Dear ${token1},

Yes, I'm back, and what a trippy trip it was. "Where were you at?" you may ask. Ah, in the Bahamas my dear friend. "Oh that sounds like fun," you say. But wait until you hear the real scoop about the Atlantis Hotel, the Casino Affiliate Force conference, and the Internet Gambling Law and Wireless symposium, and all of my exploits. You'll be shocked and entertained as well. So grab yourself a hot cup o' java and read on...

Appreciatively yours,

Bryan

MY TRIP TO THE BAHAMAS
and not a decent beer in sight

Where should I start? I could start when I mentioned to my wife that I had been invited to cover the Casino Affiliate Force conference and the Internet Gaming Law and Wireless symposium at Paradise Island, The Bahamas. This is when she told me, "No way, you are not going alone to the Bahamas!" Or I could start when I booked our flight at the last moment only to find the only flights left were from Delta Airlines. No, I'll start when I was being served my first meal on the airline, flying from Frankfurt to Atlanta, Atlanta to Nassau, and I was looking forward to washing the funky chicken rice down with some white wine. "That'll be four dollars sir," said the middle-aged happy-go-lucky stewardess. "What? Surely you jest! Making one pay for drinks on an International flight?" Yes, it is sadly true. You PAY for your drinks on Delta Airlines. And the food! My gawd! I haven't met an airline food I didn't like. Hell, I can eat anything. When I was in the US Army I liked MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). We used to call them Meals Ready to Excrete, but I digress. I never finished my meal. I believe this was a sign of meals to come.

We (my wife and my four-year-old daughter and I) arrived at Nassau at night, took a cab from the airport, and suddenly realized that they drive on the wrong side of the road. And they have American cars with the steering wheel on the normal side. What a mess! But we did make it safely to the Sheraton.

Now the Sheraton sounds like a big deal, but let me confide with you. It was not. I could have sworn that the website mentioned that it was recently refurbished, well maybe they consider 1981 recent. Don't get me wong, the rooms were okay, they were just a bit pricey for what we were getting. But lest we forget, we were on "Paradise Island."

We were there a day ahead of time, so I could get my bearings straight right before the conference. We spent the day browsing through the market places in Nassau. One of the first things I noticed was how unfriendly the storekeepers were. No "hello" rarely a "thank you" or the superficial "have a nice day/vacation". The waitress who served us lunch in one of local cafes was a real downer. No smile, just a glum "may I take your order." The food was disappointingly boring; nothing special. And this is one of the main reasons why I travel; the food and interaction with people.

And what really irks me, is that these Bahamians think you're made of money, and that's all they seem to care about: being paid. They must all hate their jobs which are mostly service positions. Bahamians still have to cater to the "white man" and they hate it understandably. But what is frustrating for the visitor, there is no escaping from it. At least in France, you expect the waiters to be rude because they are French. French people feel that they have a reason to be arrogant, and their food makes up for the snootiness. In the Bahamas, the rudeness is a bit more uncalled for. But again, I digress.

The following morning the Casino Affiliate Force kicked off. It was a well organized show, and my hat goes off to Herby Olschewski, the chief organizer, chairman, and the man with the plan. What impressed me right off the bat was that he had arranged to have a wireless network set up in the conference room so that you could access the Internet with your laptop right there as you listened to the presenters. For instance, Joe Smooth could be presenting his high speed affiliate program for casino X, and you could be checking out his site for further information or problems. What a plan! Too bad I didn't have a laptop there to use. Something to put on my Christmas list??

Highlights of the session: each presenter gave a thorough run down on their affiliate programs. Some were a bit too self-promoting, but that can't be helped sometimes, especially when you believe in your product and you are representing your company. But one hot item was brought up on the last day of the conference: the use of scumware by casinos and casino marketers. Scumware is just that; scum software that is downloaded onto your hard drive when you download music swapping software or other programs that are apparently innocuous. Most of you don't know whether or not you have scumware on your computers, but there are ways to find out. Check your hard drive for the programs eZula or Kazaa; these are the two biggest offenders.

Why is scumware bad? Scumware will kill the Internet as we know it. What these programs do is steal traffic from sites like Casinomeister, and you wouldn't even know it. These programs, when installed on your computer, pop up banners smack dab in the middle of your screen, prompting you to click away DON'T CLICK POP UP BANNERS (a rudimentary solution). Scumware also changes the appearance of your website, hypertext-linking key words that when clicked direct you away to other casino sites. This sort of traffic theft will kill quality sites like Casinomeister, Got2bet, Gonegambling, etc., by pulling our traffic away to someplace else. No traffic, no revenue, no site.

An analogy was brought up by one of the presenters who professed to be using scumware stating "It's like you (the webmaster) having a store selling whatnots, and a person on the sidewalk outside is handing out brochures to buy whatnots somewhere else. You can always tell him to leave." Wrong, dead wrong. Graeme Levin from Gambling.com was livid shooting this analogy down in flames stating that this is NOT like someone standing on the sidewalk outside your store, but someone in your store trying to sell to your customers competitive goods. It is trespassing and theft. There are a number of casinos and marketing agencies that are utilizing the services of these scumware providers. You know who you are, many of these users are reading this newsletter. I say stop using this form of marketing immediately and let your accounts expire with these scum artists. You will kill portals and the Internet with this crap. For more information on how to fight Scumware, check out Scumware.com for more information.

There were other highlights, many positive ones that I will never ever forget. Keep your eyes peeled on your inbox for MY TRIP TO THE BAHAMAS Part II