Progressive jackpots have become more and more popular over time in both land based casinos and online. The Gaming Division of Gaming of Enforcement in New Jersey, the regulating body for Atlantic City, has announced a brand new rule on progressive jackpots and many players aren’t happy about it. To break it down easily, this rule means that progressive jackpots can be halted at any point and the money that has been contributed to the jackpot by players can be taken and kept by the casino. There are of course rules the casino must follow in order to do this, but the fact that this rule is even in place makes players wary.
This rule doesn’t apply to online casinos, but in time it very well may be, as this rule is setting precedence for other gambling regulators to do the same. To enforce this rule the casino needs only give a thirty day notice that they jackpot will be terminated and if no players trigger the jackpot within the time frame, the casino may keep it for themselves. This rule applies to all progressive jackpots within the casino, but not network wide casino jackpots.
This rule was initially put in place in 1992 and within a ninety day period casinos were cancelling huge progressive jackpots only to keep them in their own pocket. As you can imagine there was a public uproar about this rule and it was changed and the casinos were forced to use the money they seized in other jackpots within the casino. This was far better than pocketing the jackpot cash that players contributed to in hope of winning it big, so players continued to gamble in the establishment and things went back to normal. The only thing that stayed the same was the casinos were able to terminate unpopular jackpots, as there weren’t many players contributing.
The director of the Division of Gaming Enforcement stated that the rule was put in place as it was passed by legislature earlier in this year. The objective according to the director was to make it easier on land casino operators by allowing them to shut down unpopular progressive jackpots and stated that the rule will not allow casinos to seize large jackpots they let accrue just to keep the money to themselves, only to reopen the progressive jackpot to the starting amount, which some would argue is downright cheating.
The CFO of Trump Entertainment, David Hughes, made an official statement saying that the rule was not as bad as some may view it as, and highly doubts that casinos are going to use this to pocket jackpot cash. It merely is a way for casino operators to distribute funds from less popular jackpots to those that players enjoy playing more. The question still remains, what about the players that contributed to those jackpots in question and come back on their next visit only to see that the jackpot has been cancelled. After all without players, there wouldn’t be a casino so it’s wise that the casino operators in Atlantic City use this rule cautiously.
