For most American sportsbooks, the motto is, “If you can’t beat ‘em, limit ‘em.”
And if you can’t limit ‘em? Well, if Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos is to be believed, you gin up some concerns about money laundering and outright ban ‘em.
That, according to Kyrollos, is exactly what has happened to him, being outright banned from betting at Bally’s Atlantic City — and by extension, one of Bally’s online sportsbook license holders in New Jersey, the nascent exchange betting site Sporttrade.
Speaking on his Be Better Bettors podcast this weekend, Kyrollos broke down the situation, including the reading of a letter he received from Bally’s dated Nov. 4.
“As a state-licensed casino Bally’s Atlantic City is required to comply with all state and federal laws and regulations including all federal anti-money laundering requirements,” Kyrollos read. “Pursuant to these requirements, Bally’s Atlantic City periodically reviews the activity of the accounts of our patrons. After evaluating your account, Bally’s Atlantic City management has decided that effective immediately, Bally’s Atlantic City can no longer allow you to wager or conduct any transactions at our casino.”
And thus, Spanky got spanked.
The video
On Oct. 30, Kyrollos, along with Sporttrade CEO Alex Kane, headed down to Bally’s to film a video of Kyrollos depositing $100,000 into his account. Sporttrade, being an exchange, more or less promises a “buyer” on either side of a bet, frictionless transactions, zero risk of being limited. Why? Well, mostly because Sporttrade takes a commission on each trade. The operator has no skin in the outcome of the bet.
Kyrollos made mention of this in the video of the deposit, noting he won’t get limited at Sporttrade.
Our first six-figure deposit on Sporttrade was made by one of the sharpest bettors in the business, @spanky 👏
Hear from Spanky why he put $100K on Sporttrade 💰
🫡 @spankodds pic.twitter.com/Rxk0pRytz5
— Sporttrade (@sporttrade_app) November 2, 2022
The video was posted Nov. 2, and two days later Kyrollos received the letter from Bally’s.
“The person who wrote that letter obviously has a hard-on for me,” Kyrollos noted in the podcast. (He also called Bally’s a “sh*thole.”)
As to the “why” of all this?
Well, Kyrollos himself points to a 2014 case where he was … indicted for money laundering.
“Full disclosure: I had a case with Queens 10 years ago where I was indicted on money-laundering charges, bookmaking charges,” he said on the podcast. “Whether you believe me or not, it was all bullsh*t. I never got convicted of any money-laundering charges, in any way, shape or form. I pled out to one count of promoting gambling in the first degree where I was booking bets that I actually placed. If you look my name up, you’ll see all this sh*t, and they stick me with a couple of mafiosos, and they think, because a couple of wiseguys were involved in the case who I didn’t even know, but it sounds a lot worse than it is. But that’s fine. No problem.”
But apparently, it’s a problem for Bally’s.
You buried the lede here, @spanky. It wasn't @sporttrade_app that kicked you out — it was Bally's. https://t.co/s1CbLG1NqE
— Rufus (@RufusPeabody) December 10, 2022
Back for a bit
Kyrollos said that after he received the letter, Kane reached out to him and said he was going to fight Bally’s — his license-holder — on this decision.
“Docs are requested. I play everywhere in New Jersey. FanDuel, Golden Nugget, Resorts, I play in all these joints. Superbook. I play everywhere and they all accept me,” Kyrollos said. “Alex says we’re going to do extra due diligence. I want to keep the account open. I sent my bank account statements, transaction reports, deposit withdrawals, win-loss statements, bank statements, everything. No other sportsbook has ever asked me for all this.”
After the documents were vetted by Sporttrade, Kyrollos said, Kane came back and told him he was good to go.
“He says, ‘OK, we’re happy with everything you sent us, and we informed Bally’s that we are not going to listen to them and we’re going to let you play again,’” Kyrollos said on his podcast. “They went to bat, they want me to play, and they want their action. They know having people like me help. All they want to do is earn their commissions.”
Bally’s, however, balked.
“A few weeks later … Alex calls me and says, ‘They kind of put the gavel down, they cited some sh*t — essentially, if this guy’s not out, then you have to be out. The license can be revoked,’” Kyrollos said. “It was an ultimatum type thing, where Bally’s says either Spanky’s gone or you’re gone.”
Representatives of Sporttrade declined to comment further on the situation, pointing instead to a tweet thread from Kane, in which he says this wasn’t Sporttrade’s decision.
As my friend Spanky has said, this was not a decision we made.
Having him on our platform was something that meant a lot to us – both personally, and what it meant to be a venue that can grow the regulated market by kindly welcoming customers that many other books do not. 🧵 https://t.co/pIzd7dFQcD
— Alex Kane (@a_kane47) December 10, 2022
Bally’s also declined to provide official response to Kyrollos’ comments when contacted by Sports Handle. A source familiar with what occurred among Kyrollos and the operators, however, confirmed the bettor’s account as “100 percent accurate.”
In the podcast, Kyrollos pointed to his repeated, loud takedowns of the “dressmakers” in the sportsbook industry (sportsbooks that severely limit their customers) as a possible secondary reason for his Bally’s ban.
A person who did not want to be identified, but who had knowledge of Bally’s decision-making, told Sports Handle, “Bally’s takes a very conservative approach to responsible gaming and protecting its license(s) to operate,” and it simply doesn’t have interest in doing business with Kyrollos.
