Bad Beat Jackpot in a ClubGG club: whose money it is and how not to mistake it for profit

Many clubs on ClubGG run a Bad Beat Jackpot. A small contribution from every hand goes into a shared fund, and when a very strong hand loses to an even stronger one, the fund pays out a prize. Players like it: even the most painful hand at the table now comes with a shot at a big win.

For the club owner the jackpot has another side. Next to the club's money there is now a second pot that grows every night, and it is very easy to treat it as your own.

Whose money it is

The fund is collected from players and promised to players. The club holds it but does not earn it. The jackpot contribution is taken together with the rake, it sits right next to the rake in the ClubGG report, and at the end of the day both look like one stream of money. But the rake is split between the club, player rakeback and referral partners, while Bad Beat contributions are shared with nobody: they simply wait for someone's bad luck.

In the example above the club earned $800. Add the fund and you get $1,050, and the owners end up counting as profit money they will one day have to hand to a player. We covered the club's other costs separately.

Where the fund most often gets mixed up with the club's money

Contributions are counted as revenue. Rake and fund are added into one "collected tonight" number. Profit looks bigger than it is, and when the jackpot finally hits, the money for it somehow isn't there.

Topping up the fund wallet is recorded as an expense. The fund is kept separately, and from time to time money is moved there from the main wallet. Record that transfer as spending, and the club gets expenses it never had, while the fund wallet holds more than it "should".

The prize is paid from the general cash. The jackpot hit, the player got paid, and the fund on paper stayed the same. A month later nobody can say how much is really in it.

Nobody knows the fund balance. Players ask "how much is in the jackpot right now" and the club answers "roughly". For players this is about trust: a jackpot whose size nobody can name looks like a promise with nothing behind it.

How to tell something is off with the fund

• the fund amount in the books doesn't match what is kept separately;
• on big game days club profit grows faster than the rake;
• club expenses went up, but nobody remembers any new spending;
• after a jackpot payout the club's cash no longer adds up;
• ask "how much is in the jackpot" and each owner names a different number.

If at least two of these sound familiar, players' money has already mixed with the club's. You can separate it afterwards, but that means going through every single transfer.

What helps

The fund shown separately in every report. For each day you see rake, rakeback, referral share, club profit and Bad Beat contributions apart from each other. Then the fund never lands in profit, even by accident.

A separate wallet for the fund. Players' money sits where it can't be confused with the club's working money, and the balance can be checked at any moment.

A transfer to the fund is recorded as a transfer. The club didn't spend that money, it moved it from one pocket to another. Expenses don't change.

Regular checks. How much the fund should hold according to the books and how much it actually holds is checked as often as the main cash desk.