Cloud over Sunny Group

[jetset]

CASINO CAUTIONS

Clouds gathering at Sunny?
The Sunny Group of online casinos was at one time a top Internet gambling group in terms of exciting promos, fast and efficient payouts and excellent customer service. Sadly, it appears from a slew of recent complaints on the fora that this is no longer the case.

The Trinidad-based group comprises Casino Fortune, Mapau Casino, Miami Beach Casino, Goldgate Casino, Poker Show and Mapau Bingo. The group was formerly a Playtech licensee, but is understood to have recently switched to an as yet unidentified software platform for its US players.

The Casinomeister site for one has placed the group in its "rogue" section, illustrating why with a few examples among the many complaints received:

"Over the past couple of months there have been a number of complaints that were submitted at Casinomeister, but the operator and his managers have remained silent. Most of these player problems concern non-payments. Here is a sampling," writes webmaster Bryan Bailey.

The site goes on to present a litany of angry and frustrated players who claim to have legitimate beefs but are being ignored.

One gambler complains of confusion, delays and a lack of responsiveness on his withdrawals; another who hit a Royal Flush and was promised payout at $2000 a week that was not fully honoured. Owed $2 832, he now reports that the operator has been ignoring him for the last 8 weeks.

In another complaint, a player asked for a withdrawal of GBP1500 late September. There were no bonuses to complicate the issue and a fast payment was expected - but this was delayed whilst ID paperwork was generated. Having heard nothing further, the gambler has sent over 7 emails, all of which have been ignored. "I tried to phone but always get a message saying that the number is unavailable. Online support don't answer and sometimes the icon isn't even present on the page," the player complains.

Yet another gambler reports: "I hit a pat royal back in April, and was even featured in the casino's newsletter. Since then, they have been horribly slowpaying my $42 000 cashout. So far I have only received $20 000 of it, and that is after a LOT of complaining via email, live chat, and posts. In the beginning they promised me $2000 a week in payments. If that were true, I would be completely paid off already."

Complaining of getting a continuous run-around with emails ignored and delayed monthly payments, another gambler says: "I played in February 2006, I won $20 000 but they processed only $6 000. It has been 8 months and only a small part of my cashin has been paid in a continual fight for my cash."

In another case, the player has two withdrawals - for $3 800 and $1750 still pending at two of the Sunny group casinos. He's been waiting in vain for the first one since December 2005, he claims. "Since then i didn't receive the money. Recently, i wrote a lot of emails to the different addresses of the casinos - not a single one was replied. Then i started calling them on the phone. Usually the answer was that the cashier man is absent or that the system is down or something else." Now both telephone and email contacts are ignored.

Experienced players know, often from bitter experience, that slow-paying and bad communications are all too frequently the hallmarks of an online casino operator with serious financial problems, and this sort of insensitive treatment of players sounds a loud warning signal for the industry. Out of respect for the operator's past excellent reputation, we hope this group does not fall into this category, but players should be aware that they may need a great deal of patience if they win big here.

[Casinomeister]

This is an absolute shame. The Sunny Group was one of the pioneers in this industry, but they slowly slipped into bizarro-land over the past couple of years.

They've generated some incredibly whacked-out publicity stunts - sort of a Golden Palace wannabe - and now this. I have no idea what they are up to - and I really feel for the players that trusted these casinos. I'm sure they had a number of long-time loyal players.

[Simmo!]

Saw the title and thought Warren Cloud had bought them out

[johnsteed]

***

Casinomeister

This is an absolute shame. The Sunny Group was one of the pioneers in this industry, but they slowly slipped into bizarro-land over the past couple of years.

Agreed! I occasionally listen to the old "Webcasts" in my free time, and I can think back to all of the spots (commercials) that used to come from this once highly-respected group. There are already so few PlayTech operations that could be considered good/great, but really only a handful that I would trust my money with. With MainStreet now switching to RTG software, that basically leaves the list to a very small handful; there's only 4 operations that I'd trust with my money. And it's unfortunate, because something "PlayTech" always seems to getting negative attention, overlapping whatever good there is.


On a personal note, I can remember how generous this group once was ('02-03), and that they had drastically pulled-back their bonuses & perks. At that time - with the possible exception of "KIWI" - they were the most trustworthy (and best) PlayTech group around.


I don't know how management/ownership can go sour like that, but it happens.


Steed

***

[Lord_Have_Mercy]

Don't let this trend die. They need to be punish for their tactics.

[dominique]

Originally Posted by johnsteed

***

Casinomeister




Agreed! I occasionally listen to the old "Webcasts" in my free time, and I can think back to all of the spots (commercials) that used to come from this once highly-respected group. There are already so few PlayTech operations that could be considered good/great, but really only a handful that I would trust my money with. With MainStreet now switching to RTG software, that basically leaves the list to a very small handful; there's only 4 operations that I'd trust with my money. And it's unfortunate, because something "PlayTech" always seems to getting negative attention, overlapping whatever good there is.


On a personal note, I can remember how generous this group once was ('02-03), and that they had drastically pulled-back their bonuses & perks. At that time - with the possible exception of "KIWI" - they were the most trustworthy (and best) PlayTech group around.


I don't know how management/ownership can go sour like that, but it happens.


Steed

***

Looks to me to be a fall out of the recent US law. They have lost all US players, in numbers the backbone of playtech.

They must be financially pretty desperate.

[amatrine]

Jetset,

You ought to consider writtng an online gambling newpaper, and reporting
stories You write so well

Ama

[chalupa]

Hmm... I'm not sure I ever experienced "fast payouts" from these guys, but they are definitely worse than ever.

I finally received payment after 7 weeks and NUMEROUS long-distance phone calls (all attempts at e-mail were ignored), but I didn't receive $20 of my withdrawal. When I questioned them I was given a link to this page:

http://www.mapau.com/payment_opt.asp

Which mentions $18 to $20 withdrawal fees for ANY method (what a deal!)

Ignoring for the moment that those withdrawal fees are usurious (and unprecedented in my experience), there is also no link that I can find to that page from their main web site. There IS a link to this page from the FAQ section (Click "How do I withdraw my winnings" which mentions $20 but ONLY for wire transfers:

http://www.mapau.com/cashierfaq.asp?#4

I guess they are doing whatever they can to drive themselves into the ground. I have noticed a flurry of bonus offers from them recently as well, which may be a last gasp attempt to grab some cash.

But never again from me.

[gmblpdam]

Originally Posted by chalupa

Hmm... I'm not sure I ever experienced "fast payouts" from these guys, but they are definitely worse than ever.

I finally received payment after 7 weeks and NUMEROUS long-distance phone calls (all attempts at e-mail were ignored), but I didn't receive $20 of my withdrawal. When I questioned them I was given a link to this page:

http://www.mapau.com/payment_opt.asp

Which mentions $18 to $20 withdrawal fees for ANY method (what a deal!)

Ignoring for the moment that those withdrawal fees are usurious (and unprecedented in my experience), there is also no link that I can find to that page from their main web site. There IS a link to this page from the FAQ section (Click "How do I withdraw my winnings" which mentions $20 but ONLY for wire transfers:

http://www.mapau.com/cashierfaq.asp?#4

I guess they are doing whatever they can to drive themselves into the ground. I have noticed a flurry of bonus offers from them recently as well, which may be a last gasp attempt to grab some cash.

But never again from me.

How did you get your money? I've been pending since late October.

[Webzcas]

Originally Posted by Simmo!

Saw the title and thought Warren Cloud had bought them out

Ditto. When I first read this I thought the same as well.