Tell A Friend

Keep the Money!

As our fabulous Glo Wood recently reported:

As part of Rizk Casino's, ‘No bullshit,’ policy, they have implemented a feature that enables a player to, ‘Lock,’ their withdrawal any time after requesting it.  The way that it works is that a player simply must navigate to the, ‘Transactions,’ section of their account where they will be presented with the option to either, ‘Cancel,’ or, ‘Lock,’ the withdrawal.  Of course, the player can also choose to do neither.

Rizk is a relatively new and, apparently, hip online casino.  They must be hip, right?  They use terms such as, ‘Bullshit,’ and, ‘Big Ass Jackpots,’ on the Promotional pages of their website, so how can they not be hip and cool?  For the benefit of some of the players from around the world, I’ll also write a short piece taking a look at some of their bonuses that will come out shortly after this one.  

Back to the withdrawal, ‘Lock,’ feature.  Quite frankly, I believe that I like the idea of it, but I don’t know how practically effective it will be.  For one thing, it seems that the, ‘Cancel,’ button and the, ‘Lock,’ button are located very close to one another on the, ‘Transactions,’ screen, so to me, that might just as easily put the idea of cancelling the withdrawal in a player’s head.  However, even if we assume that the feature accomplishes its intended purpose, that doesn’t necessarily stop a player from continuing to gamble money at Rizk Casino, or any other that chooses to implement a similar feature.

For one thing, even with a, ‘Locked,’ withdrawal, the player could simply choose to deposit more money into the casino.  The player might even theoretically decide to deposit the exact amount that they have, ‘Locked,’ up for withdrawal knowing that they, ‘Have it coming.’  Furthermore, Rizk Casino’s feature does nothing to prevent players from depositing money into other online casinos while the Rizk payout is pending, of course, whether or not a player does so is none of Rizk’s business or concern.

Furthermore, a player could simply decide to wait for the withdrawal that he or she has, ‘Locked,’ and then simply redeposit that money at such time the withdrawal has been received.  Effectively, while that still manages to, ‘Lock,’ the withdrawal, the ultimate effect is that the money goes to the same place...the only difference being that the player pays the 2.50 withdrawal fee.  

I want to make it clear that I’m not knocking Rizk Casino for implementing such a feature, much less am I calling the feature, ‘Bullshit.’  I am sure that some players who would otherwise be compelled to cancel their withdrawals (eventually) will use the feature and manage to hang onto some of the money once it has been withdrawn.  In other words, I think that the feature will do some good for some people.  However, I do believe that there are a wide variety of other tactics that would be even more effective in not just preventing players from cancelling withdrawals, but also, not putting the money back into the casino at a negative expectation.  

First of all, this editorial really only applies to negative expectation players.  For positive expectation players, sometimes there may be a promotion that results in the need to cancel a withdrawal, largely out of convenience, if the same money can be used to take advantage of the promotion.  Usually that is not the case, however, and an advantage player would need to make a different deposit anyway.

For me, I also prefer not to make any new deposits into a casino until I have collected all of my winnings that came from a previous deposit.  That’s not necessarily because I lack control over what I am doing, the main reason is that I simply don’t like to commingle funds from one deposit/bonus and another because I would rather do my own accounting rather than worry about how the casino chooses to construe my various deposits and withdrawals.  Play a bonus, cash out, make a new deposit, rinse and repeat.  

Furthermore, when playing at an advantage, it is also difficult to tell when a casino might cut you off from bonuses.  However, that time actually usually comes during a pending withdrawal or shortly thereafter.  Another way to avoid making a deposit on a bonus that the casino has no intention of actually letting you play is to simply go to the, ‘Live Chat,’ make sure you are allowed to use a particular bonus (or use it again) and then save a transcript of the conversation.  Strictly speaking, that doesn’t stop the casino from telling you that you can’t play a promotion after you have made a deposit, per se, but the chat transcript specifically saying you could play that bonus would make them look really bad if they tried to do that.  To wit, that transcript would be copy/pasted both here and on the WizardofVegas.com forums in a serious hurry.

Back to strictly recreational players, or, ‘Negative expectation,’ players, whichever you prefer: There are a number of different strategies that such players can use in order to make sure that they don’t reverse any of their withdrawals, or in the case of land-based casinos, to make sure that they get out of there with the money they have won!  Here are a few:

Tell A Friend:

This is one tip that applies to both land-based casinos and online casinos alike.  After you have won money in a land-based casino, or have requested a deposit (presumably on winnings) on an online casino, if it is any sizeable amount whatsoever, call a friend or family member and tell them you won it!

Peer pressure is often one of the most successful means to get someone to either commit a certain action, or alternatively, to abstain from that action.  Therefore, when you have hit a relatively good win in either a brick-and-mortar or online casino, call either a friend or family member (the closer to you the better) and tell them how much you won and what you plan to do with the money.  Even if you plan to use the winnings to play at other online casinos, that’s fine, but you want to make sure to tell the person that.  

The idea is that the person you tell will eventually ask you something along the lines of, “So, what did you end up doing with all of that money?”  If, in the case of a land-based casino, you, ‘Gave it all back,’ or in the case of an online casino, you cancelled your withdrawal, you have only two ways to answer this question.  The first way to answer it is simply to tell the truth, you didn’t get the money out and then you proceeded to lose all of it, the second way to answer is to lie: Literally anything else you say other than, ‘I lost it,’ will be a lie.

