I would really like to hear from a Casino reps point of view the reasoning behind placing a players winnings in a segregated account and giving it to them a few thousand at a time vs just giving the players money straight to the player, this is not aimed specifically at Wintingo (just happens this is the first thread i have read where the Casino admits to this practice) but to all casinos that operate this way, maybe there is a logical business reasoning behind this that we are all missing, i accept that they can as long as it is in the T&C's just would like to know why they would?
With the exception of Major Progressives that we all know are handled differently, can you imagine the furor if a High Roller hit big on the $100 or hgher slots at a Vegas Casino and was told "Congratulations now we will keep it safe for you and send you a few thousand each week".
Al
Whilst the funds are in a segregated account, other than the paltry interest on the money, there is nothing for the casino to gain. However, I suspect that the truth is that it's DEPOSITS that are placed into the segregated accounts, but winnings are NOT placed there in full as soon as they are won. This WOULD make it good business sense to trickle out large wins in smaller chunks so as not to cause a liquidity crunch in the operational accounts that could cause other players' to experience delays in their more modest withdrawals.
It's hard to see winnings being safeguarded this way, as until the win is hit, the money belongs to the casino. When the win IS hit, the money comes from the hold on past play. As it's random, big wins can exceed what the casino has in liquid funds at the time, but that it WILL have as players continue to play, and steadily lose to the house.
Casinos either need access to short term credit with which to pay big winners in full, or use instalment schemes to match payouts to expected income.
A rare run of luck for players could in theory bring down an IOM licensed operator, and not leave enough in the segregated accounts to pay players both their deposits and winnings.
It's cheaper for a casino to impose an instalment scheme than have to pay fees and interest to the banks on short term credit facilities that would enable them to pay in full.
For players, it's the length of the instalment scheme that matters, so by upping these to 50K up front and then 10K per week, this big winner probably has a scheme that is short enough that they don't feel there is much risk in the casino going bust before it's paid.
The problem has been with casinos that have imposed instalment schemes spanning 20 or 30 years to pay a progressive in an industry that is barely half as old itself, and has very few casinos around now that were around 15 years ago. Even where casinos have not gone bust, it's been the player on the long term instalment scheme that has been expected to reduce their payments even further so that the money can be used to save the casino from going under altogether.
5 years is not really a long enough time to consider the IOM to be safer than any other jurisdiction in terms of casinos going bust. Alderney was considered, like the IOM, to be a place where an operator going bust would NOT take players' funds with them, and then along came Full Tilt......
What we need in addition to limits is a guaranteed maximum length of an instalment scheme that big winners will have to endure. What's the longest players would feel comfortable waiting for full payment of a life changing big (non progressive) win?