Not everyone plays progressive jackpot slots but for those that do there’s a good reason; if you are lucky enough to be one of the tiny percentage of players who strike it lucky, your life will be change forever – assuming you are not rich already.
We regularly hear and report on news stories in which a player at a particular casino hits the big bucks; the prizes can be in millions of pounds, euros or dollars depending on your country of residence and there’s usually a brief interview with the winner in which he or she states that they can’t believe their luck and that they’ll probably keep playing the slots because that’s what they enjoy.
That’s where the story ends; the progressive jackpot builds up again, someone else wins it and the cycle continues. In this article we’re going to explain why you should read the terms and conditions of the casino in question before you start playing there.
Firstly let’s check out where the money comes from for the progressive prizes; the slot developer puts up some seed money (so if you win there’s always something in the prize pot) and then of course the players make up the rest with small proportions of each wager. This money is watched over by the developer.
When someone wins the big prize, the developer hands over the money to the online casino who then passes it on to the winner – or at least that’s the idea. In reality the speed at which you receive the money depends on the casino at which you won the prize. Deep in the terms and conditions of each casino is a section on withdrawals which sets out how much money you can withdraw in a set time period, usually a month.
We realise that this is what could be described as ‘first world problem’ but in the worst circumstances you may find that you win £5 million for example but are only allowed to withdraw £10,000 per month. That means you have to wait the best part of ten years to receive all your money. This isn’t the casino’s money so why should they accrue all that interest for all that time?
Of course you may be happy with this state of affairs and for sure £10,ooo per month is nothing to sneeze at but the fact is that this is your money and someone else is benefiting from it.
Not all casinos have conditions such as this of course and we can cite the examples of Harry Casino and Bet Victor as two of those we use who will, subject to some understandable additional verification, hand over all the money.
The lesson is: not all casinos are the same so make sure you read the terms of conditions because you might just hit the jackpot one day.