I don't understand the role of "middle-man" you are referring to. A $20 scam doesn't make sense if the involved site is a popular one. There might be something we don't know about the story.

Moving forward, there are lots of trusted gambling sites you can consider. More to mention but if you want to do your own research, you can lurk at some of the ANN threads here and you should understand how good the site is by just reading comments.