Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

Luck in the early evening

Sands of the Caribbean player LEXI had a positive feeling earlier this week when he logged on in the early evening and started playing the Rags To Riches progressive, but he could still hardly believe his eyes when it all came together and he realized that he had lucked out to the tune of $121 000.

The strike was all the more noteworthy because it is the second major Rags to Riches win in as many weeks - gambling man BUSTER whacked the same progressive for almost 227 G's at The Sands the week before. It's been a good month for Cryptologic's Jackpot Mania progressives generally - listen to this:

Minutes before BUSTER hit his jackpot, 'PSYCHO' was busy winning $23,275.41 on Caribbean Poker at InterCasino . The day before, 'SOINTU' won £100,268.47 on Caribbean Poker at William Hill Casino. Other big November winners included 'ROUNDER' ($26,009.66 at InterCasino) and 'NANCY' ($24,357.25 at Omni Casino), both also playing Caribbean Poker.

The Brit ad. scene hots up

British research company LemonAd has just released interesting numbers which show a significant upswing in British advertising for Got2bet sites.

Over the last 12 months, online advertising in the UK gambling sector has increased by over 50 per cent, highlighting the increased use of online betting. Apparently both 'bricks and clicks' and 'pure-play' gambling organisations are boosting their online advertising activity due to an increase in competition which they claim is set to increase following the recent abolition of UK betting tax.

The top five UK Got2bet advertisers over the past year featured some familiar names that included Win365, Casino on Net, Ladbrokes, Sporting Odds and Sportingbet. Within the gambling sector, the top five UK portal sites that attracted the big-buck advertising campaigns over the past year were Football 365 United Kingdom, Planet F1, Sport365, Cricketline, and Planet Rugby.

This company is on a roll

Poker.com announced the launch of more new sites using its attractive gambling software this week and is clearly on something of a roll with something like five new contracts racked up in as many weeks.Seascape Software Solutions Ltd owns www.pokerscape.com and Wildwood Holdings Ltd.'s site is www.casinocrib.com. We'll be covering them for you in our regular Newbie Casino section later in the program.

Under the agreement, Poker.com has provided Seascape with a full multi-player Poker Card room offering several different variations of poker games include Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 5 Card Stud, and 7 Card Stud.

Wildwood Holdings strengths reside in the marketing and entertainment industry, where it owns 12 movie theaters with over 80 screens. They get a single and multi-player Internet casino with all the Starnet/World Gaming favourites in download and java formats.

As we went to press Poker.com was issuing another media release, this one justifiably crowing about another deal with a significant Got2bet group - Internet Empire Entertainment Ltd which owns the successful Starnet-powered Pyramid, BetonUSA and Binion's Casinos.

Poker.com has sold a Master Poker Cardroom license and it's good-looking poker games to the group, which will develop and operate an internet poker cardroom at www.pyramidpoker.com - that site is still under construction before you charge off by the way.

Well deserved accolades for some of the big names in the business

Boss Media, CryptoLogic, gambling.com, Ladbrokes, and the Sports Network were among a well-selected elite presented with International Internet Gaming Innovator Awards this week at the Fifth Annual Symposium on Internet Gambling Law and Management in Dublin, Ireland.

We think Gambling.com is a particularly good choice as the pre-eminent Got2bet portal which never rests on its laurels. Energetic owner Graeme Levin continually commissions market surveys to find out what the clients want, and his site is regularly being upgraded or extended to provide some new and useful information or service. More than any other site out there this huge operation covers the entire spectrum in our view, and we were pleased to see sharp business sense and dedication rewarded at a respected event.

The latest gambling.com addition is worth a look - go over to www.gambling.com/map/map.cfm (or just log in to the site and find your own way there) Titled User Density Map it shows you where gambling.com subscribers (who must include just about every experienced online player) reside after you have included your own country - its really cool and dynamic.

Microsoft have one out there and so does another leading software company - we're talking about retail casino CDs you take home and play on your PC with the ability to connect with others over the internet for fun and entertainment.

This week the competition suddenly stepped up a couple of gears because the stunning $1.5 billion dollar Vegas resort hotel The Venetian entered the field, helped by Canadian gambling software provider Interactive Solutions Corporation. The Venetian's internet marketing manager, Chris Stacey summed up the threat when he observed that his company's strong gambling brand and an ability to create a compelling gaming atmosphere will make this product one of the best available.

With a marketing database containing hundreds of thousands of possible clients, and numerous outlet possibilities in the massive hotel, casino and themed Venice Grand Canal shopping mall complex. We were there earlier this year and this superb resort was hugely impressive and well worth a special trip to Vegas just to stay there.

The finished Venetian product will include over 35 casino games developed by ISC's Spiralcase Division and including everything from table games such as Black Jack, Craps, and Roulette to Video Poker machines and Slot machines. Every player of The Venetian product will have the option of playing multiplayer online with several other people, or by his or herself offline.

On the table games, the player will have the option to customize the ``skins'' or looks of the table while they are playing their game. The player will be able to choose from 5 different skins The Venetian and ISC have created.

Presumably they'll want this in the shops by Christmas, so put it on your gift list - for yourself!

Jupiters testing an Asian game in an English betting shop.

From the Sydney Morning Herald comes an intriguing story about Aussie land-based casino giant Jupiters testing keno games in Stanley Leisure betting shops (the latter get the revenue) It's a land-based gambling story but interesting nonetheless because the arrival of Jupiter's online casino is currently awaited. The highlights are:

Jupiters has joined the growing list of Australian gaming companies exploring growth opportunities in the British market by commencing Keno game trials in England through an alliance with Stanley Leisure. The Australian company has been trialling Keno in 30 betting shops in northern England since the beginning of November. The UK is shaping up as the next big growth market for gaming companies after the Budd Gambling Review, released in July, recommended widespread deregulation of the British industry. Kerry Packer's Publishing & Broadcasting gambling interest has already confirmed it is assessing potential casino acquisitions in the UK to build on the success of Crown Casino. It is understood Victorian betting agency Tabcorp is also investigating opportunities in England.

There's a personal touch in all of this - the Jupiters trial arose out of a personal friendship between former Jupiters chief executive Richard Barnes and Stanley Leisure chairman Leonard Steinberg

Well, that's what we think the computer geeks are trying to say

Ever noticed how those news reports from the techie companies contain so much jargon and buzzwords that they are difficult to understand? That happened to us this week with a media release from the Motorola people who (we think!) were boasting about improved technology with a partner called InFusio.

It's of interest because the mobile (read cell-phone) gaming trend continues to gather momentum.

Essentially they have developed improved software which will make the development and transmission of Java games to mobile phones easier, better quality and faster. Of course the release is peppered with good old PR standbys like "major leap forward", "leadership software solution" and "significant milestone"

The new stuff is called MERI Mobile Games Engine and it will help games designers and developers to come up with more compelling games for Java technology-enabled mobile phones and other wireless devices. "Thanks to the games engine, the games themselves are smaller, faster and require less bandwidth to download over the air,” claims one techie. "It enables true portable games with all the attractiveness, performance and interface consumers have come to expect from more traditional games consoles."

Having now put you into a deep snooze, we should maybe look at World Gaming's latest coup to reverse the coma...

Tortola based but looking east

Head honcho at World Gaming (that's the old Starnet for the uninitiated) Michael Aymong has snared a string of substantial new contracts lately, and his latest is Tortola based.

The Knights Inc gambling group now numbers casino, sportsbook, bingo and lotteries among its holdings and has just launched a combined poker and casino site powered by WG. ecasino365.com and epoker365.com are both on the one site, which is fitted with sportsbook, lotteries, racetrack, bingo and the new java 10 game suite. The seven mainly Asiatic language versions underline the Asian targeting, but the site is available in English and is worth a visit - check out the "Panic Button" that is presumably for those goofing off at work - hit it and the gaming screen is replaced by a businesslike spread sheet!

