Complaint about Casino Action

[johnico]

Casino Name : Casino Action Player No *snip*

Within a month (March) I played on the above mentioned Casino a large sum of money.

I tried several games but mostly played a poker game called Level - up. After a few games, on March the 10th, the game would stall on 3rd or 4th level and close on an error.....i did not pay attention at the beginning until the game stalled on a couple of good hands (on the 4X scale) and a MAJOR one on the 8X scale (A Royal Flush).

I informed the Desk and they answered me that "... they know the issue and they have reported to the Technical Department..." (All the emails are available).

When I claimed the winnings they told me that I had to print-screen the error in terms of reporting it to the software provider who would be finally responsible for the final answer. After I told them that I did not have a print screen of the error they informed me that there was nothing they could do.

As you realize the issue for me was very important and I decided to play again (on the 31st of March) see if the errors would appear again !! I was lucky enough to reproduce them and I had all the print-screens sent to them. Again that costed me except the amount I played, another good sum for losing good hands.

From the 31/3/2011 that I reported the errors since today I have the same answer to all my emails " ....we have no answer from the software provider so far ....we are waiting ....and ....blablabla ..."

I have concluded that they are not willing to pay or reimburse !!!!

I would be much obliged if you could help me out in finding a solution …

Thank you in advance

[maxd]

Have you tried the casino rep, Renee_RA? That should be your first step (see the Forum Rules, section 2. Posting Complaints, here).

[vinylweatherman]

Try looking at Playcheck - detailed view, for these sessions. This should show what the server recorded as the outcome of these games, and will also contain hard evidence of any wrong doing by the software.

If Microgaming are aware of the issue, they would have pulled the game, just as they did with a number of AWP games in December 2009, and the Chief's Fortune slot in 2006.

If this game has NOT been removed, they are not really taking the issue seriously, and are more or less accusing you of faking it. They clearly don't think action to prevent other players from suffering loss from this error is important whilst they investigate.

This would be a Microgaming issue, rather than an operator one.

It should also be possible to check for this error in "fun mode" at no cost in order to gather further data.

It could be specific to only one of the level-up games, or even to a particular local set-up.

Most MGS software errors are merely display errors, and the software can crash if the display calls for a player action that is not actually available as far as the game state on the server is concerned.

[johnico]

Vinylweatherman thank you for your comment ...

I did not know about Playcheck ...I will see to it although I do not Know how ...I ll search !! but then why Customer Service asked screenshots of the error from me before they would start searching the issue ??? If the proof was there they could answer that they would check and let me know of what really happened !! I would not be surprised if these sessions were ...missing !!

One thing that really made me worry is that Customer Service accepted the problem and I have the email that proves it !!! That means that the game should be withdrawn long time before I had the ...luck of playing !!
That explains the reason also why they started feeding me with bonuses ...which I did not request ...all I wanted was to prove I was right !!! I regenerated the error a few times more with MY money....I played over 18,000 euro within a month !

Tell you the truth, at the beggining I did not pay much attention ... then I noticed that the program would halt whenever I had a winning hand ....and it never stalled on the 1X or 2X scale ....it would always stall on the 4X and 8X !!!

Another funny thing I noticed was that everytime the error appeared, I would not be able to see the outcome for more than 1 or 2 secs and then it would drive me directly to the main menu with an error (511). And then you had to click on "OK" on the error as many times as the number of lines missiing for the game to finish.....that is as if you were actually playing but you could not see anything !!! so the error would appear again and again until resetting the counter !!!

The problem was not only in Level Up Deuces Wild .....it appeared on all the Level Up games...I played them all !!! Never appeared on any other game ! I understand that MGS would have taken action if they knew ...but is it possible that the operator knew and MGS did not ???? one of the terms mentioned in the Agreement is that when the operator has issues or complaints from players they must immediately report them to the software provider !! so what has really happened ?? They could also give me direct info on error 511 ....Is it a secret ?? All the errors have their specific explanation !! what 511 means ??? never had an answer !!

