- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Location
- Saltirelandia
One of the most blatant and long-running scandals in the industry has been the loathsome and wholly unjustified "trickle pay" tactic used by Playtech casinos on the payment of Progressive Jackpots: let's revisit the story as detailed in the 2013 Casinomeister Awards:
See also Playtech Progressive Jackpots Scandal
At some point Joyland was sold off, apparently to the William Hill Group, and was finally shuttered in 2016. Talk about a "toxic asset"!
Fourth Point of Contact Award 2013
The “fourth point of contact” is US paratrooper lingo for the fourth point of your body as it hits the ground during a parachute landing fall. In other words, it’s yer ass. This award is given to a person whose head is so far up their “fourth point of contact” that the bulge in his neck is his nose…
This year’s award goes to Playtech for ignoring the fact that many of their casinos list predatory progressive jackpot terms that many of their casinos still have. Last June I was revisiting one of the black marks on the online casino industry – the case of Sylvia P. and her stolen progressive win of $4.1 million USD by Joyland Casino. For those who may have forgotten, this was a Canadian French woman who won a progressive at this casino, and the casino had the audacity to offer her $9k per month. The reason for this was that their self imposed withdrawal limits were $9k per month, to include progressive winnings.
This would have taken 39 years to pay out. So the casino made a deal with her using hotmail email addresses (thus erasing any evidence of dodginess), and she received about half of her winnings without having to wait. The other half went…well, it left only one conclusion in everyone’s mind – that the owner or administration of the casino pocketed the other half of the jackpot win, because it certainly was not placed back into the Playtech progressive pool. If I were a Playtech operator back then, I would have been livid. The full thread that goes into detail on this is here.
The bottom line is that she should have been paid out in one lump sum (or close to that as possible – $4.1 million is a lot of money) without stipulations being conjured up by the casino. Progressive jackpots do not belong to the casino that produces the win; these are pooled funds from all participating casinos. What is alarming is that there are no less than 40 Playtech casinos that still have this predatory term in their terms and conditions. All of these casinos are disqualified from our accredited casino list, and have been placed in the Not Recommended section of the rogue pit. You can read the full listing here.
Icing on the cake of joy: Joyland Casino still has this term in their withdrawal limits even though I was told by their COO in 2010 that it would be removed. So much for veracity.
So Playtech is the recipient of “Fourth Point of Contact” award. It’s shameful that a large publicly traded company allows their operators to get away with this predatory behavior and pretends it doesn’t bother anybody.
See also Playtech Progressive Jackpots Scandal
At some point Joyland was sold off, apparently to the William Hill Group, and was finally shuttered in 2016. Talk about a "toxic asset"!
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