Aymong clearly has a few more contracts up his sleeve. ``The Asian market is rapidly expanding and offers a great deal of opportunities for the I-gaming industry,'' he says. ``This agreement is the first of many that we expect to reach in this part of the world.''

Knights now offer visitors a complete suite of casino games, including blackjack, roulette and slots, along with sportsbook wagering, bingo, and lottery games. The agreement includes a phased in support of Asian cultural dialects in the near future.

Why don't these folks want to communicate?

Taking refuge in silence is one of the primary email strategies of online casinos when it comes to matters they do not want to discuss. It is one of our major irritants because it indicates not only bad manners, but dishonesty too.

So forgive us if we have one of our occasional rants on the subject because we have three out of four glaring examples this week in order to obtain a very simple piece of information which we believe our listeners are entitled to have - "who provided the gambling software?"

What is the big secret here? More than half the emails we send asking casinos to identify their software meet with stony silence, and we cannot understand the reason for this reticence on such an important feature.

This week we contacted Adorable (huh!) Casino, an outfit called Pyramiddownload to find out about Britney Spears Casino, Winit Casino, Casino of the Sun and Cheetah and 7 Gold Aces Casinos. After four days and two repeat emails we're still waiting and we have to conclude that they must have something to hide. We've managed to find out that Adorable is using Grand Virtual software but if any of you out there can supply the information on the others we would love to publicize it!

Balancing the bad with the good, we enjoyed fast and courteous responses from Farwest, Mystic Dunes and Top Las Vegas casinos - good on you, guys!

Digiturf holds its second champs meet

We've always subscribed to the idea that horses are dangerous at both ends and bloody uncomfortable in the middle, but hey you don't have to ride 'em to enjoy 'em!

Want to own, train, race and bet on virtual horses against other gamblers for real money? This news will interest you, because for $15 a month you can not only bet on the horsies but own a virtual animal and pick the colour and sex of your cyberspace steed, and design your own unique set of jockey's silks, too!

The second horseracing championship day in equine cyberspace took place this week at digiturf.com when 139 virtual horses battled it out for $48,000 in prize money. Twelve championship races were run, six for two year olds and six for three year olds, varying between colts, fillies and distances. The brainchild of a former racehorse owner and trainer, and brokered by the Aqualonline firm, Digiturf "creates virtual reality horseracing on the internet as close to the real thing as current technology will allow. This interactive gaming site offers the exciting opportunity to own, train, race and bet on virtual horses". Revolutionary software that uses a random number generator produces virtual horses of different abilities in each generation, ranging from champions to the mediocre. A unique race generator, which is monitored by Price Waterhouse Coopers, takes dozens of form factors into account in determining the result of each race.

Digiturf holds on average 8 races a day and a new series of championship races is planned for the next Digiturf racing season, which begins on December 1. A calendar year is 4 months at Digiturf so a horse goes through its two, three and four-year-old careers in 12 months. Bets can be posted on Digitote.

Pretty cool idea, huh?

Good ideas from The Advocate

As usual, the message boards saw plenty of weeping and wailing and knashing of teeth this week on that damned topic of bonuses - it just seems to be an ongoing source of friction between players and casinos. One message board ran a thread on what players might suggest as good bonus schemes and we liked one put forward by a post called CPA of Casino Players Advocate.

This is what CPA thinks would be equitable all round if fairly applied:

1 The casual, occasional 50, 100 dollar player. Give them a $25 for 25 sign up to try the place. That's it. Wager thru 6 times. If they like the place, they will qualify for the next level 2}.

2 The new generation regular player that will play frequently, but not for very high stakes. Establish an amount,{say, 3500 a month in wagers...wagers not deposits}, when they attain that level in a month, they are given the opportunity to make a purchase of say 100.00 and get a 25 bonus with a 4xs wager thru on that. A small fixed amount, but easily attainable.

3 The high roller- This person doesn't care about some chump change bonus like the rest of us, so he/she needs a whole different kind of treatment. Perhaps for this person, when they hit 30 or 40k in wagers in a month, they get an option to buy 2000+ with a 30% kick and 4xs wager thru.

CPA rightly points out that casinos would have to crunch the numbers for the optimum wagerthrough and bonus amounts, but he is trying to illustrate a plan that would reward a player relative to the amount played because that represents the player's loyalty to the casino and the casino reciprocates in ratio to the player's loyalty. Pretty simple.

What do YOU think? Let us have your ideas and comments at Casinomeister Suggestions.

Better casinos from the current crop

Another raft of casinos up in the teens this week, but as usual most of this stuff is mediocre and not worth reviewing. However there was a better than usual selection of good sites which we were worth attention:

Casinoaol.com
This one is interesting because it not only begs a branding action from AOL, but is also a Korean/Canadian software firm that we have not previously encountered called NSoftWiz.com, which uses v8.5 macromedia shockwave in the presentation of a diverse range of average quality, no-download games including multiplayer and all the casino favourites. The site has 4 languages, mainly Asian and is well presented despite the Costa Rican "licence". Owners are claimed as Ace Online Corporation, but the domain is in the name of NSoftWiz founder Bongwoo Chun of Surrey, BC, Canada. The software site promises more casinos in the future - namely an Indian casino and one titled "Roman Odyssey Casino" We would classify this for now as Interesting But Average.

Casinocrib.com
Just-launched new Poker.com powered casino and sportsbook with full Support and PayPal/FirePay/Net Teller cash facilities. There are 9 download games of average to good quality which include multiplay capability on a professional, clean site which is easy to use. A $50 matchplay bonus is on offer for signups. The owners are Wildwood Holdings who have 15 years experience in the movie theatre business!!!. Well, they sure know how to entertain people.

Pokerscape.com
Poker cardroom site also just launched by Poker.com, this one for Seascape Software Solutions Limited. . Clean professional design with full Support and free CD on offer. There are 5 download and multiplayer capability poker games of average to good quality and interesting promos such as a $3000 prize to the first winner on the 30 000 hand.

Pyramidpoker.com
Here's the third Poker.com poker room deal announced this week. It's for the Internet Empire Entertainment group which owns Starnet-powered sites like Pyramid, BetonUSA and Binions (the latter is rather good in our view by the way) Poker.com hope to have this new one up soon and it will carry their attractive range of download poker games.

Ecasino365.com
eCasino365 and ePoker365 are both carried on this same, Starnet-World Gaming site which whilst not outstanding is professionally designed, modern and easy to navigate. World Gaming have installed their latest Version 3 no-download software with 10 java games, and there are additionally bingo/lottery/racetrack facilities, backed by Net Teller and EFS Carib e-cash, free compact disc and full Support services. There are seven language versions of the site which clearly has the Asian market in mind. The owners are Knights Inc. of Tortola in the BVI.

FabulousVegasCasino.com
Realtime Gaming have provided their attractive 32 download games suite for this operation. E-Cash is from com-e-cash and there are PayPal, Firepay and NetTeller facilities available too. The site is attractive and well presented, with full tollfree and live Support. The bonus structure is interesting in that up to a thousand dollars on first deposit you get 15 percent, which rises to 20 percent over that amount subject of course to a cap at $400 and a x 6 wagerthru' requirement. And they won't pay you out faster than $5 000 a week if you get really lucky over there - but then neither do WebDollar.

CasinoGlamour.com
Our final pick this week is owned by Paramount Holdings and powered by Grand Virtual download software - we like their avatar facility. The site is nicely executed, easy to navigate and comes in no fewer than 24 different language versions. Add full Support and e-cash by E-Cash Systems and Firecash and you have a good combination which should do well.

SciFi and CyberCroupier get the thumbs down

We talked about the CyberCroupier mess last week - the five casinos in that group stand accused of unfair and retroactive bonus stripping, retroactive T & C amending and that sort of unsavoury stuff - and over a week later the situation has not improved. The Online Players' Association gave these folks a seven days deadline to explain or resolve the issues and their reply was, in the words of the OPA President "astonishing". That's because although they effectively admitted the charges they are not going to act on them and seem to be taking a weird "us and them" emotional approach.

