Actually, the woman who won the jackpot made an agreement with WH to her satisfaction. She still only got about half of her money as far as I know.
And this was Joyland, not 32vegas (now 21Nova)
Maybe, but this does NOT get them off the hook. This was outright dishonest behaviour by Joyland at the time, whilst Playtech looked the other way. The woman was BULLIED into accepting an agreement, there should NEVER have been ANY question about this POOLED money (which was NEVER the property of Joyland, and only held by Playtech on behalf of all the players who's bets had contributed to the pool) not simply being paid in full.
It seems that the rest simply "disappeared", it was NOT found when William Hill took the brands over, so it looks like the former operators simply helped themselves to something that did not belong to them.
Unfortunately, this is not even a "one off". There are other cases where individual Playtech operators have helped themselves to all or part of a progressive jackpot on it's journey between Playtech and the player, yet Playtech STILL OPERATE this flawed system, as well as seeming to allow this kind of operator to operate with the software.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that just because a company has a "respectable" front they are honest in all respects. Take Enron as an example, respectable front - but theft and corruption (mostly from the US government & new investors) took place on a grand scale in order to line the pockets of a few.
Members of the board of directors of a high street bank were extradited to the USA on charges of fraud, and I believe they were convicted, even though what they had done would not necessarily have been seen as illegal in the UK.
The utilty Severn Trent water have been investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, and were found to have LIED to pricing regulators in order to commit legalised robbery of it's customers through large allowed price increases for "investment".
It follows that just because Playtech are listed in London, and William Hill are seen as "rock solid", I do NOT automatically take this to mean that they could not possibly have acted in bad faith.
Unfortunately for both Playtech and William Hill, this scandal has NOT simply "gone away" with the passage of time. Players need to be aware that there IS this risk of being diddled out of a large win by Playtech casinos, and that Playtech themselves will NOT help enforce payment.
This woman could have held out rather than give in to the blackmail, but less than a year later Joyland was no more, and who is to say that ALL of the winnings would not have vanished by the time William Hill took over, and said "nothing to do with us, take it up with the former operator". She did at least get half what she was due, yet this still leaves over 2 Million Cad$ stolen from all the players at ALL Playtech casinos who wagered on this game before her win.
Playtech need to change the way progressives are dealt with so that this can NEVER happen again, however rogue the operator concerned.
