moneyballs.com

The World Wide Web is full of sites where you can spends hours of fun passing the time playing games and some of these games even come with the promise of cash prizes.

I was introduced to one such Website called Moneyballs.com by a friend so I decided to give it a try. Two years on I may not be a Millionaire but it is probably fair to say that I am addicted and if I do not get my daily fix then I find myself getting irritable.

I am naturally sceptical about any site that offers a top prize of one million dollars when registration and participation is completely free but as of today I currently have over three hundred dollars in my account. This may seem like proof that this site is fantastic but there is one small catch, more on that later.

The site can be found at http://www.moneyballs.com. Logging onto this page brings up a bright yellow coloured page that has a grid of numbers in the middle of it as its main focus. This grid is effectively 63 different boxes. The aim of the game is to select seven numbers and submit your picks.

You will need to register with the site when you visit it for the first time but this is simple and easy. The required personal details are simply your name, gender, address, and email address. Since this information is stored in a cookie this information does not need to re-entered again when you return to the site.

Anyone over the age of 16 years is eligible to register regardless of their Country of Residence.

Once you have selected your seven numbers you simply hit the "submit picks" button at the side of the grid. The numbers that you pick can either be selected individually by ticking the relevant number box or if you select the "random pick" button at the top of the grid then seven random numbers will be chosen for you.

When you submit your numbers you need to wait around thirty seconds while the Balls on the screen spin around. Suddenly the name of the game becomes clear. The number left on the front face of each Ball when it stops spinning being the drawing numbers. The numbers drawn are automatically checked against your selected numbers and the result is displayed in a message on the screen i.e. "you have matched (0-7) numbers."

Now here is the fun bit that will get your heart racing for the thirty seconds that it takes for the Balls to stop rolling:

If you match none or one number you win nothing
If you match two numbers you win two free play tickets
If you match three numbers you win $1
If you match four numbers you win $10
If you match five numbers you win $100
If you match six numbers you win $10,000
If you match all seven numbers you win $1,000,000

Sounds easy and fantastic especially considering that its all for free and according to the Website over $3 million have already been paid out in prizes.

So now for the catch....

When three or more numbers are matched the amount is automatically credited to your account and the balance of your account is shown at the top of the screen. The first time I matched three numbers and won a dollar I was pretty pleased with myself. Slowly my account balance began to creep up. Suddenly I matched four numbers and my balance doubled overnight, I was ecstatic. It was time to cash out.

This is where the catch became apparent as when I tried to cash out it said that I had insufficient funds. I guessed that you needed to reach some ridiculously high payout level before you could cash out and so I trawled through the tiny print in the terms and conditions. I discovered was that there was no minimum payout, great, so why wouldn't it let me cash out. I read on...

What I discovered was that it is only possible to cash out once you have matched five or more numbers. All smaller winnings of $1 and $10 are added to your account and paid out when you match five numbers. Therefore if you have accumulated $60 in your account and you match four numbers, winning $100 you can claim your full account balance of $160. Since the odds of matching five or more numbers out of 63 are very low the chances are you will never be able to claim all of the small amounts that you have accumulated in your account. I guess that the moral of this story is that I should have read all of the terms and conditions when I first registered but now I am addicted and I play every day because I live in hope that one day I may match more than just three numbers and finally be able to empty my account.

You can play ten games every day plus any additional free games that you win by matching two numbers. Providing that you log in and play at least one game any remaining games for that day are carried over. Sometimes I do not have time to play all of my games every day so I simply accumulate them for the weekend when I have more spare time and I can play away to my heart's content.

One thing that you be wondering is how can a site like this pay out cash prizes, assuming that they actually do, and there are links to stories in the press about real winners, when it is free to play.

The answer to this question lies in advertising. This site is full of pop up advertisements, which you can obviously block with a pop up blocker, but even if you do there is no way of getting away from some of the adverts since you have an advertisement displayed across half of the screen for the whole of the thirty seconds that the Balls are spinning and a game is in process, short of looking away or closing your eyes for half a minute there is no escaping from this.

Overall I actually think that this is a great site and providing that you treat it just as a bit of fun and that you don't let it take over your life then it is just harmless fun, and you never know, you might just actually win some real cash one day.

At least I am not addicted but I've played all of my ten games today so I am now watching the clock until Midnight...

Thank you for reading.