That didn't leave the OPA much option but to put Men's Vegas, Women's Vegas, Mini Vegas, Oriental and Riverboat casinos on the "NOT RECOMMENDED" list and issue a wide Players' Cautionary about their bad casino practice. In this unregulated industry there is little else that can be done to make casinos come right, but management should remember that other operations have felt the bite of consumer action by the players in the past... You can read all the gory detail over at the OPA section on the Casinomeister site.

A rather longer-running dispute involved SciFi Casino, and that too culminated in a Player Cautionary and "NOT RECOMMENDED" listing this week. Manager at the casino Mark Delano indulged in a public slanging match with one of his customers and faced complaints of unfair bonus-stripping, using a no-appeal blacklist and disclosing player identity and gambling history details - major "no-no's" in the business. Both the casino and it's RTG software supplier retreated into silence in the face of the OPA indictment and became the subject of the cautionary and listing three days after the expiry of their deadline.

A clever Canadian marketing idea

Here's a new and rather clever angle - effectively a ten percent bonus scheme dressed up as a no-premium insurance! Thus far there are four casinos (two RTG and 2 PlaytechBV) sites listed on a new site titled gamblinginsurance.com that has Canadian (Vancouver) ownership. It is not known what if any fees the casinos pay for participation in this scheme.

The player gets paid out 10 percent of his total wins less total losses where the losses exceed the wins. The payment is in the form of casino chips at participating casinos. Among the conditions: Players who chargeback must repay any claim; no professional gamblers; Gambling Insurance will not get involved in any casino-player disputes; management reserve right to hold any credit card losses claims for six months; players agree to receive casino marketing emails.

Players are eligible for all regular sign-up and comp promotions offered by participating casinos, in addition to the insurance.

In order to be eligible for this new service, you have to download the software package for one of the participating casinos which currently include Fabulous Vegas Casino, Swiss Casino, Grand Banks Casino, or Club Dice Casino via the GamblingInsurance.com site. Once the download is complete, players can register for free as a member.

Just Another Gambling Conference

Dates for your diaries:

10th Annual Gaming & Casinos Convention. This is billed as the top annual gathering for the Australasian gaming & casinos industry, so head for the Palazzo Versace at the Gold Coast in Queensland on 4-6 March 2002. This year's key topics include gaming regulation, sports betting, casino management, risk minimisation, online gaming and international update. For more information, click here

If you had this one in your schedule you'll need to change the date (I wonder if this could have something to do with the clashes we saw this year?) The American Gaming Association's Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 2002 show dates have been changed to September 17-19, 2002, at the Las Vegas Convention Center here.

Canadians of all descriptions like gambling online

It's not just in the supply of gambling software that Canadians are active according to a newly published survey by Ontario Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

The survey found that despite legal obstacles the burgeoning Internet casino industry is making strong inroads in Canada, with one in 20 Ontario adults saying they had recently gambled online. That's an increase of more than 10 times from a poll done just a year ago by Edmonton-based Canada West Foundation. The Ontario study, claimed to be the first to comprehensively measure the prevalence of Got2bet in the country, found Internet gaming is practised by people of all ages, sexes and income brackets.

Highlighting the fact that internet casinos are essentially illegal in Canada unless licensed by a provincial authority, the study says that never the less there's little in practical terms to stop Canadians from spending money on online games of chance. There was no mention of the Khanawake First Nation enclave near Montreal, where many international online casinos are licenced and hosted.

Silence and retro-amendments add fuel to the flames

We can't claim credit for the headline which is being widely used on the message boards at present by many victims of bad casino practice at the formerly respectable Cyber Croupier group of casinos.

Last week we reported on the unusual behaviour of this company. Stripped down to the facts, Cyber-Croupier emailed hundreds, perhaps thousands of players at their five casinos offering small but multiple bonuses on deposits at each. Most players seem to have received many seperate invitations from all five casinos in the group - Mens Vegas, Womens Vegas, Mini Vegas, Riverboat and Oriental. Gamblers flocked to the sites to take advantage of the offer, nevertheless in the main playing strictly within the rules laid down. Despite this, CyberCroupier seemed to feel that some "unwritten" obligation of loyalty had been breached and a mass lockout and denial of bonuses and winnings took place.

This week the row escalated as Cyber Croupier were caught retroactively amending their Terms and Conditions to include confiscation of previously awarded bonuses back to beginning October - way before the bonus offer in dispute. Rubbing salt into the wounds they added a unilateral six percent "processing fee" and then pulled the wagons in a circle and took the usual refuge of the guilty in this business - absolute silence.

Clearly as astonished as everyone else in the business by C-C's tactics, both Boss Media and WebDollar made cautious statements effectively disassociating themselves from the issue.

As we went to press player rage was building and OPA complaints had been made, resulting in that organisation demanding an explanation or reversal of the actions. OPA officials said that failure to respond to the indictment will lead to the C-C group being considered for widely publicised "Not Recommended" status and an OPA Player Cautionary Notice, copied to the IGC and the appropriate licencing authority.

This row has a way to run yet.

Offsetting the bad news from Cybercroupier, Boss announces successes

Top Swedish gambling software company Boss had some glad tidings to spread around this week, too. Heading the good news stakes was the acquisition of their first licencee in the burgeoning South American market with an agreement to design and build an online casino in English and Spanish for Elcasino.com NV, which has experience in the fields of radio and newspaper publishing. The as yet unnamed casino is expected to be up and running early 2002.

The Swedes also revealed that new language versions covering Mandarin and Cantonese have been delivered to Atlantic and Dr Ho Lite casinos to better attract a wider range of Asian gamblers.

Boss now offers an impressive range of languages and has plans to add more. Its casinos offer English, German, Swedish, Mandarin and Cantonese, and soon Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian will be available. CEO Peter Bertilsson, says: ``Offering different language versions is an effective way of penetrating a regional market. Our licensees have enjoyed success when they have chosen to launch an Internet casino in another language in the market''

New offices and top exec takes the departure gate

Donald Lisa has resigned as president and chief executive officer of Global Entertainment and president of Global's subsidiary company, Prevail Online with effect from the end of this year in order to "spend more time with his family". He will remain on Global's board of directors until an appropriate replacement is found. Global has been attempting to sell interactive gaming casino and sportsbook software to the land-based casino industry.

Bryan Abboud, board chairman of Global Entertainment and president of Global's subsidiary company, Interactive Gaming & Wagering (``IGW''), will take on the additional roles vacated by Lisa, and Global will move to the IGW offices in Miami.

Poker.com signs up another client

Poker room turnkey software supplier Poker.com has been drawing the aces this year and this week rounded things off nicely with the news that it has sold a poker card room to FocusNet Capital Inc. The card room is currently being beta tested and is scheduled to go live before the end of next month.

FocusNet is an Internet consulting and marketing group, with many business alliances throughout the industry which should ensure its overall success. Under the agreement, Poker.com will provide a full multiplayer Poker Cardroom with several different variations of poker games including Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 5 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud and tournaments.

Poker.com has also acquired a contract from Microgaming to provide poker room games and software technology - this is still at Beta test stage but is expected to launch in the near future.

Here's the story of an internet businessman from Brooklyn who dabbles in everything from internet gambling and trucks to wrestling - but takes moral shortcuts in the presentation of his "expert" opinions. You see, Butch aka Zoo but in reality one Clifford Nordquist of The Gambler's Hall of Fame lifts work which appeals to him in toto from other people's sites, slaps his name on it as the author and presents it without even the courtesy of accreditation.

Then he spams gambling message boards to attract traffic to his "expert" sites. But this week he slipped up in ripping off the Casinomeister site, and the game was up thanks to an alert reader who recognised some of the content. Retribution was swift and appropriate because Clifford hadn't realised that in plundering the Meister's material he was using the CM style sheets that are on the CM server. That means the Meister can change background images on the thief's site, and that is exactly what was done - Nordquist's sites suddenly sprouted hilarious "This material is stolen" overlays!

