So the wager has been made, the reels spun and the gods of the casino world have smiled upon you. The screen is flashing and your account balance has suddenly increased massively! Congratulations! You've just enjoyed a big win! So the question is: What do you do now?
It is a situation that most online casino players would love to face and while rare, it does happen. River Belle Casino player Georgios M from Greece is ample evidence of that when in May 2009, he placed a 5 bet on the Mega Moolah Progressive Jackpot game and on a single spin landed the $6,374,599 jackpot! There are have been over a dozen huge winners since then, which you can read about on MegaMoolah.com.
Of course, these big jackpot winners win life-changing amounts of money and if you were ever fortunate enough to win this amount; we'd hope you'd take plenty of advice from financial experts with what to do with your new-found wealth!
However, while these huge jackpot winners are relatively few in number, there are a considerable number of players who win a large amount of money. They may win a progressive jackpot of several thousand pounds, or perhaps win one of the smaller jackpots on a large syndicated game, like MegaMoolah.com or Major Millions.
They may just get lucky playing roulette and have their lucky number come up a few times in succession at the table (it does happen) but most likely, they'll hit a big win on an online slot that offers a big jackpot win, perhaps amounting to several thousand in your own currency.
So the question is; what should you do if you are ever in the fortunate position of landing a sizeable win, lets say of 10,000, at any casino game?
Here are some things you need to consider:
1. Which account did my stake come from when I placed the original bet?
If you placed your bet from your cash account, then you should receive payment to this account and the money should be instantly accessible. However, if you placed your bet using bonus money and you have not yet fulfilled the wagering requirements of your bonus, then you need to do this prior to making any withdrawal.
Wagering requirements are simply how many times you have to play through your bonus amount before you can withdraw cash. So for example, if like at Jackpot City, the wagering requirements are 50 times your bonus, then if your bonus was 100, you need to play through 5000 before you can make a withdrawal.
In this situation, your 10,000 win would be placed, initially in your bonus account. You would then need to use part of this cash to fulfill the play through requirements on your account. Once you have done this, any remaining cash can then be transferred to your cash account and withdrawn.
So let's say that you won the 10,000 prize having bet 50 of your 100 deposit bonus. This means that you still have to play through 4950 in order to release funds.
Therefore, assuming you don't win any more money, you'll need to play through 4950 of your 10,000 bonus cash win to release the remaining 5050 to your real cash account.
It is well worth checking this out before you start betting so you understand the terms of the play through bonus and how this could impact your winnings, depending on which cash account your winning bets stake came from.
2. How does 10,000 compare to what you spend on casino games each month?
Once your cash is allowed to be withdrawn, the next thing you need to consider is how big a win this is compared to what you would ordinarily spend on casino gaming in a month.
For some people, a 10,000 win represents a massive return on their usual monthly spend. If you are only spending 10 or 20 per month online, then the magnitude of this win will no doubt please you.
However, if you are a serious gambler who regularly spends a significant amount of money playing each month (say 5,000 or more), then this win is perhaps not as significant as it would be for people who wager less.
The magnitude of the win is a personal issue, if this represents a huge amount of money for you compared to your average monthly spend, then I think you would take a different course of action to a gambler for whom a 10,000 win doesn't represent a huge return on their monthly investment.
Of course, for the vast majority of players, 10,000 represents a big win, so I would expect them to make a significant withdrawal, but for a few high-rollers, the money may be best used in another way, especially if you have enough cash to deal with all your day-to-day living costs.
3. Should I ever use my big win to play more casino games, chase a bigger win, play more often for bigger stakes?
I'm never a fan of the 'much-wants-more' scenario and there are countless stories of casino patrons who have won a big prize and then handed it all straight back to the casino by continuing to play, rather than walking away.
While I can see the value in using a 'chunk' of your win to play at the casino, the size of that chunk depending on your own situation and monthly spending on casino games, I think for a win to have any meaningful impact for a player, a significant amount needs to be withdrawn and used for spending in other areas of life.
Don't be a casino player who wins a decent amount and then hands it straight back to the casino; as your big win doesn't then have any meaningful impact other than allowing you the chance to spend more time playing (and losing) at the casino.
Also, don't let a big win alter your gaming habits and certainly never seek to chase your losses if you wager a significant amount of your win and lose; you should never gamble with money you cannot afford to lose.
My advice here is to use your big win to benefit both your everyday life and your casino experience, in whatever proportion is suited to your bankroll and your circumstances. A big win will only benefit you if you spend it on something tangible, rather than hand it straight back to the casino.
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