Golden Palace leaving US market?

**jetset** · 10th November 2006, 09:12 AM

GOLDEN PALACE ADDS TO U.S. CONFUSION

Is Golden Palace about to bar US players?

Confusion reigned in the ranks of both players and affiliate marketers as the week ended, with the Golden Palace Casino affiliate program Casino Blasters sending out confusing signals that suggested the pioneer online casino could be about to turn its back on US players.

In a communication to affiliates, Casino Blasters and other Golden Palace affiliate structures said that as a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act the CasinoBlasters.com partner sites (Golden Palace Casino and its skins) will no longer allow gaming by USA residents.

The notice revealed the existence of a new entity, Golden Casino on a .com domain registered on 19 October to which US players on the system are apparently being moved.

"All USA player accounts from the CasinoBlasters.com family of sites have been transferred to GoldenCasino.com," the notice proclaimed, adding that CasinoBlasters and/or its partner sites are not affiliated with GoldenCasino.com.

"GoldenCasino.com has its own affiliate program, BestCasinoPartner.com," the notice advised, adding that an apparently unilateral decision had been made to move all affiliate accounts for US players to Best Casino Partner's system, using the same ID and password information. Affiliates are given until December 1st to effect the changeover.

CasinoBlasters will pay out all USA-generated affiliate commissions to November 15, when the new affiliate program will become responsible.

Casinos affected include:

Golden Palace
Aspinalls
Grandonline
Flamingo
24ktgold
Gpbingo
Online Vegas
Only Bingo
Go Casino
Grand Riviera
Merlin's Magic
Star Online Casino
The Six Shooter
Top Card Casino
Triple Win

Early opinions from industry observers are that Golden Palace is preparing to bail out of the US facing business, but has formed a new entity to ensure that revenues are not lost, albeit indirectly.

Exacerbating an already confused and poorly communicated situation, some US affiliates who spoke to support centres were told that they could continue to gamble on Golden Palace indefinitely, whilst other Golden Palace group operations were already re-directing players to the new Golden Casino.com.

As we went to press this week it did not appear that Golden Palace has yet communicated the situation to the players.

Several sources informed that the Golden Casino.com operation is powered by a software different to the Playtech system used by Golden Palace. Playtech has announced that it will no longer accept US players at its licensee operations. Apparently Golden Casino is using Odds On software, which was reportedly absorbed by Vegas Technologies in the L&G group earlier this year.

**cipher** · 10th November 2006, 08:49 PM

Good Riddance!!!

**dominique** · 10th November 2006, 10:03 PM

Golden Casino is Vegas Technology and as far as marketing is concerned, it is done by bestaffiliateprogram.com and not the programs that promote the Golden Palace Playtech group.

Part of the motivation to migrate players and affiliates to Golden is to assure that everyone's accounts are honored as they concern US business.

This group is the only Playtech group that bothered to consider the impact the closure has on players and affiliates.

Cheese toast or not, it was a decent move and an attempt to handle the the situation as ethical as possible.

**Alexandre** · 10th November 2006, 10:12 PM

As I've wrote somewhere else on this forum, I have been told by an "authorized source" that GP is leaving Playtech for another software (RTG ?) because PT doesn't accept US players anymore and GP is US focused.

**Simmo!** · 11th November 2006, 01:14 AM

Originally Posted by Alexandre

As I've wrote somewhere else on this forum, I have been told by an "authorized source" that GP is leaving Playtech for another software (RTG ?) .

Originally Posted by Jetset

Apparently Golden Casino is using Odds On software

As per first post

**jetset** · 11th November 2006, 07:12 AM

The recent English Harbour hassles beg the question: "Was the choice of Odds On - Vegas Tech a wise one?

On an important point of detail however - the Golden Palace release said nothing about Golden Palace changing platform - it dealt with Golden Casino (the new US facing operation)

**dominique** · 11th November 2006, 03:05 PM

To my knowledge, Golden Palace et al will continue on and be available to non-US players as usual.

While nothing is certain in the prohibition era, at this time that seems to be the course taken.

Golden Casino is merely a choice for US players.

**wangpoker** · 12th November 2006, 01:34 AM

It has a splashing "New Software!!" on Golden Casino front page. So it changes its platform.

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