The reason behind telling someone is that, even though it’s your money, you will still feel accountable to that person.  I’m also going to go out on a limb and assume that you will not want to tell that person that you lost the money right back to the same casino, and furthermore, most people are somewhat averse to lying to others, so they won’t want to do that, either.  

Furthermore, if you do tell the truth about what happened...especially if you have told a non-gambling friend or family member about your winnings...you’ll often find yourself faced with some uncomfortable questions such as, ‘Do you have a gambling problem?’  Even if you don’t have a gambling problem, in no way is that a comfortable question to have thrown at you by a close friend or family member.  In addition to that, no matter how you answer the question, the friend or family member in question will now have it on the back of their mind that you may have a gambling problem.

In other words, you’re trying to set it up so there are additional ramifications of not walking out of the casino, or alternatively, of cancelling your withdrawal and not getting the money out.  Those ramifications are to then have to choose between lying to someone close to you, or alternatively, potentially (especially if it happens a few times) being faced with an uncomfortable line of inquiry.  

The key is in the accountability, if you cancel a withdrawal and then lose money that you would have otherwise had the opportunity to cash out, but you don’t tell anyone about it, then those losses are entirely on you and you alone.  It might bother you that you lacked the discipline to steadfastly await the withdrawal hitting your preferred method of payment, but that doesn’t rise up to the level of feeling a sense of responsibility to someone else.  

Of course, some people really have nobody close to them with whom they can discuss gambling.  When that happens, you might simply choose to log into this site and check out the forums, maybe celebrate your win with other Members of the site by creating a thread or posting about your win (and withdrawal request) to an existing thread.  Even though this may not rise to the same level as telling a friend or family member about your winnings, at least you’ll have told someone who may want to follow up on it with a post.

Spend the Money!

This piece of advice largely depends on how reliable the casino is in terms of payouts, and whether or not you can afford to spend the money before you actually receive the withdrawal.  However, if you are dealing with a trustworthy operator, (preferably one that is highly ranked on this site and preferably using one of our affiliate links!) then if you have the funds, go out and spend your winnings before you get them!

This might seem counterintuitive and might seemingly fall under the fallacy of, ‘The money’s coming,’ but this is a little bit different.  With this piece of advice, I’m mainly referring to players who have a, ‘Problem,’ with often cancelling withdrawals that represent money that they may want to use for other things.  The best way to solve the problem is to go out and use the money on those other things and then wait for the withdrawal to hit and cover it.

Of course, this piece of advice isn’t for everyone, and I don’t pretend to know everybody’s financial situation.  Some people may be in the unfortunate position that the deposit they made into the casino, which turned into deposit + winnings, represents the entirety of any extra money they have, so as a result, they can’t actually spend the money until they have received the withdrawal payment.  

When that happens, then perhaps it would be beneficial to make a list of what you could do with the money, and if that includes trying bonuses at other online casinos, even that’s fine.  It’s your money, so if you want to try out some other places, and the money is for recreational purposes anyway, by all means, go ahead and do that.  

In land-based casinos, obviously the only real spending option (besides food and alcohol) would involve purchases at the casino’s (typically overpriced) gift shop.  The gift shop is not likely to have anything that you really want, anyway.  My advice in that situation, besides the obvious, ‘Tell somebody,’ is to take out your phone, or perhaps a pen and paper, and make a list of all of the things that you could do with the money you’ve won.  That way, before you stick anymore of that cash into a slot machine or make another buy-in at the tables, you can look at your list and determine whether anything on that list would be more fun to do/have as compared to playing the machines more.  

Lock Yourself Out!

The problem with taking time, ‘Off,’ from online casinos is that tends to freeze your account completely, so you have no access to it whatsoever including making withdrawal requests.  There are, however, other ways to lock yourself out.  If you have a friend who you really trust, for example, then you can request the withdrawal, have the friend change your password and instruct the friend not to give you the new password until the withdrawal has been fully processed, or, alternatively, if you need to make an inquiry pertaining to the withdrawal itself.

Conclusion:

While I believe the ability to, ‘Lock,’ withdrawals in place may prove beneficial for some of the readers out there, I believe that, for most, it solves a symptom rather than the underlying problem.  The underlying problem is that you have gambled at a negative (or, maybe even positive) expectation, you have won, and now you want to try to win more...or for a slim few people out there, maybe you actually want to lose and don’t know it.

In any event, once the withdrawal has been processed, the money is by no means secure with a player finding himself/herself in this position.  The player may simply choose to deposit the recently withdrawn money back into the casino, or alternatively, deposit it into a different casino.  

The best way for a recreational gambler to manage to, ‘Walk away,’ with the money is to either tell a friend about the winnings and what you plan to do with them, to spend the money or make plans for the money that you consider superior to continuing to play or in the case of online casinos only, to have a friend lock you out.  By doing one (or more) of these things, I would suggest that a player is less likely to cancel a withdrawal (or put money back in at land casinos) and more likely to enjoy his or her winnings in other ways.