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FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

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Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#51

Post by OG_BME »

zacharycohn wrote: post #32

This is why smart contracts aren't nearly as good as people make them out to be.

I disagree. In an ideal Dapp, pricing is determined by the open market or with a strong oracle - nothing novel here. If the contract was audited and deemed secure, then a pricing error shouldn't be possible. Payouts would be automatic and instant, as determined by the contract or set of contracts. Therefore, even if there was an error, the platform itself couldn't refuse to pay out a bet because they don't have a say in it. Can't be evil > Don't be evil.

Edit: to add, if users saw unresolved bugs in the platform, the contract could be forked and improved or users could just leave. If code is law, and that code is deployed publicly for everyone to see, then nothing is left to the discretion of "owners" because the "owners" don't have discretion to begin with.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#52

Post by maxerickson »

EpicEng wrote: post #44
maxerickson wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's obvious about that? To me the obvious thing is that bookies have to honor the bets they sell and get to eat their delicious mistakes. It's within their power to improve their automated system to not offer stupid bets.

>It's within their power to improve their automated system to not offer stupid bets So then it's also within your power to never write bugs. Have you ever written any? How did that happen? It was within your power not to do so, right?

I've never written a bug in a system designed to earn me money and then denied responsibility for the consequences of the bug, no.

That is, my argument is about how you decide responsibility, not about technical excellence.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#53

Post by JamesBarney »

dumbfounder wrote: post #23
maxerickson wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's obvious about that? To me the obvious thing is that bookies have to honor the bets they sell and get to eat their delicious mistakes. It's within their power to improve their automated system to not offer stupid bets.

What if there was another zero on there? How about 8 more zeroes? Still think they should need to honor the bet? They offered him $500 and tickets to a game, I think he is getting greedy.

What if the situation were reversed, and I bought a wager only due to the fat fingering of my calculator, or I mistook one team for another or just had a brain fart.

Wouldn't it then be reasonable for them to give a refund?

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#54

Post by tomtheelder »

heavymark wrote: post #37
TwitchySeal wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except then they have to pay out every other time there's a bug.

I imagine if they had to honor, they would make it priority number one resolving those bugs, and make changes to make the bugs more apparent to people in the process. If they don't have to pay, there isn't much of an incentive to prioritize the fixes, especially since I imagine if the bugs are in the favor of the company they can make a lot of money.

I'm sure it is already a high priority, but it is a system built by humans, and it will always have mistakes. What if they were being forced to pay out 82 million instead of thousand? What about 82 billion?

There should be clear cut laws surrounding clear errors, like there are in most places, and ones like this should not be forced to pay out.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#56

Post by nlawalker »

kolanos wrote: post #55

Surely there's insurance for such errors?

Yeah this was my first thought too. My sincere hope is that the law's response is "Pay up, this is how your business works. If this kind of thing is going to be a problem for you, buy insurance for it."

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#57

Post by moate »

EpicEng wrote: post #44
maxerickson wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's obvious about that? To me the obvious thing is that bookies have to honor the bets they sell and get to eat their delicious mistakes. It's within their power to improve their automated system to not offer stupid bets.

>It's within their power to improve their automated system to not offer stupid bets So then it's also within your power to never write bugs. Have you ever written any? How did that happen? It was within your power not to do so, right?

And if that bug cost his company say, $80,000 for some reason, there's plenty of instances where his company just has to eat that.

I've literally made tens of thousands of dollars in mistakes over my careers (try not to make the same one twice) and 9 out of 10 times the company would go "shit dude, don't ever let that happen again!"

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#58

Post by jonknee »

TomMarius wrote: post #49
jonknee wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't afford the errors you should not be in the business (but they can easily afford this error).

I don't think so. The legal system in Europe honors good faith.

Luckily for the better New Jersey is not in Europe.

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#59

Post by stanleydrew »

zacharycohn wrote: post #32

This is why smart contracts aren't nearly as good as people make them out to be.

I don't quite follow. Are you suggesting that because there can be errors or misunderstandings in all contracts, the non-smart variety is preferable since they allow for human intervention when there's a dispute?

Re: FanDuel not honoring bet that would have paid over $82,000 due to line error

#60

Post by dx87 »

TomMarius wrote: post #41
zacharycohn wrote: post #32

This is why smart contracts aren't nearly as good as people make them out to be.

What do you mean? A smart contract would force them to fulfill the bet, no?

No, because as has happened before, the developers just go "oops, we made a mistake in the smart contract" and nullify the gains of anybody who profited off of it.
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