Anyways ...I am glad that at least there is response to my complaint even if it is not directed by the operator of the provider ... they do not pay much attention and that made me angry !!

see what happens next !!!

Thanks for your help !!!!

[vinylweatherman]

Vinylweatherman thank you for your comment ...

I did not know about Playcheck ...I will see to it although I do not Know how ...I ll search !! but then why Customer Service asked screenshots of the error from me before they would start searching the issue ??? If the proof was there they could answer that they would check and let me know of what really happened !! I would not be surprised if these sessions were ...missing !!

One thing that really made me worry is that Customer Service accepted the problem and I have the email that proves it !!! That means that the game should be withdrawn long time before I had the ...luck of playing !!
That explains the reason also why they started feeding me with bonuses ...which I did not request ...all I wanted was to prove I was right !!! I regenerated the error a few times more with MY money....I played over 18,000 euro within a month !

Tell you the truth, at the beggining I did not pay much attention ... then I noticed that the program would halt whenever I had a winning hand ....and it never stalled on the 1X or 2X scale ....it would always stall on the 4X and 8X !!!

Another funny thing I noticed was that everytime the error appeared, I would not be able to see the outcome for more than 1 or 2 secs and then it would drive me directly to the main menu with an error (511). And then you had to click on "OK" on the error as many times as the number of lines missiing for the game to finish.....that is as if you were actually playing but you could not see anything !!! so the error would appear again and again until resetting the counter !!!

The problem was not only in Level Up Deuces Wild .....it appeared on all the Level Up games...I played them all !!! Never appeared on any other game ! I understand that MGS would have taken action if they knew ...but is it possible that the operator knew and MGS did not ???? one of the terms mentioned in the Agreement is that when the operator has issues or complaints from players they must immediately report them to the software provider !! so what has really happened ?? They could also give me direct info on error 511 ....Is it a secret ?? All the errors have their specific explanation !! what 511 means ??? never had an answer !!

Anyways ...I am glad that at least there is response to my complaint even if it is not directed by the operator of the provider ... they do not pay much attention and that made me angry !!

see what happens next !!!

Thanks for your help !!!!

This seems to be a problem with the underlying Level-Up game engine, rather than a specific game. I have seen a few REALLY odd lobby errors in my time, but very few are related to the game itself, most are display errors.

If you were charged for the bet that caused the error, you should be able to find the outcome in Playcheck. There is a detailed view, and even a reconstruction graphical representation of the end game outcome.

I have Casino Action installed at present, but it does not support fun mode on the same account as others do, so you would have to ask support to set you up with a fun account.

However, if this is a software error, it should be possible to reproduce it with any lobby.

If you could post any screenshots you have here, it might throw some more light on the problem.

[johnico]

Dear Vinylweatherman,

Here is the link where you can find a couple of screenshots of the error ....

http://ioannisoikonomou.wordpress.co...min/upload.php

Please let me know if you have troulbe reading them !!!

I looked for the winning hand in Playcheck but was not there ....

Then I got suspicious and I trailed down the session for which I had screenshots for !!! All three that is Error Stall.png when the error froze the screen after a Straight Flush on X2 scale(!!!!!), Actual Error.png when the program halted and brought me to the main menu, and Error After.png that is right after the error when I returned to the game after abort !!! I uploaded all 3 shots so you can see them.

Now I went to Playcheck and printed out the report and the details of the Transaction no. 41564 just to verify that we are talking about the same one I had the screenshots for (see files).

Now, the weird thing is that the timestamps from the errors prove that I was out of the game for over 2 MINUTES (upper right corner) !!! Playcheck shows that the next transaction that is no. 41565 occured after 7 SECONDS !!!! and the next after 3 seconds !!!! You realize that all this time program had aborted and I was waiting for the game to resume !!!! So much for Playcheck ..... Any explanation on that ???

