How to Avoid Being Banned by Sports Books
Article Updated: September 2025
For most sports bettors, getting banned from a sports book for winning too much is something they will never need to worry about. When it comes to getting banned from a sports book for winning too many bets, many recreational sports bettors actually believe it sounds somewhat glamorous and appealing. But for professional-level sports bettors, getting banned for excessive winnings is a serious problem that is incredibly frustrating and usually not reversible.
A growing number of industry experts believe sports books may face legal challenges banning or limiting bettors for no other reason than winnings. Professional sports handicapper JV Miller, an industry leader who pushes back against sports books banning winning bettors, wrote in an op-ed for the USA Today Network: "When sports books ban or severely limit winning sports bettors, it fundamentally changes sports betting from a game of skill with an element of chance into a game of just chance... When word gets out that winning sports bettors are not welcome at licensed sports books, sports bettors will simply do business with sports books licensed in other countries or unlicensed local bookies."
The good news is, getting banned from a sports book for taking too much of their money is avoidable. In this article we will cover some of the things you can do to consistently place winning picks at sports books all over the world without ruffling their feathers.
First, a quick reminder on how the bookmaking business works. Professional-level sports bettors are not actually betting against the sports book. Rather, professional-level sports bettors are betting against the recreational bettors on the other side of the bet. The recreational bettors of the world are the ones who fund the sports betting industry. Bookmakers use the point spread and money line to balance the action as much as possible (with some exceptions). Although monetary policy differs from one sports book to the next, most sports books today do take on a certain amount of unnecessary risk in situations that they see could be highly profitable. We'll come back to this.
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Second, balancing the action means accepting the same amount of wagers on both sides of a bet. This enables the sports book to keep their risk very low while profiting from the vigorish charged. The more bets accepted by the sports books the more money they make. Professional-level sports bettors enable sports books to accept more action on the other side of the bet by increasing the gross amount wagered. This increases the fees paid to the sports books. Professional-level sports bettors can only win a bet that a recreational bettor loses on the other side as long as the action is balanced appropriately.
The problem is, sometimes the action is not balanced. The reason is not because the sports book cannot balance it; the reason usually is because the sports book sees occasional opportunities to profit by actually gambling against the public. In these scenarios, the sports book intentionally and strategically takes on a measured degree of risk by accepting a disproportionate amount of action on one side of a wager wherein it feels confident it will win.
What could de-rail their plan? Well, the wrong team can always win, of course. But something else can happen. When they spot a scenario that presents a good opportunity to profit off recreational bettors' misguided betting trends, oftentimes professional-level sports bettors, like JV Miller, spot the scenario, too. These scenarios are often referred to as "trap bets." In these situations, the action from pro-level sports bettors can prevent the sports book from achieving an imbalance of action. This, deprives the sports book of the chance to profit from the trap bet over and above the ususal vigorish. In other words, the professional-level action balances the overall action despite the sports book's intent otherwise. Note, this does not "cost" the sports book money, it just prevents it from profiting more than their traditional business model calls for.
Sports books have a lot more tricks up their sleeve than just banning winning bettors.
Unmasking the inner workings of the sports book industry is an invaluable focus of JV Miller's Pro Bettor Podcast (private, for Subscribers only). JV Miller is an expert in the sports book industry and divulges the dirty details of their business practices. This is must-know information for every serious-minded sports bettor. The only way to access the Pro Bettor Podcast is with a Subscription to PGN, which starts at just $99.
It is not realistic to think that professional-level sports bettors place sports books in financial peril. Professional-level sports bettors can negatively impact cashflow in some circumstances, but generally the harm to sports books is limited to hampering their desire to profit from trap bets.
Here are some tips to prevent getting banned from your favorite sports books:
- Either do not arbitrage or place arbitrage bets at separate sports books. Make sure your "separate" books are actually separate. There are cases in which bettors believed they had accounts at multiple sports books, only to learn that it is the same owner operating multiple concepts under the same roof.
- Open accounts at as many different reputable sports books in as many different countries as possible—and bet at all of them evenly.
- Keep track of your winnings and which sports books you have "hurt" the most. Lay low for a few days.
- Throw off the algorithms by betting in increments that appear "recreational" not "professional." For instance, place bets for $1000 (or $100) or $500 (or $50), etc. Do not bet in increments of $910 (or $91) or $1100 (or $110.) (We bet 2% of our bankroll, but it is okay to deviate up or down an incidental amount of money for this technicality.)
- Spend (lose) a few bucks playing your sports books' online casino games -- such as slots, keno, roulette or any other kind of sucker bet that recreational bettors play. Video poker is a good game at which to lose twenty bucks or so every now and then to keep you off the algorithm's hot sheet.
- Unlike previous advice from us over the years, we now advise that you take the sports books up on their bonus offers (to an extent, read the fine print). While these bonuses can sometimes complicate getting your winnings out, we have found that when you decline the bonuses, you are put on a watch list from the very beginning.
- Whenever you speak to someone at the sports book (customer service, account manager, etc.), do not use pro-level lingo. Play dumb. Ask a stupid question or talk about how good the Cowboys are going to be next season.
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