The Dark Truth About Progressive Jackpots at Online Casinos You Didn’t Know About
You hear about progressive jackpots all the time – they’re the ones with the biggest prizes one can get. Players get into casino news whenever they hit them.
Now, you’d expect that anyone who wins a million dollars actually gets to withdraw a million dollars straight away. Right?
Well sometimess it’s not that simple. Recently it’s come to light that certain online casinos have reinstated fraudulous progressive jackpot policies.
These policies can depend on either the slot provider or the online casino. If either one has iffy terms and conditions, then you might not see your full (multi)million dollar prize before a long time.
How Monthly Withdrawal Limits Can Ruin Your Life
A few years ago, a player named Sylvia won £4.1 million at Joyland casino. However, Joyland’s casino withdrawal terms were capped at $9k per month.
She would’ve taken 39 years to cash out full amount.
Joyland, a Playtech casino, told her via personal email (therefore leaving no administrative trail) that they could pay her half straight away or she could just spend those 39 years with a monthly $9k.
The other half was never properly accounted for, so some speculate that Joyland or Playtech themselves kept the sum.
The progressive slot she played on was a Playtech slot and Playtech supported Joyland’s actions by saying “it was in the T&C which [Sylvia] agreed to”.
However, William Hill, that had only just purchased Joyland at the time of the issue, responded to complaints by withdrawing those terms.
Unfortunately, those exact terms have recently reappeared at several Playtech casinos.
Withdrawal Limits: How Do They Work?
When you check out a casino’s payment methods and withdrawal terms, you’ll often find that there is a maximum regarding how much you can withdraw.
This can concern how much you withdraw in one go, or how much you can withdraw daily, weekly or monthly.
This type of rule is in place so that players stick around more. The longer the casino can get you to keep some funds in your account, the more you’re likely to come back and play.
As promotional offers at casinos are pretty frequent and not huge sums, it’s acceptable for casinos to impose withdrawal limitations for the usual stuff. This includes:
- Welcome packages
- No deposit bonuses
- Deposit matches
- Winnings made with bonus money
Usually you can find information about a promotional offers’ withdrawal policy in the casino’s “Promotions” section.
Of course, there are also casinos that have a “general” withdrawal policy that counts for any withdrawal you make. This is usually in place for winnings you have freshly converted from bonus money and that are sitting in your regular account.
Progressive Jackpots: How Do They Work?
Now, progressive jackpots are a bit of a special case. The prize you win doesn’t really count as “bonus money”, because there’s no way anyone could ever fulfill wagering requirements on sums that can go into the millions.
Progressive jackpots are jackpots that several slot games are linked up to. The jackpot amount climbs up the more players bet on the different slot games.
One lucky player will be able to grab the jackpot when he or she makes a bet while the jackpot gets very close to the maximum amount set for it.
As the jackpot is basically a big pool made of people’s lost bets, it can climb to seriously high amounts.
So, it should make sense that players are offered the full prize money. With astronomically low odds of actually hitting these jackpots, it’s only fair.
And at most casinos, players are indeed simply given the prize money in full, via the payment method of their choice. That is the norm.
Playtech Casinos to Avoid
Unfortunately, it’s not just Joyland that has a history with these types of progressive terms. And the fact that Playtech is allowing the casinos it powers to actually reinstate those kinds of terms is quite simply a scandal.
Granted, not all of Playtech-powered casinos have these terms. But you’ll want to be wary. Some of them are very well known, so be sure to check their terms before you play.
Here is a list of casinos who have been known to recently implement these predatory terms, which you should definitely avoid if you can help it:
- African Palace Casino
- Casino Tropez
- City Club Casino
- City Tower Casino
- Crown Europe Casino
- Europa Casino
- Europlay Casino
- Grand Reef Casino
- Indio Casino
- Jackpot247
- Joyland Casino
- La Isla Online Casino
- Prime Casino
- Royal Dice
- Sierra Star Casino
- Sky Kings Casino
- Super Casino
- Titan Casino
- Vegas Red
- Vernons Casino
- Winner Casino