Here's one for the books - not yet confirmed but strong reports from several quarters indicate that Warren Cloud has met his maker.
One of
RTG's biggest online casino operators, he is reported to have succumbed to a heart attack whilst out on a boat off the shores of Ibiza, Spain late Saturday evening.
The South African online gambling businessman used several aliases and was also known as "Don Fortune," "Richard Brooks" or "Oliver Curran" to many. He eventually became the biggest and most successful of the Real Time Gaming casino operators with venues like Crystal Palace and many others.
Starting in South Africa with an online casino powered by Korean software, Cloud was not initially successful and left many players unpaid when he relocated elsewhere, first to Australia and then London. However, he became very successful - although with a questionable reputation - after he started using
RTG software and based his operations in Costa Rica.
That success was so pronounced that he at one stage contemplated launching an IPO on the London AIM market worth GBP 120 million. This did not materialise, however.
Often at the centre of controversial decisions to the detriment of individual players, leading to major disputes, Cloud has in recent times been low profile, leading to speculation that he may have retired despite his relatively young age. He leaves a widow and one child.