Should progressive jackpots be paid in instalments?

The question of whether progressive jackpots should be paid in a single tranche or over time in instalments resurfaced this week with the news that the influential Casinomeister information portal has added 40 Playtech-powered sites which insist on payment by instalments to its “not recommended” list.

The Casinomeister move reawakened outraged memories of a player who hit a $4.2 million Playtech jackpot on the Joyland online casino website back in 2008, only to have the casino’s regular-win $9,000 a month maximum withdrawal rule placed in her path.

Even without interest, that would have taken almost 40 years to pay out, and the player would have been at constant risk of the company going under or changing hands (which it subsequently did).

The casino management then took advantage of her position (and growing adverse publicity) by offering her a deal of half the jackpot in cash, using an anonymous email address, presumably to distance themselves from such a questionable deal. The circumstances were documented in a thread at Casinomeister here:

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/online-casinos/31033-stipulations-playtech-progressive-win.html

At the time Playtech, which had already paid out the jackpot in full to the casino management, took the casino’s part and said that the casino decision was covered by the standard T&Cs to which the player had agreed before signing up.

Subsequently, Joyland was acquired by the William Hill group, and it transpired that the withheld half of the jackpot had vanished without trace.

The “instalment” T&C remains in place at some forty Playtech-powered operations now listed here:

http://www.casinomeister.com/rogue/not_recommended/playtech_progressives.php

Most players feel that progressive jackpots are built by small contributions from every bet made, which are siphoned off by the software provider and kept separate for payment when the jackpot is hit.

Players argue that they are therefore contributing to the jackpot “in advance” as it were, and that the jackpot should be paid out in full to those with the extreme good fortune of actually hitting a jackpot.

The software provider pays the jackpot in full to the operator, and the operator should therefore do the same with the lucky player, they argue.

To do otherwise raises the risk to the player of the operator folding without completing payment, or simply enjoying the interest on the significant sums being held whilst the player is fed small monthly instalments over a protracted period of time.

Some players argue that progressive jackpots fall into a special category, and that the operator should be more upfront on how the jackpot is paid out.

Many punters have indicated that they would not be prepared to play progressives if they knew that they would not be paid out immediately and in full in the event of a jackpot hit.

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