoiding it where possible if you don’t want to have to put up with such limits.
Exploiting weak lines is a good way to win money from bookies, but if you do then don’t be surprised if something happens to the amount of money that you’re able to place on bets.
Ways To Avoid Falling Foul Of Limitations
Whether it be any of the above things or simply taking out more money than you put in on a regular basis, bookmakers will move to limit accounts when the think that they’re losing money.
Like it or not, bookies don’t want to lose money and if there’s a way for them to keep as much as they can then they’re going to do it. The good news is that there are a few things that you can do in order to avoid falling foul of the limitations that bookmakers will look to impose on you.
The first one is quite obvious: place bets that are less likely to win. It might seem ridiculous to have to do this when you consider that you’re trying to win when you bet, but if you throw the bookie a bone every now and then or, to paraphrase Han Solo, you ‘let the bookie win’, it is less likely that they’ll move to limit your account.
On top of that, you can do things in order to try to fly under the radar in terms of being flagged by a betting company as being an account that they need to keep an eye on. All of the following should help:
- Don’t always take advantage of offers and promotions
- Place an occasional accumulator or other high margin wager
- Use rounded stakes rather than specific ones
- Try to bet with different companies that aren’t connected
- Bet on a variety of event types
- Don’t constantly withdraw money, given that this costs them money in fees
- Avoid eWallets, which raise suspicion of some companies
- Use features like Live Streaming every now and then and spend a bit of time browsing the site (yes they monitor this stuff)
Using An Exchange
Of course, sometimes you can do all of the things mentioned above and still find that your account is limited because you’ve just been too successful; at least in the eyes of the company that you have an account with.
Therefore, one of the most sure-fire ways of avoiding failing foul of a company’s desire to limit your account is by using a betting exchange instead of a traditional fixed-odds bookmaker. After all, on an exchange you’re not betting against a bookie but rather against your peers, given that that is how the system works.
Though betting exchanges can appear to be quite complex if you’ve never used one before, the way that they work is such that you pay a commission on winning bets. This means that the company running the exchange doesn’t care who wins or loses the bets that they facilitate, due to the fact that they’ll make a profit regardless.
As far as we’re aware, no one has had their betting exchange account limited, unless they’ve been discovered to have broken the rules for some reason or another. Of course, the one thing that you don’t want to do is use an exchange before you’ve figured out how they work.