The Snoqualmie Casino has closed its poker room, and is keeping what\u2019s left of a player-funded jackpot. Not surprisingly, the room’s former poker players are up in arms. (Image: Snoqualmie Casino)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe casino\u2019s regular poker players contributed to that jackpot, believing it would one day be redistributed to them, or at least a fortunate handful of them at the whim of the poker gods. Now, they say they\u2019ve been ripped off.<\/p>\n
But because the Snoqualmie is a tribal casino, rather than a commercial one, the management\u2019s decision to keep the jackpot is not against the law.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhose Jackpot Is It?<\/strong><\/h2>\nA player-funded jackpot is like a progressive jackpot on a slot machine — a pool of money that builds over time from a percentage of the rake. When a player hits the jackpot by either hitting a designated high hand or suffers an improbable bad beat, the prize pool is distributed in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it’s split between two players, other times all the players at the table may partake of a small percentage left after the winning and losing players have been paid.<\/p>\n
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The Snoqualmie gave players a month\u2019s notice before it closed the poker room on Thursday, August 2, but it only stopped funding the jackpot on July 25. For the last week of operation, it doubled jackpot payouts, but there was still $29,863 left in the pool when the room finally shut down. That money is now going towards promoting \u201cother games,\u201d the casino says.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nBut poker player Lucas Newman told local CBS affiliate news station KIRO that the operators are behaving unethically. He says a poker room sign promising that 100 percent of the funds collected from jackpot would be allocated to poker jackpot winners and designees only should be binding.<\/p>\n
All Above Board, Says Regulator<\/strong><\/h2>\nHeather Songer of the Washington State Gambling Commission told KIRO the casino is well within its rights to make the decision it did, and as a tribal operator, it is not bound by the gambling commission\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a commercial card room that decides to discontinue a player-supported jackpot, they are required by rule to distribute the balance of that jackpot to the players within 60 days,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The National Indian Gaming Commission also has some recommendations for how to handle these closed jackpots. Their recommendations are very similar to ours, but, again, they\u2019re just suggestions, they are not requirements,\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut for Newman, in poker vernacular, it\u2019s all a bad beat with no winning payout.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a business level, they\u2019re going to alienate hundreds of people — many of whom will never come back specifically because of this,\u201d he said. \u201cBut also, on an ethical level, do they really want that headache? It doesn\u2019t seem worth\u00a0it. It\u2019s like, \u2018hey you\u2019ve made this promise and now you are not going to fulfill it.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s the fate of a Seattle, Washington player-funded jackpot when a poker room closes? That’s what customers at the\u00a0Snoqualmie Casino, just outside Seattle, want to know, as their poker jackpot is about to disappear into the ether — or at least, into the casino\u2019s coffers. The casino\u2019s regular poker players contributed to that jackpot, believing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":85263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13592,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Seattle Poker Players Cry Foul Over Lost Tribal Casino Jackpot Fund<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n