Your Input Please It's that Time of Year Again! Need your input for the 2015 Meister Awards!

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Best and Worst of Online Gambling - Meister Awards for 2015 - I need your input!

Yep, once again a year has flown past and the Casinomeister Awards are being scrutinized and tabulated. Just like last year, and the year before, and the year before that, etc., etc., this is your chance to suggest new and interesting categories, awards, recipients, or any other input for that matter. :thumbsup:

For the newbies, The Casinomeister Awards are dished out right after the Xmas break - usually during the third week of January. It's a super-duper special annual event that's been done since 2001.

For quite a number of people, these are the only awards that matter...

The most recent years:

https://www.casinomeister.com/static/meister_awards/bestworst2014.php
https://www.casinomeister.com/static/meister_awards/bestworst2013.php
Best Worst 2012

I could use input on best/worst categories. Stupid casino tricks - worst named, and/or anything else you can think of.

With your input - I will be putting together a short list for the Best Casino 2015. The short list will be voted on (in a secret vote) by the Casinomeister Advisory Group.

So, who will it be?
 
Best casino: Bet-AT and Videoslots by a mile.
Worst casino: must be Lucky247 by 1000 miles.

New award:
- Best CM promotion: Bet-AT, followed by 32Red and GoWild - as this shows how well they support our small but global community
- Fastest payouts award: Videoslots and Bet-AT7
 
  • casino of the year 2015 (global):
    Betat casino. According to MM data their payment speed is 5/5, they have no pending period and a very fair bonus-system. Their exclusive CM promotions are outstanding and clearly second to none. The involvement of the reps is also fantastic. Just think about how they explained the DDoS attacks earlier this year. Very open to the community. I don't want to be negative about other contenders but Guts had big problems with EM and 32red is a fantastic casino but the pending periods and slow(ish) payments are a bit of a bummer.

    It's going to be a close one with Videoslots. With the introduction of battle of slots and great involvement in the forum (and highest scoring casino) they certainly also have excellent chances for the title. However they got it last year and I really think Betat has deserved it this time.

  • worst casino 2015:
    All Microgaming casinos with a maximum withdrawal limit of 6xD on SUB's, especially when this is hidden somewhere in the general T&C and not clearly stated in the Bonus-T&C. One being Lucky247.

  • best casino-group 2015:
    I think this one goes to 32red. With the addition of Roxy-Palace they now have 6 properties to play. They have a great active rep with Mark, excellent CM-exclusive promotions and a rock-solid reputation. Good job!

  • worst casino-group of 2015:
    Affactive and Revenue Jet casinos and the total scam those criminals did not only with online-casinos.

  • best new casino of 2015
    Wild Jackpots (accredited 2015). From personal experience I can say they are great. The payments are in typical MG speed, but everything else is above average when it comes to MG download casinos. The regular exclusive CM-promotions (free spins) riddles are marvelous and Gia is a great rep.

  • Best gaming experience award 2015:
    Endorphina-slots. It's a new game developer but the games so far are VERY innovative. There is basically no clone of a previous release like many of the big guns (esp. Netent and Microgaming) are coming up with. They are also approachable via the forum. I hope to see more of them in the future.

  • Major PITA 2015:
    I think of Every Matrix in general. Just a major PITA taking deposits of self-excluded players (from the same license) and deny winnings from those who where lucky and try to withdraw. Please get a system up and running that prevents SE-players from placing a single bet! Big lag issues, games unavailable or crashing games on top.
    The technical issues have improved while the issues concerning SE have not.
 
Best and Worst of Online Gambling - Meister Awards for 2015 - I need your input!

I could use input on best/worst categories. Stupid casino tricks - worst named, and/or anything else you can think of.

Fantastic! CM thanks for doing this again. Always an awesome read when they are announced, and over the years it has been rightful winners in every category. Really feel like players input is highly valued here as well :thumbsup:.

Having a read through last years winners I have a few nominee, and also a suggestion for a new award.

