Confused re:JackpotFactory Bonus requirements & Tournaments

[vbdragon]

Hi

This is only "penny-ante" money I'm talking about, so if your a serious money gambler, you may not wish to continue reading... that's cool.


Maybe it's just me that doesn't understand, but perhaps someone could advise me as to whether this situation makes sense.

At the JackpotFactory Group .. within your account at the Casino you have "real" money & "bonus" money.
The bonus system is straight forward -
You are playing with your "cash" account until a certain playthrough is achieved, then $10 of the bonus is transferred to your cash account or if your "cash" account becomes $0.00 then you are playing with the "bonus" money ..... I'm sure you guys know how it goes.

The JackpotFactory Group of casinos also run "Free" & "Cash" slot tournaments and you can win real money on either.
In both cases, there is a facility where you can re-buy (3-5 times) at a set amount of Cash to continue to play in the tournament.
Bonus money CANNOT be used to enter a cash tournament nor to re-buy in either a cash tournament nor a free tournament.

OK.. here is where I fail to understand.

I was playing in a free tournament & hit a winning streak. In order to increase my position on the leaders board I deposited and bought 5 rebuys.
After completing the re-buys, I had to wait until the tournament finished to see whether I had won anything, so I checked back occasionally.

When I check a few hours before the tournament finished I found that I received a bonus of $7-50 (thank you JPF).
I think I had $0-02 in Cash & $7-50 in Bonus. I played that until I achieved a balance of $0-26 in bonus and left the balance at that, as I didn't want to keep say "no, I don't want to deposit" .. whenever I re-logged in.

I just logged in & see that I won $20 on the tournament, but my account now showed that I had a Cash Balance of $12-76 & a Bonus Balance of $7-50.
Obviously, the win had increased my bonus value back to what it was before the credit to my account & the remainder went into my cash account.

I rang support to see why.
Bonus money cannot be used in the tournaments, so what has a win in the tournaments got to do with my bonus account.... I paid cash for my re-buys ... no bonus involved anywhere.

Support informed me that even if I had played the bonus account to $0-00 their software would have still retained the unplayed bonus requirement and
my winnings of $20 would still have been still split between Cash & Bonus.

1. Was anyone aware that unplayed bonus requirements are retained by Jackpot Factory? According to their support section it's a fact!
2. What has the bonus account got to do with winnings from the Tournaments. You cannot use the bonus to enter them .. shouldn't a win be classed like a deposit?

I'd be interested in anyone's view on my storm in a teacup.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Cheers

[winbig]

I really don't understand what they're trying to say....

As I see it, you played through the WR to release the bonus, plain and simple. Even if the software is buggy and throws your money back in the bonus account, JPF should credit your cash account and adjust your bonus money (back to .26) accordingly.

Unless I'm missing something here, they're making you run through the WR twice to claim the same bonus you already cleared.

It's not your fault the software is stupid

[gerilege]

I get it. You probably got a cashback bonus of 7.5, and you did not fulfil the wr, and the winnings were used to top up this previous bonus partially. To avoid this situation you might want to play down your bonus to zero. However I believe you are right, and support should be able to resolve it for you considering you only had 0.26 left, and you obviously didn't want to abuse that promotion.

[vinylweatherman]

I get it. You probably got a cashback bonus of 7.5, and you did not fulfil the wr, and the winnings were used to top up this previous bonus partially. To avoid this situation you might want to play down your bonus to zero. However I believe you are right, and support should be able to resolve it for you considering you only had 0.26 left, and you obviously didn't want to abuse that promotion.

This is a long standing BUG that Microgaming somehow slipped in last year. It keeps cropping up, and it does not do exactly the same thing on different occasions.
According to the terms, reaching a ZERO balance should wipe out and wagering requirements, however the BUG often prevents this from working. We now have the situation where support staff have ONLY worked there with this BUG, and now believe this is what is SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN, and new players will often believe this bogus excuse and go on to believe they were wrong, and had misunderstood.

In this case, the balance went down to 0.26, not zero, however balances below 1 credit have been considered to be "zero" for the purposes of dropping WR, since both a deposit & bonus have effectively been lost.

A low roller is unfairly punished by this bug, as a bigger gambler would consider this mistake insignificant when they deposited their next $500 into the account.

It would help if MG would start to take these issues seriously, as this bug has been reported numerous times, and has even lead to matters getting as far as bodies such as eCogra.

Maybe players should use our PAB service in these cases, or approach eCogra, as then the weight of OFFICIAL complaints should get MG to do something about it because they would then come undrr pressure from eCogra, and accredited casinos would come under pressure to force MG's hand because their PAB count would be higher than they would like.

To ensure a clear cut case, play down to EXACTLY zero (not 0.0n), and then log off. If cash then becomes bonus after a fresh deposit or cash prize from a tournament, you have a watertight case.

[vbdragon]

Thanks for the comments.

I don't think it warrants PAB, as the JPF group are the only casinos I play at, due to their clear bonus rules (except in this case), their prompt payout & normally great service.

It just didn't seem to be equitable nor logical .. I just wanted to see whether I had lost my persective.

Thanks again!

[vbdragon]

Well ... It's happened again.

I deposited $75 to re-buy in the slots tournaments and then had to wait 2 days for the tournaments to finish .. to see whether I won anything.

In the meantime, I received a 10% bonus of $7-50 for the deposit.
Again, thank you JPF.

As you advised, vinylweatherman, I immediately played the bonus of $7-50 until I had a $0-00 cash/bonus balance.

Today I won money on 2 of the tournaments and this was immediately transferred to my account ... HOWEVER, $7-50 was credited to my BONUS account and the remainder to my Cash account.

I emailed support immediately, informing them of the bug within the software, that my account balance was $0-00 PRIOR to my tournament winnings being credited to my account and therefore, logically, there shouldn't have been a playthrough requirement remaining on my zero balance account.

I also advised them that I was withdrawing the bulk of the winnings (and accordingly, the bonus would be lost), but I have requested that they re-credit my Cash Balance with the 2 lots of $7-50 that they incorrectly credited to my bonus account.

I'll keep you advised as to their response.

I continue to hold this Casino Group in high esteem, but I am very concerned as to whether they can see the bug in the software & whether they can see the logic of my argument.

Cheers

[davidkohcg]

I have this problem too. I solve this problem by leaving a few cents in the cash balance before collecting the winning. As long as there is credit in the cash balance it will top up the cash balance rather than bonus balance first.

[Jackpot Factory]

Hi vbdragon,

This is David Brickman, VP Player Affairs at the Jackpot Factory.

I haven't heard about this bug but I will certainly look into it. Please message me your account number and I make sure everything gets sorted out.

All the best,

David

[chuchu59]

David,

Maybe you havent heard of this problem as a bug but it happened to me as well several months ago and you helped me resolve it at All Jackpots. I also played the bonus down $0.00 but part of my tourney winnings were placed in the bonus account later.

[gambler777]

Well hopefully this helped another small problem be resolved. Wtg