Playtech Online Casinos Caught in Payout Controversy
The news that a winning patron at Joyland Online Casino had to haggle to receive a little over half the promised progressive jackpot he hit has spread to an examination of paying policies at casinos powered by Playtech. Clauses in casinos operating on Playtech software put sharp limits in maximum payouts for winners regardless of the size of the jackpot.
The player at Joyland reportedly won over $4 million at the Beach Life online slot, hitting the progressive jackpot. The patron was then informed the maximum the casino would pay a customer is $9000 a month, which would mean it would take thirty-nine years to settle his account.
Negotiations led to an unhappy player feeling forced into a take-it-or-leave-it deal, getting a little over half ($2.3 million) as a lump-sum settlement. Joyland was sold to William Hill, but questions remained regarding Playtech's position, and the disposition of the other $2 million.
But industry insiders have uncovered much of the corruption going on at these Internet casinos. According to information posted on the Casinomeister forums, Joyland's previous owner was a company called Six Digits Trading. This company is owned by Teddy Sagi, who owns almost half of Playtech.
Further, Playtech casinos have a similar clause in all agreements, limiting the maximum payout for any one account. While many online casinos employ such language, it is not considered industry policy to enforce this against progressive wins, lest progressive players shy away from online games.
The player's brother recounts on the forums how the casino attempted to force her to play out her winnings, giving them the chance to take half of her jackpot.
"He then called us back to inform us that he could give her large sums if and only if, Sylvia would lose it first and only then could he payout. So in reality once she had played and lost , he would be able to pay, but that also changed when he noticed she wasn't playing anymore and the account was stable at $2 285 000.00 he changed this to them anticipating the payout by making withdrawals," says poster HankP.
Gaming industry representatives await either transparency from Playtech, along with a lengthy explanation, or their chance to return the karma to the online casino software supplier by guiding casino patrons elsewhere.
