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I forget the context, but I mentioned to Iris the low percentage of the online gambling public that actually follow the gambling boards and, as such, the limited outreach of important information.
Her response was an angle I'd never really thought about: although the percentage of industry-watchers - around ten percent - seems small overall, in a competetive market ten percent is an enormous figure, and a chunk of the potential customer-base that no casino can permit itself to do without. Lose ten percent of your market and you might lose your casino.
I remember talking to a webmistress about my Angelciti case, almost three years ago now. I mentioned the general outrage expressed at Winneronline and the sheer level of interest in the matter expressed by the community. She said that, unfortunately, these were not players the casinos really had much interest in appeasing, being by and large bonus hunter types and of generally negative value to them. This was probably true then. However, there's been a big change in the forum-composition in more recent times: time was, a slot junkie would not dare show his face for fear of the ridicule he'd receive from the sharp players who generally regard slot players with contempt. Since then, the number of sharp players on the forums has dwindled to almost nothing with the ever tightening nature of bonuses, and the number of casino-profitable players has exploded - just take a look of the slot threads at Casinomeister. Three years ago you would have seen none. That is a statement of fact and not intended to offend anyone.
In other words, although the forum readership of yesteryear was a readership casinos could possibly afford to allienate, it is no longer. That said, make no mistake: the power of the boards was considerable even then. Angelciti, Gaming Club, Forty Plus...these and many other cases were immensely fortified by forum pressure. It's simply my opinion that the composition of the forum ten percent is now such that when it votes with its feet, it has greater power. Of course, the outreach into the mainstream media of copy supplied by the likes of Bryan Bailey and Brian Cullingworth is of as much, and most likely greater, value - now as it was then. But it's heartening to be told by a casino representative that the apparently small customer base supplied by the forum readership is not a customer base to be triffled with.
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