
Virgin
Online Casino Spins Jackpot Surplus
by Elizabeth Nguyen, News Staff Writer
January 9, 2007
Virgin Casino has taken some criticism
for their decision to turn a surplus progressive jackpot
into a marketing tactic of sorts. The popular online
casino certainly hasn't fallen short of its good
reputation; However, the manner in which they have
decided to give money back to their players has a slight
spin to it, which some players are slightly peeved
about.
If you may recall, Virgin Gaming
decided to end their wide-spread progressive jackpot network on
November 6, 2007 and strictly offer mega jackpots on the
IGT favorites, Cluedo and Wheel of Fortune (which offer
the largest reset jackpot value online at
£1.5 million). The only thing is that when they did
so, there was still £55 000 accumulated in the overall
progressive jackpot. And while Virgin Casino is doing
nothing to avoid paying this money back to the players,
which any other casino could have very well done, they
have put a spin on it to get players to drum up some
more traffic.
According to a promotional release,
Virgin says that anybody who was a real money player at
the online casino before November 6, 2007 is rightfully
eligible to receive a cut of the £55 000 surplus, which
will be awarded at a rate of £11 000 per day for five
days in January (the 6th through the 10th). However, in
order for these players to have a stab at the winnings,
they must also bet some more cash (at least one hand)
between January 6-10, 2008.
Critics of the scheme say it is flawed
for two reasons. For one, tempting players to place
additional bets to have a chance at winning a portion of
the jackpot they helped to build could be interpreted as
entrapping. Secondly, players who didn't contribute to
the progressive jackpot are entitled to the surplus as
well. In other words, Virgin Casino is saying that
any real money player during the aforementioned dates has a fair chance
at winning some of the jackpot.
However, to be fair to Virgin,
divulging this money out to all players who contributed
to the jackpot would be nigh impossible. We should all
know that when you gamble online, you put your money at
risk - especially when it's a progressive jackpot. The
fact that Virgin is being forthcoming about the surplus
and giving it back to players says something about this
top-tier UK casino.
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