OPA Approved

[Casinomeister]

In case you were unaware, the forum is in a construction zone right now; everything is being imported to another bigger and better board. Thus sometimes postings may get "lost" during these processes.

This was posted by enigmatix earlier this morning:

Dear Casinomeister,

How much merit would you put into a casino showing the OPA approved symbol?

I saw in your bio that you previously worked with this operation. I trust you, but when I see them approving sites such as Black Widow, a casino that has been under a lot of scrutiny, as well as all of the Sunny Group casinos, which were blacklisted by GoneGambling.com, I begin to wonder.

If you can answer this question without being biased, I would really like to know your stance on this one. Thanks,

Enigmatix

[Casinomeister]

Hi Enigmatix,

Let me answer your questions as unbiased as possible. I'll really try

<hr size=0>quote:<p>How much merit would you put into a casino showing the OPA approved symbol?<hr size=0>

I would put no merit in it whatsoever. Everything you need to know about the OPA, you can read here:
http://www.casinomeister.com/newsletter/2003/
10january2003.html#article2

In a nutshell, the OPA went from +1800 members and ten high profile committee members to zilch; a hollow shell being run by Mike Craig and a couple of others. It began as a true organization of "players" yet it now serves as a rubber stamp. Reason? It turned out that the self appointed leader (Mike Craig) was being paid by a number of casinos to display the logo. Nothing wrong with that if the amount is being declared and the information disseminated. When he was challenged about this and voted out of the OPA, Mike freaked out stating that this was his "bread and butter". I had full power over the site, domain names, webmaster power, everything, but I said the hell with it and walked away. Besides it was Christmas 2002, and I didn't want to see Mike thrown out on the street. So it's his. I never saw a penny for all the work I put into this.

Anyway, casinos still pay for the "stamp" mistakenly thinking that it serves any purpose. They see it as a way to gain player trust, but they usually don't know any better (except Black Widow, they know that they are bad) Last fall, when Black Widow stepped on their crank, they caused the riff that tore the OPA apart. Mike refused to tell BW to remove their "approval logo" after everyone voted them to be non-recommendable. We had no idea that BW had paid for their listing. Mike refused to step down and everyone walked, including me.

If a casino wants to be listed at Casinomeister, they need to lose the logo (City Club Casino did this recently). The OPA does not hold any credence amongst experienced online players because they know the deal.



(Message edited by casinomeister on November 04, 2003)

[enigmatix]

Thanks Casinomeister,

You couldn't have answered my question more thoroughly and I really appreciate your honesty. Good for you for walking away, sometimes that's the best thing to do.

Enigmatix