the endless battle against gambling spam

[casinomanuk]

Hi all

I didn't know where to post this, so it's here for now.

I've begun my (perhaps futile) battle against gambling spam emails.

I guess I'm just fed up with it, and I believe that this industry can get along just fine without spam. So I setup www.fightcasinospam.com.

It'll basically setp to recieve spam reports and alert casinos of the fact that they (or their affiliates) are spamming. It will also try to enforce casinos own anti-spam policies and have rogue affiliates accounts closed.

It will also (eventually) put up the top 10 offenders list so everyone can see who spams the most.

I'm hoping that I can get the support of other webmasters here to improve how I can curtail spam, and how we can (as a group) force the casinos to REALLY act on their supposed (NO SPAM) policies.

If we pool our efforts together, it will work out better for all us 'good' webmasters who despise spam. It's time to weed out those who operate under the assumption that spam is "ok".

Any comments are welcome, and I'd be very happy to answer any questions you have about the intiative. In the meantime, please forward your gambling spam to spamreport@fightcasinospam.com.

regards
EY

[scrollock]

i have no problem with casino sending me spam , if its casino that i am member of, however the spam i hate is that coming from casinos i have never had any dealings with.

this annoys me for 2 reasons, first of all i have never gave them permission to send me spam because i have never had any contact with them, secondly and more importantly it means my details are being sold between casino operators on the net.

i wish you luck on your crusade

[Casinomeister]

i have no problem with casino sending me spam , if its casino that i am member of, however the spam i hate is that coming from casinos i have never had any dealings with.

I think we need to define spam here - and take a good look at it as well. If you are a member of a casino, you will probably receive offers directly from the casino unless you specifically state you don't want the emails. This is not spam. If you are a member of a casino, and you receive offers for sign up bonuses from the casino - this again is not spam but sloppy marketing and could be consider roguish (enticing someone to a bonus they are not eligible for). This spells trouble for both the casino and the player.

Spam is receiving crap you don't want. From last week's newsletter:
http://www.casinomeister.com/newsletter.html#skip

WHAT'S UP WITH THE SPAM?
Guess what? There are still some dweebs out there in cyberland that believe that spam is an effective marketing tool. It's laughable but true. And what is even more astonishing is that there still are online casinos that condone this activity. Why? Because in most cases they define spam differently than most of us do, or they have a spam machine they don't want to turn off.

How do I define spam? It's anything impersonal that I didn't ask for that wants me to take action on something I couldn't care less about.

My email address is exactly what it is - it's mine. You are addressing me - I am a person - I have a name. Don't use a robot or computer program to introduce yourself or your product to me. Emails that begin with "hello" get nailed by the delete button right off the bat. That's it. Sorry I don't want your crap. I don't want your ads. I don't want your drugs, your pre-approved loans, your pirated software, your 250% bonus. I want nothing from you. Don't waste my time. And I couldn't give a flying rat's ass about any "unsubscribe" button or link. Spam is spam.

This "unsubscribe" link seems to be the crux of the problem. There is a certain population of marketing people who feel that as long as a spam mail has this link, it can't be considered spam. Horse hockey! People subscribe to magazines, or to newsletters (like this one). It's called a subscription. No one (at least no one I know) subscribes to spam listings. The "subscribe" term is a misnomer, thus it should not be applied to spam mails. "Unsubcribing" is irrelevant. I don't want to hear it; speak to the hand.

Most responsible casinos hate spam as much as the receiver and will shut down an affiliate's account as soon as they receive a complaint. I've been successful at nailing quite a number of these a-holes; I pity the fool who includes my email address on a casino spam mail. Unfortunately, most of the spam I get is for home loans and erection pills - yee ha!

One way to fight spam is to make use of hotmail, yahoo, etc., when signing up at yomamascasino.com create an email address yomamascasino123@hotmail.com (just an example). This way if spam is directly sent to this email address, you know who's selling email addresses. And if crooked casinos are smart (many are), they purge their lists of these sorts of emails so no one can point fingers at them. Thus you should not receive spam anyway.

Players should read Info for Newbies here:
http://www.casinomeister.com/casinos.html#newbie

There are effective ways to fight spam - good luck on your venture.