Editor's note: If you would like to view a screenshot of what the page looked like, click here!

After initially taking a belligerent stand, Nordquist beat a retreat, saying that the theft was done by a now fired employee without his knowledge, and that he is not well versed in the niceties copyright - yeah, right! But it could still be a costly business, as irritated readers identified other infringements on his sites and alerted the rightful owners...

So much for The Gambler's Hall of Fame as a professional source of information.

Big Four provider helping with AIDS children

Microgaming has joined Sunny Casinos and other businesses in offering financial support to Caribbean children living with Aids. Their contribution to AidsChildren.org has been applauded and welcomed by the M.A.S Foundation.

AidsChildren.org, which is run by the registered non-profit organization M.A.S Foundation, provides medicine for Children Living with Aids. The Cyril Ross Home, which houses HIV/AIDS affected orphans in Trinidad, West Indies, is their main beneficiary.

"It is an honor for Microgaming to be able to contribute to a worthy cause like Children Living with Aids," said Roger Raatgever from Microgaming Software Systems. "2001 brings us to 20 years with the AIDS epidemic and every day children are still dying by the thousands. Our contribution is a drop in the ocean; however; we feel that if we save one child, other responsible businesses will take our lead and do the same. "

Sunny Casinos' online casinos MaPau and Casino Fortune have already agreed to cover all administrative costs for the charity. That apart, the group also acts as sponsor for two children from the Cyril Ross Home by meeting all their medical costs.

Last week Sunny launched an innovative online Goat Race fundraiser to bring Christmas gifts and good cheer to children stricken with Aids, and the response from players has been overwhelming. If you want to make a contribution to a good cause whilst you're gambling click over to Mapau or Fortune and follow the simple directions onsite - in essence they will pay a percentage of your action to the charity.

The numbers may be slowing but the US online millions are growing

We've followed the numbers of people coming online in the main US gambling market with interest over the years and this time around Harris Interactive indicates a slight slowing in the pace - but over 127 million adult Americans using the internet. Look at these numbers:

October 2001...........127 million

April 2001................126 million

November 2000.........121 million

May 2000.................114 million

Now think back to November 1995 and the people then online who numbered 17.5 million - that's almost 110 million folks in the States alone who have joined the internet phenomenon in six years!

Privacy and fairness concerns voiced by players' association

RTG-powered SciFi casino is under attack from significant numbers of players alleging that they have had winnings and bonuses unilaterally withheld for Bonus Abuse by Mark Delano, manager of the casino. He is also accused of using a negative database (said to be an RTG base) without giving players the opportunity to fairly oppose inclusion.

In one particular case an abusive message board exchange resulted with a player, and a Sci Fi staff member exacerbated the issue by releasing the gambler's personal details and gambling history to a hack from Video Poker Review called David Ray - who promptly published it!

Too late the casino prevailed upon Ray to remove the offending information, and this put Delano on the defensive.

As a result of formal complaints the Online Players' Association has publicly indicted Sci Fi and given the casino 7 days to respond, failing which the casino will be considered for the NOT RECOMMENDED list, and an OPA Player Cautionary Notice widely circulated to the appropriate authorities.

They've had better third quarters...

Son-of-Starnet, World Gaming has delivered a lacklustre third quarter performance.

Total revenues for the quarter ending September 30, 2001 were $3.3 million compared to $4.8 million for the same period last year, representing a decrease of 31 per cent. Net loss for the quarter was, however lower at $1.4 million or $0.04 per share than the same period last year when a net loss of $1.56 million or $0.05 per share was recorded.

The company experienced a 15% decline in royalty revenues during the quarter largely as a result of the cancellation of national sporting events at all levels across North America during the month of September, typically the strongest month of the quarter.
``Understandably, September's numbers were off,'' said chief executive officer Mike Aymong, . ``However, October is showing signs of full recovery from these terrible world events."

Less than enthusiastic welcome for bid to legalize internet wagering

According to "The Press" of Atlantic City the Asselta Bill tabled at the neginning of this week that seeks to legalize internet gambling in Atlantic City casinos has disappointingly received a less than enthusiastic reception. Asselta is reported as saying that closed minds and a lack of action on internet gambling could leave New Jersey casinos lagging behind other more progressive jurisdictions.

By Tuesday morning Republican Senator Will Gormley was declaring the bill dead, saying that it had nothing to do with the financial well-being of the state, the protection of Atlantic City or the creation of new jobs in the region. Asselta's proposals would permit `real-time’ Internet wagering on table games as they occur in casinos in Atlantic City from a remote location via the Internet, rather like Dr Ho.com's operation. The i2corp/HGN patents claims could find this interesting, although they do not seem to have moved against Dr Ho which may indicate a lack of confidence in their patents.

Early reports say that representatives from the land-based casino industry were noticeably absent. Several legislators pointed out that this could be an indicator that the bill did not have critical support from its home base.

Reservations were expressed on the viability of a digital face-recognition program proposal meant to avoid fraud and underage and compulsive gambling, and others voiced concerns on fraud.

Cool marketing idea from Cherry

In an inventive way to attract more business, Cherry Casino manager George Lindgren has decided to offer a play-for-fun poker game where gamblers can challenge their friends by email.

Challenges are initiated from the CherryCasino web site. The challenged person is notified by e-mail and can go to the site and play his round at any time within the competition framework. When the challenged person has played his round, both contestants can view their game-play and see who won. Each competition is held within time constraints and the more friends challenged and beaten, the better your chance to win the competition.

Starting this week players can challenge their friends to a quick game of poker, in order to get as many points as possible. The player with the most points at the end of the two week period will get $50 to play with at CherryCasino.

So now is the time to show your pals who's the top dog at the Poker table. It's free, so what have you got to lose?

Australian land-based giant says it plans to reinvent itself as an internet casino

Australian land-based casino company Jupiters has a simple strategy for the future: it plans to re-invent itself as an Got2bet business. The plan hinges on the sports-betting division, Centrebet, which last year doubled its revenue to $18.4 million, although that represents only two percent of the company's total turnover at present.

In recent months there has been speculation that Jupiters will soon launch an online casino, but the site remains stubbornly "under construction".

Jupiters believes Centrebet will significantly boost annual turnover by 2004. A German Centrebet Web site was established this year, and a Spanish-language Web site, aimed at the South American market, will be launched by the middle of next.

International growth at Centrebet has been driven by increased sport on pay television, rather than the growth of the internet. Because the internet is popular among a more affluent audience, the average online bet is greater than in other forms of gambling. The average bet through Centrebet is about $50, the average casino bet is about $20 and the average Keno bet is about $5.

Jupiters has revealed that Centrebet profit has grown at a compound annual rate of more than 60% for the past three years, and that is expected to continue. 'In 10 years' time, Centrebet will be bigger than the rest of Jupiters.' md Rob Hines predicts.

Visa making things tougher for you

Repeated rumblings from Visa and reports of difficulties in using Visa cards in Got2bet have been more frequent this year, and the giant company has just served notice that things could well get worse.

Visa has announced that as of November 15, 2001 it intends to crack down by auditing all transactions from merchants that offer what it calls 'gambling services' in order to protect itself from both lawsuits and legislative prohibitions, as well as what it calls "the possibility of brand compromise" and "the added costs resulting from dispute resolution."

The announcement said that the move follows "the introduction of legislation in the U.S. that seeks to ban the use of credit cards in Internet betting, and a series of lawsuits from people who used their Visa cards to gamble online."

Visa set out operating regulations for Internet gambling transactions as far back as June 1998 and again in November 1999. But those regulations have not been strictly enforced.

The reference to US federal legislation revolves around current efforts to get internet gambling banned and make it practically difficult for US players to gamble by restricting the use of the financial instruments necessary for online transactions - credit cards, electronic transfers and the like. While the implications of the bill are manifold, the real concern for Visa is that the company could be made responsible for policing card use.