Best Casino of 2015 - Global
Unusual choice and probably not going to win but I am going to say SuperLenny. Vast choice of games, quick payouts, easy to read and well defined terms, responsive and helpful rep and frequent promotions for depositing players. They deserve to be up there.

Worst casino of 2015
Anyone that has the "6x deposit are your max winnings on the sign up bonus" term. It's not that common but there are a few. Especially the ones that hide the term away from the main promotional terms.

Best Casino Group 2014 - Global
Without a shadow of a doubt 32Red. The most professional and customer focused casino. Never a complaint against them and there is a good reason for that. They have stood the test of time and keep on going strong. Long may they continue.

Worst Casino Group 2014
All casinos using the EveryMatrix back end who participate in the self exclusion rip off. Happily taking deposits from any player until a withdrawal is made - and only then checking/voiding winnings due to self exclusion at another casino.

Best New Casino of 2015
Betspin - fantastic casino and rep

Best player experience 2015
Anyone residing in a scandanavian country who played some NetEnt. They probably won a progressive jackpot.

Worst Player Experience
Same as worst casino group any player who got ripped by the self exclusion farce

Best Customer Service Award 2015
Has to be 32Red without question

Fall From Grace Award
Gonna say PokerStars here. They went from being one of THE premier gaming sites who were just as customer focused as our own 32Red to being sold to Amaya. Since then they have introduced currency exchange fees of 2.5%, removed rewards for high volume players, removed ALL rewards for big games and significantly toned them down for everyone else and tried to drive players to their own casino instead of the poker games they signed up for. Customer service levels have dropped significantly and players are leaving in droves. A real shame for those of us who love poker and played on Stars during its glory years.

Worst Casino Manager of 2015
"Maria Thomson" of vegasberry ignoring a players privacy in this thread! https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/don´t-play-with-vegasberry-casino.64922/

Biggest Disappointment of 2015
Online bookmakers continuing to basically not want to be bookmakers. Closing and restricting of accounts now the norm. A lot of upset genuine punters - It's Official - Online Bookies Don't Want Winners! - Casinomeister Forum

Casino Representative of the Year 2015
Gonna give this one to Mark_32Red. If only because I constantly give him a hard time over PM and he puts up with me :p. I suspect I am not the only one!

Forum highlights
Jamie from LeoVegas puts his foot in it a couple of times - sorry Jamie I did say in the thread I was going to nominate it :D
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/mega-moolah-jackpot-at-leovegas-is-up-to-£13-million.69659/?t=69659

I would also like to make a suggestion for a new award. A "Lifetime achievement" award for one forum poster per year. Perhaps they could get a unique colour for their username, or a special unique title. I would like to nominate "Vinylweatherman". He's been around longer than VHS videotapes and reading one of his posts is akin to reading War and Peace but he always makes solid contributions to threads and puts players interests first. His special ability of "knowledge of UK consumer law" is also invaluable and has taught me a lot of things I did not know. What I do also know is he also once emptied treasure island at 32Red (special undertitle of "Treasure Island emptier" perhaps) :D

Thanks for reading.
 
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Best global casino: Videoslots. constant development of unique features, the notion of 'giving back' expanded to new heights through cash races, cashback and thropies that award free spins wager free, the best responsible gaming programme in the industry with deposit limit, max bet limit, wager limit, self-locking account etc. lightning fast payouts, no lag, the biggest games portfolio under one roof, a unique feature called Battle of the Slots with players playing and chatting together. here is simply no place for improvement, they explored every thought one can think to and put in practice to make the best what is called The Home of Video Slots. :thumbsup:

Best casino first half of the year: Guts, before playing seriously at Videoslots. i was country banned due to national regulations so can't say how they did after that. best weekly promos overall, compensations and the first one that took free spins wager free at a new level, they lead, others followed.

Worst casino support: Casumo, i was lied and deprived of earned goods in their adventure due to some malfunction, with an unresolved final status.