I understand that the records could be manipulated ....same that happened with my Royal Flush ...it was a lot of money on the 8X scale...

Awaiting for your help ...

John

[vinylweatherman]

Dear Vinylweatherman,

Here is the link where you can find a couple of screenshots of the error ....

http://ioannisoikonomou.wordpress.co...min/upload.php

Please let me know if you have troulbe reading them !!!

I looked for the winning hand in Playcheck but was not there ....

Then I got suspicious and I trailed down the session for which I had screenshots for !!! All three that is Error Stall.png when the error froze the screen after a Straight Flush on X2 scale(!!!!!), Actual Error.png when the program halted and brought me to the main menu, and Error After.png that is right after the error when I returned to the game after abort !!! I uploaded all 3 shots so you can see them.

Now I went to Playcheck and printed out the report and the details of the Transaction no. 41564 just to verify that we are talking about the same one I had the screenshots for (see files).

Now, the weird thing is that the timestamps from the errors prove that I was out of the game for over 2 MINUTES (upper right corner) !!! Playcheck shows that the next transaction that is no. 41565 occured after 7 SECONDS !!!! and the next after 3 seconds !!!! You realize that all this time program had aborted and I was waiting for the game to resume !!!! So much for Playcheck ..... Any explanation on that ???

I understand that the records could be manipulated ....same that happened with my Royal Flush ...it was a lot of money on the 8X scale...

Awaiting for your help ...

John

The link only goes to a login screen, no pictures.

I ran level-up Deuces Wild at another MGS casino that supports "fun mode" as standard, and all was fine, no sign of any error, nor even of the game struggling.

One possibilty is that the error is triggered when you get the "free ride" awarded, and this may crash your client when attempting to display it. I noted that the game pauses for a bit, and runs an additional routine to display the award of a "free ride" with a bit of a fanfare. It looks like the graphics for this are more "challenging" than for normal gameplay, and could have triggered an error in your client, or even your video card.

Check you have the latest drivers for your video/graphics card.

This is also Microgaming, and maybe enough errors have crept in through many updates to make it worth taking the ultimate clean up measure I did last week. Uninstall all MGS casinos, delete all MGS and Microgaming keys from the registry, and delete the 10Gigabyte MGS cache on you hard drive. Then reinstall one MGS casino, and let it intall completely, and without interruption. This could take AGES, and will download the full 10Gig from the internet. If you are on a limited plan, this could be a serious dent in your allowance.

After I did this last week, a number of irritating errors seem to have gone away.

[johnico]

I hope this works ....

Could you please tell me which Casino has Fun mode so I can try too ???

What do you think about the timestamping that I mentioned ???

I do not think that Free Ride has anything to do with the problem since in the sessions that I had the problems Free Ride was not triggered !!

Check if you can see the images and pls get back to me !

Thank you

[vinylweatherman]

I can tell you that you have suffered loss from this bug.

The hand above seems to have been played out for you, but the server has held cards 2-5, when this could not POSSIBLY lead to a win. This reduced your chances of getting a winning hand, as the correct strategy would have been to discard all 5 cards.

Does this only happen when you get a straight flush in the second row?

It looks like this goes beyond a simple display bug in the client, and is an actual game bug at the server end.

Microgaming will be very determined to hush this up, as they did in 2006 with the Chief's Fortune bug.

Most likely, a quiet fix, no feedback, a settlement without admitting liabilty - probably a free chip, and the problem will go away next time you get a lobby update.

I used Red Flush for my tests, and played this same game, but was not able to trigger this bug. However, I was not specifically looking for a straight flush on the second row as shown here, and may not have achieved this in testing.

Testing for real in Casino Action may be the next step - when they offer me another bonus

[johnico]

Well no ....it does NOT have to be a straight flush on the second row ...

What really surprised me was the fact that each time game would halt, it was after a GOOD winnning hand !! Coincidence ....I do not believe in coincidences.....

What do you think about the timestamping and the difference between the screenshots and Playcheck ???