Online Gambling

Intertops is a 5-star rated site at The Online Casino Gambling Directory. Yesterday, I had an experience which confirmed their best-of-the-best 5-star rating.

I’ve been a bit distracted with helping to take care of my mother as she recovers from successful hip replacement surgery. As a result, I only have a few minutes a day to place wagers on the sporting events that I am interested in. Yesterday, I saw a great over on Thursday’s Missouri v Memphis game, and liked it for 2.5 units; however, I inadvertently made the wager for 3 units.

This is no big deal, really — I placed an extra half wager than I intended. But, I thought that I would give Intertops a call and see if they could modify my wager.

I called Intertops on the phone and a customer service rep answered almost immediately. I explained that I wanted to reduce my wager on the Missouri v Memphis game. She explained that it is the policy of Intertops to not modify a wager once it is placed. I understood and expected this response — confirming an online wager is equivalent to walking away from a betting window at the track or a book; all bets are now final.

However, she went on to say that she would check to see if an exception could be made. After a 2 minute hold, she came back on the line and said that they had made an exception and cancelled the wager.

Wow. I was surprised, but I guess not too much. Intertops has long been a 5-star site, and I suppose the fact that I have been a loyal customer of theirs for years and had never made such a request may have been a factor in their granting the exception…. but still, they took care of my exceptional request, and I wanted to let everyone know about it.

Now, I’m not saying to get into the habit of placing and then trying to cancel bets, nor am I saying that Intertops will always honor a bet cancellation request. I’m just saying that with Intertops, if you do make a mistake and want to cancel a wager, they’ll at least consider your request.

Oh. By the way — take the over in the Missouri v Memphis game. Good luck!

(Note: The information present on this blog is intended for entertainment purposes only. Please check your local, state and provincial laws before you gamble online. If your local laws prohibit online gambling then we recommend you consider an alternative form of entertainment.)

I am sitting at my local sportsbar in Covington, KY (Willie’s). They are running an NCAA March Madness bracket contest. I was asked by a patron what the odds are of picking a perfect bracket. I thought it was an interesting question, and so I did a little research.

Ignoring the play-in game Tuesday evening, if you just flipped a coin for each of the 63 games, the odds are (0.5 ^ 63) = 9,223,372,036,854,780,000 (9.2 quintillion) to 1 of getting a perfect bracket. If you assume that the #1 and #2 seeds will each win their 1st and 2nd round games, and that the #3 seeds will win their 1st round games, that leaves 43 games to get right. The odds of flipping a coin and getting a perfect bracket in this scenario is (0.5 ^ 43) = 8,796,093,022,208 (8.8 trillion) to 1.

By way of comparison, the odds of winning the Powerball is about 200 million to 1, or about 44,000 times more likely than picking a perfect bracket under the second scenario listed above. You’re about 50,000 times more likely to win Mega Millions with its odds of about 175 million to 1; you’re about 12.5 million times more likely to be struck by lightning (estimated to be 700,000 to 1).

So, let’s say you think you have a line on 43 of the 63 games, and have to guess on the remaining 20 games. Assuming that you are correct on the 43 that you picked, the odds getting the remaining 20 games correct are still slightly more than 1,000,000 to 1. (This hypothetical is somewhat of an over-simplification, but you get the idea).