Worst something: Everymatrix, lag, self exclusion BS with win-win situations for casinos operated by them.
 
Ok, here we go :D

Best Casino of 2015
Mr Green - by a long shot. Fast payouts, nice site, great games and a great rep!

Worst casino of 2015
Gala for me I am afraid. Useless support on every level. Had a real issue with them this year, took forever to resolve and I am still pretty sure they screwed me but have not had the time to bother chasing as yet.

Best Casino Group 2015
Guts for me. Fantastic all round.

Worst Casino Group 2015
Everymatrix, and their consistent screwing of the self excluded.

Best New Casino of 2015
I would have said Betspin, but feel they have tailed off really getting rid of their daily deal and not being so active here.. so it has to go to.. Nobody for me :eek:

Best player experience 2015
WMS for me. Only started playing their games this year, but they are awesome!

Worst Player Experience
I am controversially tying Videoslots and Thrills at the moment on this one. Thrills give me constant issues with bonus/free spins that do not credit, takes days for a response, usually a useless one at that. Videoslots I am having constant unresolved game issues on a particular game, which has really disappointed me.

Best Customer Service Award 2015
Again Mr Green. Their chat agents are genuinely nice, and at least act like they care, plus help with the issue/question :)

Biggest Disappointment of 2015
Skyvegas, they stopped the use of web wallets - as far as I could see? Which has stopped me playing there.

Casino Representative of the Year 2015
Andy from Mr Green. Always responds fast and helps me out much faster than others, and sorts my issues :)

Worst Named Casino
FLAMANTIS

Thanks :)
 
Well here is my views but due to me not playing at a huge amount of different casino's i cannot comment on every award.

Taking into consideration,choice of slots,fast payouts,customer service,looking after casinomeister members and players themselves.

The winner of BEST CASINO for me has to be BETAT.
Choice of slots are great,payouts great,customer service super great and fast,competitions offered to us as casinomeister members great and often when i have had a bad run without even asking a comp has been added to my account.
So BETAT is the no 1 casino for me.

32 RED still a fav of mine with great CS and offer us members some great competitions but changes with payouts and not being able to have a flutter now on the horses due to license i guess has put them down the pecking order.

Small mention for Vera and John. Great selection of slots and super super fast payouts.

Finally for me,Go Wild have vastly improved since i first opened an account with them.Still along way to go but getting there.


Cannot finish this without saying a big thanks to Bryan,Max the rest of the team and of course the members for their inputs good bad and ugly over the year.Without them and without you we would not have such a great place.
 
Here's my humble contribution, will add more later if I think of anything else.

Best Multi-Platform Casino: Guts!

Forget payout speed (which isn't too bad anyway) look at the huge changes made this year. Did they leave us players suffering with lag and errors galore under EM, nope a whole migration to a new provider which IMO went pretty smoothly, Great active support from Ben and a great handover to Yits who hit the ground running, plenty of low roller friendly promotions and a great CS team.

Best Standalone provider casino - 32 Red

Same old stuff which is all good! - Acquired Roxy Palace who have decent promos too, cool CS team, great and active helpful Rep and a decent daily deposit offer as well as a handful of other ongoing promos.

Fall from Grace Award

Sorry Betspin but this is all yours :( - Nowt major but a big turnaround IMO..

The BEST BBF I have ever read and fantastic daily input from Phil/Mikko - Wonderful daily offers for all customer backgrounds, immediate answers to issues, CM only promos etc etc etc
....What Happened??

Best Casino Rep

Possibly and quite probably biased towards the casinos I play at but its a no brainer Ben/Yits and Mark from 32 Red. A shout goes out to Eric from Next/Luck and also Marius from Redbet.

Suggestion of a new category: - Best Low Roller Friendly Casino ?? (could also have Best Hi-Roller Friendly??)
 
