LIAISON OFFICER FIRED FOR SEEKING REWARD
4 July 2003
Another GPWA expulsion
The fur was flying on leading message boards this week following the expulsion of a senior Gambling Portal Webmaster Association official operating under the pseudonym "Dominique"
In a widely distributed press release the first shot was fired by GPWA manager Cynthia Carley who revealed that the "entire GPWA membership" had been "...shaken to its core this past weekend when it was discovered that one of its most trusted and high profile members has been attempting to ellicit (sic) regular monthly payments from a casino affiliate program for their volunteer work at the GPWA as the affiliate program's Liaison."
The GPWA apparently has members who voluntarily act as liaison officers between GPWA members and specific casino affiliate programs. The release stresses that these volunteers are not authorized to act in any capacity other than this, and that they are not entitled to seek reward due to the non-profit nature of Association.
Carley claims in the press release, "The GPWA is not a revenue generating association and, other than a small monthly maintenance and advertising fee charged to the member casinos for their private forums, no one, not even the Manager, earns money for their work at GPWA."
"Dominique" was asked to explain herself after one of the casino affiliate managers, believed to be from Casino Coins checked her bid for "consulting fees" with Carley. It is understood that Dominique admitted her conduct to the membership and was then locked out of the GPWA system whilst a discussion on her conduct and possible expulsion took place. This ended in a majority vote for expulsion and the despatch of the press release.
It appears that further and unspecified transgressions occurred, too as the release goes on to reveal that "As this was discussed by the members this weekend, more and more information came to light that this member has been acting in a number of unauthorized and improper ways, much of it on behalf of, or in the name of, GPWA; some of it also on the behalf of other GPWA members, unbeknownst to them."
Citing grievous conflict of interest and a breach of ethics, Carley expelled Dominique permanently from the Association.
That was the "official" part of the incident, but leading message boards were soon bristling with posts both for and against the decision. Many of these became heated and wider in scope, embracing the reasons for a number of previous expulsions and resignations, criticism of the management, a bid for control, questions regarding the tax and revenue status of New York-based GPWA and opinions on affiliate responsibilities to players and on the actions of other members. In the process well-known names were bruited about.
At one point Carley, posting under the handle "Slycin" responded to a "corruption in the upper ranks" comment from Dominique by making the rather intimidating comment "GPWA has a policy of not releasing defamatory information, however, if you persist in this we may be forced to."
It seemed to work, with Dominique's response being a chastened "I am done here". Strangely, for the person at the original centre of the storm, "Dominique" although joining in on the bitter exchanges on various sites did little to shed more light on the subject. The "final statement" and no-questions-will-be-answered that she posted later in the week seemed to confirm irregular conduct and emphasised her complete divorce from the GPWA.
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Originally Posted by Simmo!
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