The online gambling monopoly in the Canadian province of Quebec has awarded a record-high online poker bad beat jackpot.
On Monday, Loto-Quebec announced that the OK Poker product on its Espace-jeux online gambling site had issued a new record online bad beat jackpot the previous week as the players at the table shared a cool C$755,896 (US$537,711).
According to the government-run operator, Montreal resident Raymond Desjardins was playing OK Poker’s bad beat table on the evening of April 30 when he drew a straight flush on the river. One of his opponents, who apparently didn’t wish to be identified, went all-in with a hand that was good enough to win 99.9% of the time, except this time.
Desjardins said that when he saw his opponent’s quad-tens, he and his son “let out a big whoop.” Desjardins collected 25% of the jackpot (C$188,974) while his losing opponent walked away with C$377,974 and the other six players at the table picked up C$31,495 apiece.
The win eclipses a C$676,443 bad beat jackpot awarded late last year at the land-based poker room at Casino du Lac-Leamy. However, it pales in comparison to the C$1,669,442 shared by nine players at Casino du Montreal in April 2018.
In other Loto-Quebec news, the Crown corporation has resumed some of the retail lottery sales that were suspended in March to minimize further transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus. As of Monday, retailers with an outdoor entrance have been authorized to fire up their terminals but retailers in shopping centers, including lottery kiosks, remain suspended for the time being, as do Loto-Quebec’s land-based casinos and VLT halls.
Last month, Loto-Quebec announced that its upper management and other managerial personnel had agreed to freeze their salaries for the 2020-21 fiscal year. The move is the latest effort at expressing solidarity with the province as it battles the pandemic, following a C$1m donation to local food banks, donations of medical gear, and distributing 35,000 meals to the hungry through a partnership with La Tablée des Chefs.