Best Customer Service Award 2015

I forgot about this one. Probably MrGreen since their German support is great and the customer support agents seem to have some liberties and don't need to discuss everything with their superiors. Also "Nikki" from Trada Casino is a very charming person and deserves to be mentioned.
 
Best Casino... Videoslots

Worst Casino... Slotsmagic

Best Casino Group... 32Red

Worst Casino Group... Everymatrix

Best New Casino... Slots Angel

Best Player Experience... Videoslots because of unique ideas

Best Software... WMS

Worst Software... Microgaming (2015 the year of the clone)

Casino Representative Of The Year... Betat
 
Here is my input

Best Casino 2015: Videoslots because payouts are fast and they have the new battle of the slots which is very innovative. They also have top notch C.S. agents in my opinion. Betat is also in my opinion one of the best casinos out there. My only gripe with them is that some bonuses require 100 deposit which is steep.

Best CS Manager 2015: For me it goes to Gia from Go Wild. She has a large presence on the forum and is quick to answer P.M.s and resolve any issues should they come up.

Worst Casino 2015: Lucky 247 for that x6 max withdraw limit on the first deposit crap and their c.s. sucks too.

Fall from Grace 2015: Roxy Casino and 3Dice. Although Roxy Palace did get put back on the accredited list but that was only because 32Red bought them. 3Dice can also be the biggest disappointment of the year due to lack of representation on the board and the way they handled the problem with depositing from the U.S. in the summer.

Biggest disappointment 2015: For me it's hands down 32Red bringing in their 24 hours mandatory pending period and no flushing. Also they brought in a new way to contact C.S. which is cumbersome annoying and not personal. It is not what one would expect from such a top notch casino.

Best New Casino 2015 Trada although I still don't understand how to unlock that darned cashback but they are a casino that is simple to navigate and does have great customer service.

Head in the sand Award 2015: I have to say 32Red. While other casinos are striving to improve the player experience by introducing quicker withdrawal times and improve customer service 32Red took several steps backward in my opinion. I am not saying 32Red is bad it is still one of my favorite places to play at but lets face it in order to get to a C.S. rep you have to go through a whole new automated spiel which is ridiculous and off putting.
 
Best Casino of 2015:

Videoslots: huge game selection, fast payouts, good support, clear t&c's, they don't kick you to the curb if you win, no deposit fees, cashback for everyone who plays instead of making you chase comps through support.

Worst Casino of 2015:

I'll leave that category alone as I've been very careful this year where I played.

Best Casinomeister exclusive promos of 2015:

Betat

Best Support of 2015:

Guts

Dumbest t&c clause of 2015:

Withdrawal limits on anything other than a ndb bonus (lucky247 I'm looking at you, but they are unfortunately not alone)

Best games provider of 2015:

Netent (yes, despite abominations like King of slots, but mostly because Microgaming just seems to have given up trying focusing instead on milking IR / JP for all eternity, don't get me wrong I love those two games, but come on, once in a while it is time for something new)

Worst games provider of 2015:

Playtech (Mostly for sticking their head in the sand in regards to who offers their games and with what terms, but also for releasing nothing even remotely appealing in recent times)

Best website redesign of 2015:

Mr Green (yes, I know that isn't really a category, but they would deserve an award for how smooth the launch of their new and frankly brilliant in its simplicity website went)
 
Best Casino... Videoslots

Worst Casino... Joy land

Best casino group ... L&L group


Best Player Experience... SlotsMillion, the 3D anc virtual casino just freaking awesome

Best Software... WMS

Worst Software... Real Time Gaming

Casino Representative Of The Year... Phillip , Videoslots
 
No disrespect to other casinos, but for me Videoslots and Trada have stood out to be best for payout times, game selection, etc.

Worst group, as someone mentioned earlier, Everymatrix re their Self Excluded player situations and multiple 'sister' casinos in the group causing issues. Mind you, I have also had bad experiences with Cassava which was a major PITA and very unhelpful customer services.