Visa has also defended a number of expensive lawsuits in recent years from gamblers who attempted to shuck their extensive gambling debts by taking the company to court and accusing it of being at fault for allowing them to illegally bet at Internet casinos. Go figure that one!

The key question is how does Visa know where the transactions originate? Got2bet merchants are required to use special tracking codes to identify the transactions as gambling services. Some casinos haven't been using the appropriate codes, and this is clearly one of the areas which will be tackled. Among other measures, Visa will be fining the issuing banks US$25,000 per casino for every incorrectly identified transaction. Institutions that continue to process these transactions will be subject to escalating fines and the merchant account will be cancelled. Players from the U.S. will be most affected by the new policy. Some casino sites that previously accepted Visa cards from U.S.-based banks may no longer be able to process these transactions and other sites may choose not to accept any Visa card to avoid the hassle. Casinos are expected try to influence players towards online payment alternatives such as PayPal and FirePay but these options too could be compromised if the US legislation is passed.

Big numbers at Cryptologic's latest acquisition

Among the many impressive quarterly results numbers presented by Big Four turnkey casino provider Cryptologic on an internet conference call this week was the number of visitors received by the portal Winner Online.

Cryptologic recently bought the popular WOL for an undisclosed amount although editorial control remains with Chuck and the boys over there.

During the conference call Cryptologic's CEO Jean Noulting revealed that the site, which includes news, reviews, a directory and one of the top gambling message boards on the internet, has over 350 000 unique visitors a month. WTG WOL!

What are these guys thinking of?

Surprise of the week was the completely uncharacteristic actions of the Cyber Croupier group in arbitrarily locking out scores of angry players on accusations of - yes, you guessed it - that old bone of contention bonus abuse. The unilateral and retroactive confiscation of winnings and bonuses incensed players on message boards around the 'Net who claimed to have gone to the C-C casinos at the group's invitation and played to their rules.

CyberCroupier protested in vain that it was trying to weed out bonus hunters and is not quote an "arrogant, corporate monster" unquote but their own statements only stirred up the hornet's nest further, indicating that this was a case of a miscalculated bonus scheme rather than play outside the bonus rules by gamblers.

Stripped down to the facts, Cyber-Croupier emailed hundreds, perhaps thousands of players at their five casinos offering small but multiple bonuses on deposits at each. Most players seem to have received many seperate invitations from all five casinos in the group - Mens Vegas, Womens Vegas, Mini Vegas, Riverboat and Oriental. Gamblers flocked to the sites to take advantage of the offer, nevertheless playing strictly within the rules laid down. Despite this, CyberCroupier seemed to feel that some "unwritten" obligation of loyalty had been breached.

Boss Media, which powers these formally well-run sites will be unhappy with the mud splattering on their good name too, and it is to be hoped that C-C will see where it has erred and turn the situation around before things get out of control and serious damage is incurred by their business. As we went to press the formal complaints were starting to pour in to the OPA and presumably Gambling Grumbles, and it looks as if CyberCroupier is in for a torrid time.

DCEG doing the business

Belize registered Thermaleator Limited, which owns PlanetPoker.com and CasinoVega.com is clearly impressed with turnkey bingo and casino site provider dotcomEntertainment (DCEG). After a busy start to the year, DCEG has been rather quiet lately but this week announced that it has sewn up a contract to supply casino and bingo software to the Belize based sites. Unconfirmed information as we went to press was that Thermaleator is in some way connected with Technologia JPR which has/had connections with CasinoVega when it was using one of the worst gambling software packages around.

DCEG will also be pleased with another business deal this week - it has signed up an as yet unidentified land-based British gambling company for an online casino site. The parties are in the process of finalizing the terms of the license and support agreements, which the parties have agreed to put to bed prior to the middle of December this year. In Q1 2002, the parties have agreed that dot com will deliver an on-line Bingo solution, along with other ``soft gaming'' Casino technologies.

Canadian gambling software company Interactive Solutions Corporation is known to have internet based ambitions aimed at the Nevada land-based operations. That was confirmed this week by a clever addition to their board in the shape of the feisty Nevada Assemblywoman Merle Berman.

Chairman of the Board, Edward Tracy, described Ms Berman as ` the driving force behind the Interactive Gaming Bill which passed earlier this year in Nevada.'' Few would disagree with him. Ms.Berman is a highly competent State politician and three-term Nevada legislator who has lived in the state for the past twenty-eight years. She was the impetus behind the Interactive Gaming Bill introduced in the 2001 Nevada legislature, which passed and was signed into law by the Governor in June 2001. In her non-political life, Ms. Berman is in real estate and development in the Las Vegas area. She is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently named Legislator of the Year by the American Cancer Society and honored by AARP for her continued work for seniors. Ms. Berman is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor's degree.

ISC have been using their smarts in the sales line, too and this week their gaming division Spiralcase announced the acquisition of an order to provide "play for fun" casino games on BestBetTV.com. Players on the site earn ``BestBetTV Dollars'' for time spent sampling games online, and these can be redeemed for merchandise and prizes. This instant response and feedback from players is an efficient and cost effective method for designers to fine tune both virtual games and games slated for placement in land-based casinos.

In Vegas - 'natch!

Attention all marketers! Here's a conference designed just for you that emphasizes the critical importance of the marketing discipline in the Got2bet industry.

Boston Media has launched publicity for the first marketing focused conference and exposition in the business. Titled iGaming World the event will be held (natch!) in Las Vegas, at the spectacular five-diamond graded Bellagio Resort and Casino between May 12-15 next year.

iGamingWorld will focus on marketing strategies and issues facing online gaming operators. As a top-tier conference on online gaming, it will cover all aspects of gaming marketing, ranging from wireless betting, affiliate marketing, media buying and payment solutions to loyalty programs and legal issues facing online gaming operators.

The event, targeted at top marketing executives and senior management, will include detailed marketing strategy, technology and metrics workshops, interactive panel discussions and keynotes chaired by knowledgeable industry leaders. Leading technology vendors will also showcase their latest, most innovative products.

You can diarise it now, but for sure you'll be hearing a lot more about this one. You can also get more information from this special website: http://www.igamingworld.com

Pumping out millions every week.

Those progressive gamblers have been at it again with several major wins this week.

Cryptologic-powered Omni Casino is first up with the news of a huge jackpot win late last Friday night. Long time player "ACTIONS," hit a Royal Straight Flush on the Multi-Player Caribbean Poker Progressive Jackpot, which paid out almost $216 000. For those of you out there who believe in getting into the lucky zone, Omni Casino's progressive jackpot has already been reset to $100,000.00, and is ready to be won again.

Another big progressives winner struck it rich at Sands of the Caribbean. This time, ‘BUSTER’ claimed US$227 000 just before midnight on November 8, playing the $1.00 slot Rags to Riches. BUSTER's win is just the latest in what has been a frantic November at Jackpot Mania. Minutes before the his jackpot was hit, player 'PSYCHO’ cracked $23,000 on Caribbean Poker over at InterCasino.

The day before that ‘SOINTU’ won well over UK£100 000 (around dollars 150 000) on Caribbean Poker at William Hill Casino. Other big November winners include ‘ROUNDER’ ($26 grand at InterCasino) and ‘NANCY’ ($24 G's at Omni Casino) both also playing Caribbean Poker.

BUSTER's win marks the fifth time a player has hit a serious progressive jackpot at The Sands this year. On September 3, ‘BOBO’ set the existing online progressive jackpot world record with a US$414 000 plus win while playing Rags to Riches. Other winners claimed $235,000, $208,000 and $87,000, respectively.

Did that whet your progressives appetite? OK, then - here's what the big ones are currently sitting on out there:

Rags to Riches is at $115 000 with Caribbean Poker on $105 000 - you'll find them at most Cryptologic-powered casinos.

