MAX DRAYMAN AT ICE 2010:
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3 February 2010
The ICE or International Casino Exhibition is held every year at the end of January at Earl's court in London. It's a gathering place for casino software providers, ecash companies, casino operators, licensing commissions, and just about every aspect of the online casino industry is represented there. |
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| CH-CH-CH-CHANGES! |
KAHNAWAKE ROLLS OUT "KAHNAWAKE II"
As anyone who has been around the industry for a while knows Kahnawake has never been famous for it's welcoming spirit when it comes to player issues being presented and dealt with. In fact in my capacity as Complaints Manager here at Casinomeister I have basically tossed Kahnawake-related issues aside. To do otherwise was pretty much a waste of time, not to put too fine a point on it.
Whatever the reasons for the way things used to be at Kahnawake the story from ICE is that there are strong signs that they have turned a corner and are seriously pursuing a new direction.
As reported elsewhere, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has appointed a highly respected industry pro as their main point of contact for player issues in a bid to move to a more pro-active regulatory stance. Chairman Dean Montour and general legal counsel Murray Marshall manned the Kahnawake booth at ICE (!) and freely made themselves available for pointed Q&A sessions with curious industry observers.
Bryan and I had our own session with the chairman, the legal council and their new player issues appointee. I can't help but say that I am optimistic. They seem very serious about this and are saying all the right things. Time will tell, of course, but for the first time since Kahnawake first appeared on the online gaming horizon they are saying "we're here and we're listening". That in itself is a monumental shift. Fingers crossed and let's hope for the best.
MICROGAMING: MORE PROMISING NEWS FOR PLAYERS
I'll be honest: MGS's player relations have always left me a little cold, not the least of which has been their traditional "stone wall" when it came to complaint resolution of their licencees.
To be fair some of Microgaming's operators are the best this business has to offer. In terms of honesty, responsiveness and fairness when dealing with player issues they are second to none. These operators all handle their own complaint resolution and do a fine job of it. There are however, and always have been, other MGS operators who seem all too quick to take a "sod the player" attitude and MGS has seemed more or less happy to let them do so.
In yet another "ray of light" moment at ICE we talked to a senior MGS executive who told us that could all change very soon. It's too early for specifics it seems but I've never had a MGS exec stand there and say that they want to hear about player issues when and where the operator isn't stepping up to the plate. Eee-ha! This could be a really good thing.
LOCK CASINO: THE NEXT GENERATION?
Bryan and I sat down for lunch with Lock Casino CEO/Founder Jennifer Larson and VP-Affiliates Pete Theodoropoulos just off the ICE campus. We'd never met anyone from Lock before and since they're a new casino I just assumed they were going to do the usual "we're marvelous and we can do great things together" shmooze. To be honest I figured I could skate through lunch with a few well-timed nods and otherwise enjoy my noodles in peace.
As it happened though things got a lot more interesting than that. The Lock team are largely ex-Bodog people who've been around the industry for several years and they know their stuff. We traded war stories and chatted about the industry in general and I think it's safe to say that we were both impressed with their serious, focused approach to the business. We hardly talked about "we can do great things together" at all and I pretty much forgot about my noodles.
I could go on about the great feeling I have about these guys but I'll limit myself to this: they're doing all the right things, they are in it for the long haul, and they are very smart people. This is the way start-up casinos should be: experienced professionals who want to do it right. I have high hopes for Lock and what they can do for their players. Needless to say I will be watching them very closely in the coming year.
As of 2nd February Lock Casino has joined the "Baptism By Fire" group at Casinomeister.
STRYYKE: THE DESIRE TO BE MORE THAN THEY'VE BEEN
There were several individual casinos/poker rooms that expressed a desire to improve customer relations -- pretty generic stuff really, what operator wouldn't want to have the punters soaking up that warm and fuzzy message? -- but Stryyke was one that made a point of sitting down with us, finding out what our beef was (see our Warning here), and starting talking nuts-and-bolts about how to make things better. Like Kahnawake, they've appointed a single person point-of-contact for dispute resolution and we've already heard back from them requesting a list of unresolved issues. So far so good.
Perhaps I'm being foolishly optimistic but I think I'm seeing a glacial shift happening right now in the online gaming business, the upshot being a new willingness to pay closer attention to player issues and dispute resolution. Of course it's only sensible: as Bryan said at ICE, "no players, no industry".
So if it's true that there is a change upon us and it results in actually improvements in player complaint resolution that will be a very good thing for us all.
MAX CASHOUT: THE PLAYER'S ADDICTION
There are people out there who have a great affinity for statistics and suchlike. I am not one of them so I was pretty gobsmacked when a very knowledgeable fellow explained to me the evils of the new "max cashout" trend that seems to be sweeping the industry.
If I understand it correctly the argument goes something like this: any given player has a certain chance of a big hit. If they take a "max cashout" bonus and hit on it then (a) they only get paid a small fraction of the true win and (b) their chances of hitting again anytime soon are pretty slim. In other words they've blown their big chance.
Another dark secret of the "max cashout" is that the casino records apparently report that the win was paid in full and thus counts on the payout they advertise on that game. In truth though most of the win was clawed back so the game is actually paying out at a much lower percentage than it would otherwise seem. (I hope I've got that right.)
Needless to say more insight -- and a lot more specificity -- is needed here and I hope to work with my source to do exactly that in the coming weeks. We'll publish that on the site in one form or another. Players need to know about this.
Well there it is: ICE 2010 has come and gone and a great one it was too. Play Safe!
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