Betcoin Reopens Poker Room Over Bad Beat Jackpot Payout Fiasco

In a rather stunning about-face, Betcoin has decided to reopen its poker room in order to make good on paying out funds from its Bad Beat Jackpot that remained unpaid when the Bitcoin gambling site closed its virtual poker doors last month.

That's a real head-scratcher of a decision that the "new owners" announced a few days ago. The timeline of events concerning Betcoin Poker from mid-December until now has been a complete comedy of errors, nothing short of a fiasco that has angered a number of loyal players who invested in the BBJ.

Coal in Players' Christmas Stockings

Let's briefly recap what transpired in the past month or so. About a week before Christmas, Betcoin announced that it was under new ownership and would be closing the poker room, but would still be open for its other online gambling offerings. New management decided that Christmas Day would be a fine date to close up shop, leaving loyal players with a bad taste with regard to the timing of that decision.

The Christmas shutdown was not the worst of it, as the announced closure made no mention of the BBJ that had reached some 43 Bitcoins. Disgruntled players made their voices heard on several online forums, complaining that they were entitled to the funds in the BBJ.

A few days after Christmas, the new brass at Betcoin stated that the BBJ would be returned to the players who had contributed to it, with a plan to calculate the amounts that each player paid into the jackpot, and then to redeposit it in those players' accounts. That process was proved to be more complex than imagined and was delayed.

A New Plan Is Hatched

That brings us to the latest announcement made a few days ago on the Betcoin website that stated that "it was determined that each (player) contribution cannot be determined with 100% accuracy," rendering the previous payout plan "unacceptable."

Furthermore, it was decided that "the most transparent and best way was to open poker back up and lower the requirements of the bad beat jackpot until it is earned by the players," with the aim "to do the right thing and remain fully transparent."

The post went on to say that a full complement of poker games will be made available, as will the parameters of the new BBJ rules, with more details expected to be posted on Monday, January 22. Poker action should be up and running "in full the week of the 26, January 2018." Also, US players, who had been blocked from accessing Betcoin since the first week of 2018, are welcome.

What Players Are Saying

Players had some choice comments to make about the latest announcement:

"Well done Betcoin on figuring out how to steal BJ while no one will be able to prove it," stated 'oriole.' "As an added bonus you will also get some fools to deposit and chase it. Well played! :)"

"I BELIEVE THIS IS THE FAIREST WAY TO DO THINGS! thanks for the chance to play here again i love this site," said 'all up in it.'

"Really seems like you are opening back up poker so you don't have to pay it out OR you don't even have the money in the first place," posted 'ElChapo.' "I can't imagine people coming back to play on this site after how this was handled."

I have to agree with ElChapo. Why would anyone want to deposit and play at a poker room with such indecisiveness and instability?