Lotsaloot seems to be the big Microgaming progressive right now at $48 000 and as usual the Unified Gaming progressives The Dazzler and Rio Grande bring up the rear of 38 grand and 30 grand respectively.

Rounding up this segment on the power of progressives, this week Aspinalls weighed in with the launch of the biggest progressives yet seen on the internet - a massive $500 000 - you heard us - a half a million dollars on their new SlotBuster machine at Aspinalls.com's Caribbean Casino

Slotbuster offers five lines of prizes, and any player hitting all of the jackpot symbols on the fifth line of this instant fortune maker, wins the full monty! But the fun doesn't stop there. Hitting all jackpot symbols on the fourth line wins $50,000, on the third line $40,000, on the second line $30,000 and a single line of jackpot symbols wins a still handy and not at all shabby $20,000.

Can a million dollar jackpot be far behind?

Bad email and handing out viruses - a recipe for disaster

It's not often that one hears about a casino passing along viruses to site visitors, mainly because a properly run business should have extensive virus screening in the first place. Here's a casino that obviously doesn't (they have hassles with their email too)

Do NOT go to this casino unless you have an updated Virus scan program.

CashbreakCasino.com (For your safety we're not linking this text).

It is spreading the W32/Nimda.htm virus via the browsers of visitors, and our friends here at Casinomeister tried to warn them but received no email response. This is definitely a good one to pass by - at least until they have their act together.

Get there early to make sure you get a pretty one that can run!

The Sunny Group of land-based and online casinos needs little introduction and is widely regarded as one of the best run and honest operators in cyberland. A media release this week shows that these Caribbean based guys are also a caring organization.

With the Festive Season just around the corner they have launched a fun promo aimed at raising funds for the AIDS Children.org Christmas Fund. Here's how it works:

On December 17, eight goats -- the Caribbean equivalent of reindeer! -- will take center stage on the beautiful island of Tobago for The Great Goat Race. With names like Foxy Fe-Mail, Dotty Com, Sunny Boy, and Billy the Kid, the race promises to be a heap of fun.

The Tobago officials overseeing the race are reported to be highly experienced because goat racing has been a popular Easter Tuesday event since 1925. There are stables, owners, trainers, jockeys and of course the thoroughbreds themselves. These energetic and long-legged steeds are very carefully selected and trained for months and often become the sole focus of the jockey or trainer.

The training for jockeys is equally rigorous, since they must be able to match their goat's pace during an actual race over the 100m stretch of turf which constitutes the racecourse because they do not actually ride their mounts but rather run alongside whilst holding on to long leashes.

It sounds like a lot of fun and something really different for a very worthy cause, so here's how you can get virtually involved and help bring a little sunshine to those kids suffering from AIDS..Anyone can participate by following these steps:

1. register at any one of Sunny's online casinos: www.mapau.com, www.casinofortune.com, www.miamibeach.com, www.flashwins.com and www.SunnySportBook.com.
2. Choose your goat and then play as usual at the casino.
3. For all those who choose the goat that ultimately wins the big race, Sunny Group will donate $1 for every $20 deposited and played to the AidsChildren.org Christmas Fund.

“Everyone who participates will receive an online picture of his or her chosen goat to print and keep as a reminder of the smile they have put on a ‘kid’s’ face,” says promotions manager Anand. And very attractive goats they are, too...

This must be the mother of all gambling portals...

This one looks like a good resource for players and a powerful marketing opportunity for casinos. MSN.co.uk has announced that it will soon be offering users the use of a ’Gambling Channel’ which will offer fixed odds, lottery, casino and pools from top names in the industry.

Partners providing gambling services on the channel will include top names like Sun International, Aspinalls.com, Victor Chandler's The Spin Room and Totopools. The channel will also feature an odds search engine from Betgenius. Players will be able to access the channel from a permanent link on the MSN homepage, which currently caters to over 13 million visitors every month. That's what you might call major exposure.

MSN are launching the channel because, to quote business manager Amanda Antony “Gambling is the biggest growth area on the Internet and we believe its true potential as a traffic and revenue driver has yet to be fully realised.”

Big Four well represented

Many gamblers find the monthly audited casino payout percentages useful for two reasons in selecting where they want to play online - the majority of the forty odd casinos on the list are big, well-established opertions with a good track record and logs open to auditing and secondly they like to see which casinos have the best payout rates.

This month's numbers are just out and there's a good representation of software providers in the top six places.

Boss Media-powered Jamaica Bay Casino heads the list with a payout percentage of 99.17. Close behind on 99.01 is Microgaming's Grand Venice Casino and the Cryptologic software casino The Sands of the Caribbean is third with 98.79. Boss features again at fourth place with Pharaohs Casino on 98.30 and in fifth and sixth there is Microgaming 's Showdown on 98.16 and Casino-on-Net's Random-logic powered operations on 97.95.

As usual we have been scanning the nine new arrivals this week but found only this one worthy of your attention:

Hookscasino.com is a typical upmarket Microgaming product with Playcheck, Cashcheck, full tollfree Support and a very nice download gambling suite that features 4 progressives, 10 slots, 8 video pokers and 10 table games which include multihand blackjack. E-Cash is through Proc Cyber and Paypal/Firepay/ ACH is available onsite too. Microgaming's usual competent, themed presentation is in evidence on the site and there's a Ford Mustang promo and a 25 percent bonus scheme waiting for you as well. This is a good one.

That's it for the week - good luck and safe gambling.

Here be dragons!

One of the more useful message board postings we saw this week was from veteran online gambler DaveR, who gave some sound advice for newbie players on the Casinomeister site thus:

"If you have time, there are some simple things to do before depositing your hard-earned cash at any online casino. For one thing, know who you are dealing with in case you have problems. Determine what software they are using. If they're using software from the following providers, go somewhere else: MGM Software
GSS (Gambling Software Systems)
Unified Gaming Software
Handa Lopez
Clockmedia
iglobalmedia
Innoco"

All of these providers have had serious problems with players in the past and have shown little inclination to accept responsibility or obligations to the players in respect of their licencees. It is unlikely that they will change.

There's a once respected but fast-losing-ground provider which is also headed for this list, and that's Real Time Gaming. We cannot understand their apparent reluctance to step in and discipline the growing number of their licencees who are screwing players on everything from bonus abuser disqualifications and negative database inclusions to bogus watchdog protection and security of financial information, as you will see from our next item. Get with the program, RTG - before it's too late and casinos like The Vegas Strip group and Sci Fi take you down with them.

Here's that alert:

And what to do about them...

Players have once again been experiencing problems this week with false charges to their credit cards used exclusively at casinos - specifically those which use Gateway Financial Services e-cash. These are usually for relatively small amounts designed to be easily overlooked or dismissed and in most cases they emanate from porno sites on closer investigation.

The sixty four thousand dollar question of course is how a porno site has your financial details when you have confined use of that card to a casino. The obvious answer is that the casino, or its e-cash provider has not taken appropriate care of your information.

When that happens, here's some sage words of advice from the OPA's The Original Mary:

"Call your credit card issuer and ask for information about the merchant. They should be able to give a phone number. Then contact the merchant and discuss the charges: as you do all this, keep a running log on your computer. You will either encounter an answering machine and never talk to a live person, or, you will talk to a live person who will agree to reverse the charges.

If they do not do so, file a fraudulent charge complaint with your credit card issuer; include a copy of your log to show that you attempted to contact the merchant.

You should have no problems getting the charge reversed and it will not affect your credit history with casinos.

It will be, however, a black mark on gfsonline, and they may find themselves blocked as a credit card processor because of letting through these kinds of bogus charges. This is not the first time this has happened. Some credit card companies will not process gfsonline charges now."

I personally believe that the relevant software provider has an obligation to investigate and if necessary dismiss their e-cash supplier, so copy any complaint you have to them, too.

No negligees but a fast download!

One software supplier which rarely gives hassles is Boss Media, and this week they announced that they are the people behind Dr. Ho's new conventional online casino drholite.com.

