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If sunshine isn’t the best disinfectant, it still has a strong case to make in that regard. A recent online casino game glitch involving one of Connecticut’s two licensed operators perfectly demonstrates the power of regulation for such gaming.
When a new slot game on DraftKings Casino (NASDAQ: DKNG) failed to pay out at the promised rate players quickly informed authorities, and also DraftKings, which enacted a swift solution to the issue.
The ease and speed with which the issue went away resulted from regulation.
‘Deal or No Deal’ game malfunctions
Even online slots can malfunction. DraftKings Casino recently added the “Deal or No Deal” Bankers Bonanza slot to its menu for players in Connecticut.
DraftKings Casino operates in that state under an agreement with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, one of two Indigenous Peoples Groups that offer gambling within Connecticut’s borders. The other is the Mohegan Tribe, which operates its own Connecticut online casino brand on a platform powered by FanDuel.
Within days of the slot becoming available on DraftKings, both DraftKings and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) received complaints about the slot not paying out as it should. White Hat Studios developed the game, and DraftKings advertised the game’s Return-To-Player (RTP) as 94.95%.
However, John Moritz of CT Insider reports that the game returned zero dollars to players across 20,000 spins. Understanding slot RTP shows why those two things can’t simultaneously be true.
What online slot Return-To-Player tells players
RTP is similar to a house edge in casino table games. It represents the percentage of all the money bet on a game that is returned to players over time.
An easy way to grasp the concept is to think of RTP as a portion of $100. For “Deal or No Deal” Bankers Bonanza, the game should have paid out $94.95 of each $100 it took in.
It’s also important to understand that this does not mean that each player should expect to receive back $94.95 of every $100 they wager on the game themselves. That $100 represents all the money everyone playing the game over time puts in.
With that in mind, 20,000 spins with this online slot game without a single cent being returned is out of place. Because all of this gaming happened within a regulated framework, the matter has already been resolved.
CT regulators, DraftKings move swiftly
According to Heather Fletcher of Bonus.com, a glitch in the game’s code disrupted payouts. DraftKings says that upon discovering the issue, it refunded players their stakes.
The DCP fined DraftKings $19,000 for the incident and the fine fit the violation. The incident was a rare glitch in what has otherwise been a strong record of compliance with DraftKings and White Hat Studios.
This slight malfunction is a great example of why regulation of online casinos by governments is so crucial.
The nightmare that gaming regulation prevented
If this situation arose with an unregulated online casino, a nightmare could have followed for players. To begin, players would have no governing body to report the issue to.
Rather, they would have been left to contact the casino operator’s customer service, if such a department existed. Whether they ever would have gotten a response is doubtful.
Continuing, even if the casino operator responds and promises restitution, no regulatory body would ensure the operator follows through. Furthermore, there is no pressure for the operator of an unregulated casino to make players whole promptly under these circumstances other than the fear of losing customers.
If the online casino had been unregulated in this instance, there would have been zero consequences for the operator allowing this glitch to withhold players’ winnings. Also, unregulated online casinos are not required to only offer games from licensed providers.
None of that concerned the DraftKings players because of Connecticut online casino regulation with licensed operators. Consumer protection is just as legitimate of a reason to regulate online casinos as any other.
