Beware the Gibraltar Regulatory body and companies licensed by the GRA folks! Don’t worry, this is not a rigtard post.
I was playing at Jackpotjoy and realised I had no idea what the fee structure was for Bingo on there (shameful I know, but I was just clearing a bonus and Bingo was the quickest way). I decided to ask the host and she directed me to a big Ts and Cs page. Unfortunately, this page had no info about fees on it (wasted 30 minutes reading it all)
I shrugged it off and went into Live Support to ask them:
Kate E: Unfortunately we do not have this information within support. Last time I look into it I can remember being a small percentake of each game pool.
Ok, still no answer. But this is just a support rep, so maybe she just didn’t know? Nopt that it's okk not to know, but these things happen. Either way, between the in-game support rep, the Live Support host and a search of their website and Google I really should have been able to find it.
I work in the gambling industry, so I would expect any other company to do as we do and provide any information like this on request. Since I couldn’t find the information it seemed like the best thing to do was to get on to the licensing body to ask them how the fees work and why Jackpotjoy don’t seem to have to provide this info on request.
This is where **** gets really shady!
Dear xxx
Thank you for your email below.
Online bingo does not work on the same basis as either online poker or land based bingo in terms of prize calculation. The prizes, generally, are guaranteed irrespective of the number of players. [CAN'T BE TRUE, the prize pool started at £0 in every game and ticked up as players bought tickets!]
I can also advise you that Alderney bingo providers (e.g. Virtue Fusion and Gala etc) work on exactly the same basis.
As an industry 'professional' you should be aware that poker and bingo are structured in very different ways, as are online and offline bingo, and 'rake' is not a term associated with bingo anywhere in the world.
Yours Sincerely
Paul Fox
Wowzer! Not the response I was expecting. Why is everyone refusing to tell me how much the fees are and how they work? Who cares if it's rake, fees or a complex structure thatneeds a whole doc to explain it? I just want the info dammit. This is starting to get very suspicious! I don’t need to be patronised and told “they’re complicated”, nor do I need someone to put ‘professional’ into inverted commas – this has nothing to do with whether I work in the same industry or not. I can see the prize pool tick up as more people buy tickets, so surely fees of some kind are taken from the prize pool? Why won’t anyone reveal how they work and how much is taken? Surely this can’t be legal?
Ok, so now I decide to send an irate email to Paul’s boss Phill Brear telling him I don’t think they should be patronising or ignoring a legitimate question from an upset customer, no matter how petulant or frustrated the tone of his email might be (yes, I started to get a bbit childish at this point, but not too ridiculously so).
I then get a very long email back from Phill Brear that goes into great detail about why Alderney are no better than the GRA and defends why Paul put ‘professional’ in inverted commas. He comments about my childish over-use of exclamation marks and he then repeats Paul’s sentiment that it is “very different to poker, more complicated and they don’t call it rake”?!? I won’t paste the whole email in because it’s prohibitively long. This post is already tltr.
In all this defensiveness and misdirection I still haven’t received any kind of response about what the rake charges are and how I might find out how they work on Jackpotjoy Bingo and I think I know why they don’t want me to know. From a sketchy guesstimation it looks like somewhere between 30-80% of the prize pool ends up with the operator (150 runners spending between £1 and £9 per game and a total prize pool of little over £200). I think most people buy ‘Max tickets’ so it’s probably closer to 40%-70%, but there’s no way for me to find out apparently!
Anyway, I still don’t have any kind of answer and I’m about to give up on that. However, I gamble and I work in gambling, so I also feel very strongly that bad practices like this give the whole industry a bad reputation and we should be speaking out to stop it wherever we find it. 2+2 have a good history with exposiing bad practice.
So this is me, a very frustrated customer, doing my bit to let people know that they should steer clear of Bingo in general, Jackpotjoy and GRA licensed operators in particular if openness, clarity and fairness are important to you.
If you don’t believe me then just have a go at finding out fees charged for Jackpotjoy Bingo yourself!
Play safe and stick to responsible operators who provide information on request folks. Voting with your feet is the best way to send a message and letting others know is the best way to ensure people work hard to maintain good reputations and working practices.
Two Plus Two
) to bring it to their attention, no matter what the issue is (including requesting your own thread to be moved).
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