You'll recall that Dr Ho is a land-based gambling mogul, and that he has had a "live" internet gambling site online for some time. Although it is an undoubted attraction to gamble with scantily clad female croupiers live on the internet, this site can be a little cranky and it has a giant 70 meg download - not popular with everyone. The answer is drholite, which is an online download casino in the conventional sense. The selection of Boss Media to put it all together shows better savvy than some of the other land-based outfits going internet that we have heard about.

Lucky balls!

US basketball star and wildman Dennis Rodman focused attention on himself and a new online casino he is sponsoring this week when he was fined a ton of money for humiliating a staffer in a land-based casino. Craps dealer James Brasich filed the lawsuit claiming Rodman humiliated him by repeatedly rubbing his bald head, stomach and genitals with dice before rolling them. Rodman's lawyers argued that Rodman rubbed Brasich for luck! This is the first in a series of seven lawsuits against Rodman by people who say he mistreated them in Las Vegas casinos.

Not what you would respect as a big man to take advantage of people serving him, and not a great way to project a positive image. The casino which bears his name - rodmancasino.com is unremarkable in appearance and is powered by Real Time Gaming.

Tune in your sonar, because a quality online casino with an underwater theme is on the slipway at casinoatlantis.com, and this looks as if it will be worth a visit for sure. Put together by Boss Media, it's owned by the land-based casino group Sun International (they own that incredible fantasy resort in the Bahamas, btw) and it will have all the quality features we have come to expect from a member of the Big Four turnkey gambling companies.

These two veteran anti-internet gambling politicians just never give up despite repeated failures to introduce US legislation that could sink the Got2bet industry in the States.

Last week we reported that Mr. Leach had once again launched his bill, which seeks to screw up internet gambling by cutting off the financial instruments which make it possible like credit cards, checks and electronic fund transfers. This week he got his Bill H.R. 556 ‘Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act’ through the House Financial Services Committee by a vote of 34-18. The bill now goes to to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration prior to a vote.

Hot on his heels came Robert Goodlatte, who with the rambling title “Combating Illegal Gambling Reform and Modernization Act” reintroduced his failed anti-gambling bill from the 106th Congress. However, a Goodlatte spokeswoman said this year's attempt is "a little bit different" from last year's measure, and it has been carefully drafted in consultation with the horse racing fraternity and the Department of Justice in an attempt to sidestep opposition.

In a summary of the bill, Goodlatte’s office says that “Under current federal law, it is unclear that using the Internet to operate a gambling business is illegal.” It claims that the Wire Act 1961 “has become outdated – it is not clear that it applies to the Internet at all", and seeks to amend it to show that its prohibitions include Internet gambling by bringing the current prohibition against wireline interstate gambling into line with the development of new technology and expanding the existing prohibition to include all bets or wagers, not merely bets or wagers on sporting events or contests”

Like the Leach Bill, Goodlatte’s new bill also appears to include a ban on the use of credit cards and other financial instruments of U.S. banks for “unlawful Internet gambling.” This provision provides an enforcement mechanism to address the situation where the gambling business is located offshore but the gambling business used bank accounts in the United States.” It thus appears that there is a possibility that the Leach and Goodlatte bills could at some stage be combined.

And targets the burgeoning Asian market

Australian media and casino group, Publishing and Broadcasting, says that the Pacific nation of Vanuatu has been selected as the licenced base for their internet casino Crown Online.com.

PBL's hi profile chairman, James Packer told a meeting in Sydney this week that the internet gaming site will mainly target the Asian market, and that due to legal restrictions in Australia and the United States, the internet casino would not accept bets from the two countries.

Because there are some similarities.....

RTG-powered The Vegas Strip group (Americas Online, Cleopatras, Club Mardi Gras, Club Regal and E-World) have hundreds of player complaints logged against them on a diversity of watchdog sites for unfair practise, and the consensus is that their speed of payouts has been decreasing.

This week a reply to one of the many worried gamblers invoked memories of the Tropika debacle where a casino group heading for the wall became slower and slower on payouts, justifiying it with a shall we say "creative" line of BS excuses.

Here's what the player said in an all-too-familiar story:

"I have exchanged a dozen emails and made a dozen phone calls to this group. They have given every excuse in the book and yet I still find myself waiting over two months for my winnings"

The casino at least responded, saying "We have experienced several situations that have caused us to delay payments. We apologize for this regretful situation but hope that our customers understand and bear with us regarding this matter. As soon as we are back to normal, we will start sending the customer's withdrawal requests."

Say what? Normal?

But there's more. Listen to this "We work with processors that receive the monies that our customers deposit. They send us these monies each week in a wire transfer and we use it among other things to send our customers their winnings. Last week, our processor told us that they were having problems with their own processor and that they were not going to be able to send us our wire transfers for the next couple of weeks."

Translation: These folks do not appear to have the cash reserves to carry them over this crisis without it impacting on their customers - in other words they are living hand-to-mouth and they expect the player to be patient until they can get enough money in from other gamblers to pay the bills. See what we mean about a Tropika feel to this?

And they don't appear to have a timeline on this either - they say that they would prefer not to take the risk of making a promise they may not be able to fulfill.

So be very careful with this group.

ed. note: They've been blacklisted by Casinomeister and the OPA for some time now.

You CAN do something about it

We're all getting inundated with not-so-subtle spam these days, and columnist Max Drayman over at Winneronline had some good advice to offer if those spammers won't respect your desire to be left alone - in other words unsubscribed.

If you are using Outlook Explorer, you can use the "Block" feature to keep from getting e-mails from a particular sender. If the problem is severe, you might consider making a complaint to SpamCop.net. And if you know the ISP involved that is another and often effective measure you can deploy.

New games beta test program well advanced

Back in early September we mentioned that Poker.com had been contracted by Microgaming to supply poker games for its licencees. The latest report to hand is that work on the games in beta test phase is well advanced and continues in order to ensure that the software is top quality in every respect. No launch date on the new games is available yet, although Poker.com report that their objective is to get the product to Microgaming "as soon as possible" consistent with the completion of a thorough test program.

It's those Gaming Logix people again

Now why would you want to recall that questionable online casino? We'll tell you. A new Java casino called Silvervegas.com has just appeared, offering amongst other blandishments a $55 000 progressive. So did Arcada casino a few months back - it was based on their keno game and to their immense shock and surprise one player hit it right despite huge odds against such an event.

Did they pay the $55 grand? You know the answer to that one - the player couldn't even get them to reply to emails until he enlisted the aid of the OPA and they were tracked down to Gaming Logix. After some waffling they again went into silent mode and it was left to the player to seek legal aid. Wonder if he ever did that....?

Anyway, that incident sort of put us off when the name Gaming Logix appears and Silvervegas is no exception - watch your step with this one, and their rather scummy applications trick which inserts them uninvited into a user's "Favorites" folder when visited.

If only these so-called winners weren't bad losers...

It seems that the notorious Gambling Software Systems and its licencees simply cannot stay out of the suspect spotlight, and this week we have another sad tale of malpractice at a GSS operation - Onlywinners.com. This one made the front page on the respected internet gambling 'zene RGT Online, too.

Enter an experienced blackjack, but otherwise newbie online player. He signs up with MyPoints, gets a promo and has a pleasant experience with an honest online casino - OK we'll name it - Gaming Club. He then moves on with more confidence after receiving a promo from a GSS-powered outfit called Onlywinners.com which ironically bills itself as “The Net’s Most Trusted No Download Casino.”

He gave them some good business, and ran up a nice credit of $7,000. He cashed out $5,000 but then played and lost the remaining two grand. His cashout of 5 grand was confirmed by the casino with clearance within 72 hours promised.

Of course after a week nothing had happened and he tried to get in contact - no phone - GSS site, see? However he managed email contact and was told his query would be passed to the accounting section. Another week goes by and another email to the casino. This time he is told that he has been locked out of his account - deactivated - kaput and no reason given.

