UPDATE OF OCTOBER 10, 2008: Credit Wagering established a three times rollover requirement in September for credit only bettors, meaning you must make $3,000 worth of wagers before being allowed to withdraw any money. The requirement appears to pertain to all customers, even those who opened their accounts before the rule was established, although customers who have previously settled a debt or post-up customers are exempt.
Credit Wagering is getting ready to debut its regular Stiff Page, which will include photos of non-paying bettors. Previously, the company just posted photos of bettors who collected money then did not pay their losses, while the new page is will be photos of those who never collected, but never paid.
UPDATE OF NOV. 5, 2008: The three times credit limit rollover mentioned in the first update has been removed from the rules page and appears to be no longer in effect.
A new stipulation has been added, which reads "To stop customers from posting up funds to increase their Gambling Line of Credit then withdrawing funds that were just deposited, there is a 5x rollover requirement for the Sportsbook, Racebook or Lottery Room and a 10x rollover requirement for the Casino prior to withdrawing the deposit amount that increased the Gambling Line of Credit (wagers on craps and roulette are excluded from rollover). You can not withdraw the deposit amount or bonus for 30 days, however you can withdraw all winnings. Sportsbook rollover calculation is based on the lesser of the risk amount or the win amount. Wagering on both sides of the same game do not apply to rollover calculation."
To make it simple, this rule was instituted to keep people from depositing, say $1,000, which would raise the player's credit limit to $3,000. The player could then bet $300 per game. So a bettor could go 5-3 at $300 per game and show a profit of $510. Players would then withdraw the $510 along with the $1,000. This rule prevents that.
Betting With Credit Wagering
After reading all of the stories claims made regarding CW, it became obvious the only logical thing to do would be to open an account there and see for myself how they operate.
The sign-up process was painless and after sending a copy of my driver's license, I received a phone call within an hour to verify that it was actually me who signed up for the account.
The betting software is easy to use and I never noticed any slowdown in the system, even shortly before the start of Sunday NFL games.
One of the more impressive aspects is that results are processed in an extremely timely manner, even before I knew some of the games were over. This happened for both wins and losses, so it isn't simply a case of your losing bets being credit quickly, while your winning bets are processed more slowly.
After dabbling there for a while, I was able to get the account balance up to an amount that could be withdrawn and I put in a withdraw request on Monday morning.
On Thursday, the debit card arrived by carrier and the following day I used the instant messenger feature to get a PIN number. The whole process took less than three minutes, so it's hard to find any fault with customer service.
Saturday morning, I went by an ATM at a local credit union and was able to withdraw $400 without any problems.
So, from my personal experience, dealing with CW was a painless experience and things went smoothly.
UPDATE: DECEMBER 4, 2008
Once again I was able to request a payout several weeks ago and it went smoothly without any problems. I was able to use the same debit card and same PIN number without problems.
I've also noticed a large reduction in the number of Credit Wagering related posts on various sports betting forums.
On an unrelated noted, one of the more common criticisms against the company was that its domain name was set to expire in December, 2008, but a recent check showed the domain name registered through Dec. 21, 2017.
We'll try to keep abreast of the latest Credit Wagering happenings, although it's getting difficult to separate the fact from the fiction regarding the sportsbook.
UPDATE: DECEMBER 29, 2008
Just put in for another withdraw, so the funds should be on the debit card by this weekend. Will let you know how that works out.
Credit Wagering is also offering several contests for players. Details can be found at www.creditwagering.net.
UPDATE: JANUARY 6, 2009
It did take a few days longer than expected, most likely due to the New Year's holiday, but the funds were transferred to the debit card. Several forum posters also mentioned the same delay, but they also received their payouts. The total time from withdraw request to payment received was just nine days, which is nothing to complain about after some of the horror stories you hear about other sportsbooks.
UPDATE: APRIL 2, 2009
Since the last update I did have one more withdraw that took place without any problems, as the elapsed time from withdraw to payment was just four days.
On the other side of the equation, I did have to make a deposit, which was a relatively painless affair, with the exception of my wallet being a bit lighter. On the plus side, I did receive a 15-percent bonus of the settlement added to my account. Not many places will give you a rebate for just paying your debts. If I could only get my utility companies to follow suit.
UPDATE: JUNE 12, 2009
I've edited some of the body of the article to include the new payment/withdraw methods, as much of the previous information was no longer relevant.
