PCPlay Coin Desk Open the partner account
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Play Coin Desk / The clause list
Before the first bundle

Six clauses that decide what your balance is

Everything on this desk is readable off one document, and it is not the bundle screen. These are the six clauses to find, in order, before the first purchase - because every one of them is harder to argue about after the money has moved.

Open the partner accountStart with the six clauses
Bought: priced, spendable, not redeemableGranted: unpriced, the only route outNo route: no sale price exists
Direct answerA play-money product's terms decide what a coin is, whether it can be taken away, when it expires, what the granted currency requires, who hears a dispute, and what happens to the balance when access ends. Find those six before buying anything. The two that most often change a player's mind are the definition clause - a licence to use virtual items, not property - and the forfeiture clause, which typically applies to the entire balance rather than to the disputed amount.

Why the terms, and not the screen

A play-money product is a contract with a game attached, so the contract is the product. The screen shows the price, the balance and the buttons; the document decides what those things mean. That inversion is unusual enough to be worth stating plainly: in a regulated gambling product, a great deal of what matters is set by law and cannot be altered by a clause. Here almost everything that matters is set by a clause, and the clauses were written by the party that benefits from them.

This is not a reason to assume bad faith. Most of these clauses exist for ordinary commercial reasons and are no worse than the equivalent clauses in any app. It is a reason to read them as the operative document, because there is no regulator standing behind the arrangement to correct a clause that is doing something it should not.

Worked example - the expiry clock, measured against the pace of play (illustrative) Balance in the bought currency: 28,000 coins - the largest illustrative bundle at 1,600 coins per GBP 1, or GBP 17.50 of coin purchases.
Pace of play: 1,000 coins per spin, which is 28 spins if the whole balance is spent.
Illustrative expiry on granted balances: 90 days. Spread over the clock: 28,000 ÷ 90 = 311 coins per day, which is 0.31 of one spin per day (311 ÷ 1,000).
So for a player who plays at all regularly, a 90-day clock is not a threat: the balance is spent long before it expires. Halve the pace and nothing changes. But a 500,000-coin balance - the kind built by a large purchase and a month of light play - is 500 spins, and the same 90 days allows 5,555 coins a day, or 5.5 spins. Miss ten days and the gap between the clock and the pace is a real quantity of money.
The rule this arithmetic produces: expiry is not about the size of the clock, it is about the ratio between the clock and the pace. A balance you cannot plausibly spend is a balance you are holding for the operator.

The six clauses, in the order to find them

  1. What a coin isThe definition clause. Look for the words licence, virtual item and no monetary value. If the balance is licensed to you rather than owned by you, everything downstream follows: it cannot be sold, transferred, inherited or treated as an asset.
  2. What can be taken away, and whyThe forfeiture clause, and the list of prohibited play that triggers it. Check whether the consequence is forfeiture of the affected amount or of the entire balance - the second is the common drafting - and whether the operator's determination is final.
  3. When it expires or starts costing moneyExpiry on granted balances, expiry or dormancy rules on bought balances, any inactivity charge, and whether the clock resets on a login or only on play. The clause often distinguishes the two currencies, and the smaller balance is usually the one on the shorter clock.
  4. What the granted currency requiresThe redemption conditions: eligibility by jurisdiction and age, the minimum, the verification step, the payment method rule that it must be in the account holder's own name, the processing period, and the reasons a claim is refused.
  5. Who decides a disputeThe dispute clause: which law governs, which courts or arbitration body hears it, and whether there is any internal escalation that must be exhausted first. This clause is the substitute for the independent complaint route a licensed operator must provide.
  6. What happens when access endsClosure by choice, closure by the operator, and the product shutting down. Look for whether the balance can be spent during a notice period, whether items and balances simply lapse, and whether any part of the arrangement survives closure.

Where this page sits against three neighbours

The bonus terms desk reads the terms that attach to money the operator gave you on the real-money side - wagering, weighting, maximum bets and expiry on a bonus. This page reads the terms that decide whether a virtual balance is exchangeable at all, which is a prior question. The dormant funds desk covers the end of life of a real-money account: the inactivity clock, dormancy fees and unclaimed balances, where the money is money throughout. And the data desk covers the information held about an account and the rights attached to it, which is a different question from what the balance is worth.

One habit that solves most of this. Save the terms as a file on the day you buy, with the date in the filename, and keep the redemption conditions beside it. Play-money terms change quietly, the version that governed your purchase is the one that matters in an argument, and the only copies that survive a revision are the ones a player kept. It takes a minute at purchase and it is the entire evidence base for every subsequent conversation.