Then came an email from the casino accusing him of fraud (no details, of course) and saying that his account has been closed. With $5000 at stake the player obviously wanted to know what he was being accused of but Onlywinners would not respond to his many emails. But to add insult to injury they still kept sending him promos. Go figure that one.

So now we have this totally disillusioned player who is unlikely to set virtual foot in an online casino again any time soon...but is the issue going to die there? OnlyWinners is based in Grenada, which does not regulate gaming. And of course that association with GSS will ring warning klaxons to any experienced player.

Anyway, RGT Online 'zene heard about this and sent an email to OnlyWinners, asking to discuss the case. You guessed it - stony silence. So they called the "colorful" GSS executive Mark Waters who assured them “Onlywinners is definitely one of our top licensees." He offered to intervene with Onlywinners and provide details of the accusation against the player as he had access to the casino's backend and could review every detail of his play. He promised that he would also talk with the owners and get back to RGT chop-chop.

Waters called a few days later to say that the owners of OnlyWinners weren't talking to him either. The customer service at the casino told him that the owners had instructed an operative to close the player's account because he was in their "negative database". Of course there was no explanation as to how a novice ends up in a negative fraud database. And the player has certainly not been notified that he is on such a database. Waters says it is not a GSS database and claims ignorance as to what database is being used by the casino. But he also refused to give RGT Online details of the owner to assist in a follow-up. The GSS drawbridge was going up...

This story has an unhappy ending for the player. Two weeks down the line Waters has clammed up and repeated emails to the casino go unanswered. As RGT eloquently puts it:

"He is like a defendant in the legal system of a police state. He’s charged with some vague crime, which no one will specify. He’s been judged guilty, and the punishment is forfeiture of his $5,000 in blackjack winnings. If he is in a negative database, it would be interesting to know when his name was added. Because in a very short period of time, OnlyWinners was perfectly willing to take the money he deposited, only to then refuse to pay him on the grounds of “fraudulent activities.”

For this so-called “reputable and honest establishment,” this player turned out to be a problem only after he tried to redeem his winnings

Well folks - it's another one to put on your "no way in hell list"

These players have more luck than most

Enough of the bandits in the business - let's look on the brighter side of the industry where reputable casinos continue to pay out very large winnings through progressives. This week we thought we would take a look at Jackpot Madness, a gaming portal started by Microgaming to administer their six progressives.

These people have paid out an audited $45,000,000 since launching a year ago. And multiple winners have become more and more common on this substantial network, as gamblers find that this ship can come in more than once, twice or more….these are the ones we've heard about recently:

VincenzoD is an accountant who pulled in almost $19 000 on Wowpot at Colosseum earlier this year, following it up with jackpots of $52 000 on Cash Splash and $30 000 on Lotsaloot for a total of just over $98 grand this year. Then there's the now-famous JeanG who plays the Sunny Group casinos and holds the world record for most jackpots won. She concentrates on LotsaLoot which she has whacked a staggering eight times for a total of $384 000!

PeggyL is an export inspector who cracked her first jackpot on Cash Splash at First Web in June this year. On that occasion the prize was almost 17 grand, but two months later she hit a really big Treasure Nile prize of over $58 000. We reported on DebbieR's successes here at Casinomeister - she plays a range of casinos and over the last five months has managed to crack a jackpot a month with payouts totalling just over $271 000.

Finally, store manager Tammy R, won two huge Cash Splash jackpots. Last year it was over $78 000 and then in August she hit the jackpot again and won $122,059.72 for a grand total of $200,475.08.

Doesn't all that make you feel good? And btw the Jackpot Madness guys have just revamped their site.

Tapping into a new security technique

Here's a really interesting techie development to identify users and tighten online security. Gambling software company Chartwell Technology claims it now has a system that can identify players by their keystrokes. Chartwell will be marketing it as part of their turnkey casino options but also as a stand alone product.

Developed by Inroad Solutions Inc, the software is called a biometric user identification application and is branded Aegis Secure Login according to a release from Chartwell, which has entered into an agreement with Inroad to "rebrand and exclusively market" the technology.

Not much detail is available on how it works, but the application monitors and records a person's keystroke patterns during the login process. The technology extracts a unique biometric pattern from the keystrokes as a means of uniquely identifying individuals over the Internet. Unlike other biometric-based solutions, this keystroke technology does not require any specialized hardware. It is claimed that the login technology seamlessly integrates into casino authentication systems, and can eliminate the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data even if the impostor has gained access to a valid username and password.

Disappointingly, the media release did not give details of any verification tests by independent third parties, which would help to convince those who doubt that sufficient information can be gleaned during a log-in to establish an identity.

Another land-based gambling company with sights set on the internetLike

Brit newspaper The Sunday Times reports that the Gala Group, described as "Britain's leading bingo operator with 170 halls", has signed a deal with Carlton to buy its online games site. Gala will acquire Jamba.co.uk in a deal thought to be worth £1.5 million (US$2.2 million)

Jamba operates both online and via interactive TV. It has 750 000 players but is not presently a real money online casino. Gala's plan is to use the site to "diversify into other forms of mass-market gambling within months as `pay-to-play’ gambling with fixed odds and eventually an online casino…”

The tantalizing question of course is which provider will get this very juicy contract...

Pearls among the swine

Well, tons of new casinos came on line again with the usual high proportion of generally sub-standard sites. There were some highlights, though and we singled out these:

Columbuscasino.com
Latest addition to the King Soloman and Lucky Liner group which recently departed the Microgaming fold in favour of Cytech software and an Aquaonline backend. This operation has a reasonable if not outstanding site with a Christopher Columbus theme and 43 download games of average quality. The e-cash is via Cyber Finance Investments and they are claiming a 95 pc average payout on the games (not exactly in the leaders' league) The games include three progressive slots. There is a fully toll free 24/7 Support and they hold a Khanawake licence. $20 signup.

Tattsgames.com
Owned by the major Australian bookie company Tattersalls this online casino holds a Tasmanian licence and has registered offices in Hobart. The site is rather ordinary with little to excite or impress, however it has 24/7 toll free Support and a suite of 10 quality download games from Access Gaming Systems. Because that provider complies with the stringent Australian regulations this is likely to be a popular casino. You can buy lotto tickets on site and bet on sports as well. Good despite the plain site.

Northshorecasino.com
Latest addition to the Orion casino family owned by Celebrity Players Inc out of Antigua. Like its sister casino this operation uses Odds On software's download suite of 14 good quality games. 24/7 tollfree Support and E-cash through EC Exchange.The site is bland and unremarkable. Average.

Unitedkingdomcasino.com
Rather nice, clean site with a Brit theme but dealing in dollars. The software is Real Time Gaming with their older 12 download gambling suite of good quality. The e-cash is Comp-e-Cash backed with Paypal and Net Teller. Full Support. Good.

Publicpoker.com
Here's one for the poker fans. Nice, informative site offering a wide variety of poker games with multiplayer (players can choose their own "anime" figure) We have not yet been able to ID the software. Firepay, Paypal and Firecash are available. The download is almost 4 meg and they are running a $1 million dollar tournament. Good.

Better bets on blackjack

Here's one of those things that seems so simple, you wonder why you didn't come up with the idea yourself. Take a popular card game, give it a new twist, patent the results and market it to the casinos. That's what longtime card dealer Bobby Florence has done with his variation on blackjack called "Next Card 21."

The game allows blackjack players the option of placing bets on what their next card will be. With 10-1 odds on bets as high as $5, a player has the ability to make a tidy bundle playing a table game that usually limits winners to more modest payoffs. Florence has patented his changes in hopes of turning it into a successful enterprise.

The simplicity of the game is one of the major reasons Florence thinks his game will succeed where other new games fail. Florence's game has been given a trial run of about six months at Palace Station mainly because it comes with little risk. No other tables had to be removed to make room for Florence's game since it can still be played on standard blackjack tables.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa