MasterBet Sportsbook Launches In Georgia, Citing Obscure Legal Loophole

DISCLAIMER: It is April Fools’ Day today. Bear that in mind when reading the following “article,” the veracity of which I cannot vouch for. Far from it, in fact. Alright, fine, this is total b.s., but maybe it’ll get a laugh or two in a world that could stand to smile a bit more.

Sports betting is not legal in Georgia, having stalled in the state legislature for yet another year. But that isn’t stopping the debut of MasterBet Sportsbook, which launched in the Peach State on April 1.

How can this be, one might wonder? Behind the closed doors of instrumental lawmakers and judges, Thelorious “Crawdad” Benson IV, chairman of Augusta National Golf Course and the co-founder of MasterBet, has secured an injunction allowing him to operate under an obscure loophole in Georgia’s gambling law.

This loophole dates back to 1932, the year the host course of the Masters was founded. In establishing the fabled golf club, Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts were able to get a now-deceased judge, the Honorable Wilbur Shremp, to exempt the hallowed grounds of Augusta National from any and all gaming laws.

While some members have long been aware of the loophole, it hasn’t seeped into the public sphere due to Augusta National’s exclusivity and hush-hush nature. Sure, there have been major cash games wagered on by fossil fuel and agricultural tycoons intent on making a mint at Amen Corner, but that happens on just about every course in America.

What’s less known is the spartan sportsbook located in the boiler room of the caddies’ quarters, one that almost wiped out Bob Hope’s savings and forced him to hit the road on a never-ending USO tour to pay off his debt.

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Slocumb Hinch was raised on the wrong side of the tracks in Augusta, shining the shoes of rich folks’ sons before they whisked their pretty dates off to soirees in the pines with muscadine wine.

A natural born hustler, he also carried members’ bags at the home of the Masters, developing a rapport with moneyed duffers. Hinch’s father, Ralph, ran a numbers racket, and when he asked his son if he might be able to expand his business to the 19th green, young Slocumb had a counterproposal: How about taking sports bets instead?

Thus was born Slo’s Scorecard. At first, Hinch tried to keep the boiler-room sportsbook a secret from the club’s executive council, but when the chairman showed up one day to get a bet down on a Joe Louis bout, it was immediately apparent that Slo’s was a socially acceptable side hustle.

And besides, thanks to Jones and Roberts, it was legal on that particular parcel of land.

As for Hope, he liked to bet on baseball, blindly backing the Dodgers after they moved to Los Angeles in the ’50s. Augustans always wondered why Hope made a disproportionate amount of tour stops in their town. For one, he liked to play golf, and for another, he liked to visit Slo’s.

The Dodgers were consistently good during Hope’s betting heyday, but he still found a way to lose. The Hinches, be it father or son, had a knack for talking the comedic force into taking the wrong side of the spread more often than not and charging him an outlandish vigorish when he actually cashed.

Hope was said to be in hock to the Hinches to the tune of several hundred thousands of dollars, a debt course executives agreed to pay off on the condition that he make himself scarce while working it off. Hence, Hope trotted the globe, playing to mess halls packed with sweaty servicemen in perpetuity.

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John Daly and Beef Johnston were crushing cans in Daly’s Winnebago across the street from Augusta National during last year’s tournament when Daly started talking about how cool it would be if he could place a bet at Slo’s from his phone.

Johnston, who grew up in England, had been frequenting storefront sportsbooks since his teens and was up to date on the latest gambling innovations. He was aware of Augusta National’s exemption from Georgia state gaming laws and got to thinking: Could a hub-and-spoke model like the Seminoles were fixing to exploit in the Sunshine State work on the other side of the Florida-Georgia line?

Johnston figured that if the central servers for a statewide betting platform were housed on Augusta National’s grounds, that mobile wagering emanating from that location would be covered by the exemption and therefore pass legal muster. He expressed this opinion to Benson, who received confirmation from a friendly judge that there was an excellent chance the argument would hold up in court.

His mind made up, Benson pulled up to Daly’s RV a few days later in a chauffeured Rolls Royce.

“Boys, what should we call this thing?” he asked Daly and Johnston.

“How about MasterBet?” replied Daly.

Benson wondered aloud why Daly left out the “s” in Masters, to which Daly replied, “Because golf is a one-man sport.”

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Next week’s Masters will be the first that Georgians can legally bet on, but the club will not be lifting its prohibition on portable phones on the course during the tournament. Instead, it has rigged the course’s network of free land lines to act as de facto betting kiosks and will be opening Slo’s to the public for the first time.

Not everyone’s thrilled with this development. It goes without saying that Georgia’s religious right considers gambling the work of the devil, and Jack Nicklaus has his khakis in a bunch over the situation. But the imprimatur of Augusta National has made the pill swallowable for most, and Phil Mickelson has pledged to star in a serious of responsible gambling PSAs for MasterBet as part of his recovery.

To promote the nascent betting app, Jim Nantz and Tiger Woods are starring in a series of spots featuring the tag line, “Think you know who will win the green jacket? Then let your green back it.”

And in a cheeky nod to its self-gratifying moniker, MasterBet has entered into a branding partnership with the Discotheque Lounge.

“Feeling the urge to grab a shaft?” a poster at the downtown Augusta gentlemen’s club reads. “Take a whack with MasterBet.”