Worst casino? Well, in comparison to others I would say Euromoon - only as payouts took about 9 or 10 days to be received and never as one amount. But at least they did pay me ...... (unlike Cosmik Casino - but that was in a previous year)
 
Well as I'm voting being a CAG member I won't state those categories here!

But I got here late now I'm back at work, so I thank all those before me who have posted some really good well-considered stuff!

You guys have pretty much covered all I wanted to say, but I'll second some points:

1. The 6x D withdrawal limit when using a SUB at most MG downloads bar 32RED/CR - IT SUCKS!!!!
2. Yes, lack of flushing and pending at 32red is not good, but where else given the above would you play MG download?? Give me a great rep who expedites problems and has a rock-solid group and I'll take 24 hrs. any time!
3. Good to have a RTG site in Raging Bull with a rep here that takes UK and is reliable.
4. Edorphina games - I love 'em and hope they get a UKGC certificate.
5. EM taking this p!ss with the SE UKGC loopholes. Needs sorting - FAST!
6. The cretin at Netent who saw fit to model a slot character uncomfortably close to Japanese Hentai porn - NO!
7. WMS for releasing such shite this year.
8. IGT cloning clones of clones since H5G too.
9. The US Federal Govt. still stalling and using underhand protectionism so the 'Land Of The Free' are anything but when it comes to choice.
10. Spin Genie/Slingo - good sites/games/rep but WHY??? have they still got the anomalous and ridiculous accounting system whereby withdrawals aren't taken from your balance until processed??? UTTERLY STUPID!
 
New award:
- Best CM promotion: Bet-AT, followed by 32Red and GoWild - as this shows how well they support our small but global community

Just a quick note to say I second Harry's suggestion for Best CM Promotion. My vote is for ClubWorld Cashback even though it has finished now.

I'll post more voting later.
 
Casinomeister awards- Early Picks

Don't know if this is in the right section......

Now that we are coming to the end of the year, Who do you pick for the Casinomeister awards?

I say it has to be Videoslots.com for casino of the year even if they are not perfect (see my post in videoslots.com thread) just the last 2 months alone with the introduction of the battles and cashback they give they are way ahead of anyone else. IMO

Also reps of the year should go to Dan and Philip as they have been responding quickly to everything posted and they are the most active lately, IMO.

(If they want to put a nice present in my account for this that would be o.k.:p:p)


Anyway who are your early picks?
 
i

Best: Guts, one complaint and it resolved in different way that other casinos would deal with it.. Not any kind of problem for hole year..

Bad: Those casinos which have strange t&c.. 6 times withdraw or something.. Rogues..
 
I dont play at many places any more but

Best casino, Betat, fast withdrawals, great bonus system. :notworthy

If there is a going backwards award it has to be 32 Red, Still a solid group but the changes they made are not player friendly :(

Stuck in the 80s, any other casino that doesn't have any other support other than email :what:

Worst casino, Any casino that puts restrictions on withdrawals from $500 weekly to 6X maximum withdrawal :mad:

Was corrected by KK inetbet have now got live chat. Edited my post to reflect this
 
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Best Casino - has to be Betat, just excellent in every way. Videoslots would also be a worthy winner. Maybe just toss a coin?

Best New Casino - For me that would be Energy Casino, lots of games and great support staff. Pay within seconds!

Best Rep - Mark from 32Red, seems like this guy has patience and personality :)

Worst Group - Every Matrix, laggy games and seems like they lack ethics too, not giving new clients clarity and so allowing them to register while self excluded :(
 
Guts is still No. 1 in my book with their new platform, great support, fast payouts (and WMS games coming soon I hope). Lots of free spins, annual DOA promotion for CM members (one of the most generous promotions here IMO), high rollers will have their special VIP manager for juicy bonuses or additional comps.

Vera&John deserves to be 2nd, with its great loyalty system and frequent free spins and free spin credits (I received a whole bunch this year, although I mostly deposit at Guts).

As to the other categories, all of the above:)
 
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