Dear Readers,

Man, what a busy week! I'm proud to announce that Casinomeister was awarded "Watchdog of the Year" by the readers poll at Gambling Online Magazine! Thanks for all of you who voted for me and who support Casinomeister with your nice comments and thoughts! Thanks!!

On a down side, one of our sponsors went from a listing in our "Reputable Casino" section to "Not Recommended." Many of you know which casino I'm talking about; Black Widow. She got caught up in her own tangled web. More on this in our issue below. Anyway, I hope the chilly weather this November finds you in good health and spirits.

Busily yours,

Bryan

InterCasino has been awarded Best Online Casino 2002 for a second year running by the readers of Gambling Online Magazine.

Over 60,000 readers took part in the poll, and the results will be published in Gambling Online Magazine's Yearbook edition, which will hit the news stands next week. This poll is accepted as the online casino industry's most prestigious, and is a great measure of excellence.

This weekend, Ryan Hartley the Casino manager, will be handing out $50 to every player he meets at the tables, plus if a player also says to Ryan 'congratulations' he will award them an extra $50. That's a total of $100!

Finally, Intercasino has launched a player v player poker room!!

Since their launch in November 1996 over $6 billion has been processed in online casino payments and now this experience is being brought to bear in the online poker market with the launch of InterCasinoPoker.

Until recently online casinos have been reluctant to offer poker rooms in addition to their existing casino programs, and it is taking the market leader to break the mould.

“The Internet Poker market is growing at a phenomenal rate, and as one of the oldest and most respected Internet Casinos we decided to draw up on our existing expertise to offer a multi-currency player v player poker product” said Ryan Hartley, manager of InterCasinoPoker.

“InterCasino has a tradition of offering superior products before anyone else, so we are proud to be the first in the industry to offer a casino, poker room and bingo hall all available on the same E-cash account.”

The software offers both 7 Card Stud and Texas Hold'em, with more games and features on the way, but players are already able to play in US Dollars, Euros and Sterling.

“InterCasinoPoker also continues the InterCasino's tradition of never using shills or robots in any of our products. In order to balance the tables and start new ones we have a Prop Player Incentive Scheme that pays players $10 an hour to do the same.” Ryan continued “Players can always be sure that we are impartial in the poker room.”

InterCasinoPoker is available to download at InterCasinoPoker.com and a $20 sign up bonus will be given to every player coming through this link.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

I had to make a very difficult decision this week; I had to place "Black Widow Casino" in our "not Recommended" section at Casinomeister. Reason? I feel obligated to my visitors, readers, listeners, to warn them of what I feel is bad casino practice. And it is with a heavy heart that I had to do this.

Black Widow ran a promotion for "High Rollers" when they switched to Playtech software in July 2002. This promotion was sent to qualified players, as well as posted on their site. Apparently, a number of players were a bit confused as to whom this "bonus" applied to. They contacted Black Widow support and were explicitly told that they qualified for the bonus. These players made deposits of up to $2000, and played according to the specified terms and conditions, but then they found their accounts locked and were notified that they were not eligible to collect their winnings.

The players were accused of fraudulent activity (breaching their rules in the terms and conditions of the casino) and were emailed a form letter which was extremely vague; it listed several rules that could have been breached, everything from multiple accounts to age requirements. It was unclear which rule was breached.

Most of the players eventually received their deposits back, after three months of frustration, unanswered emails and what seemed to many as a casino giving everyone the run-around.

The casino defended themselves by stating that "It was not up to the CSRs to have monitored these issues. It was the responsibility of the casino's security to review the activity and amend any invalid bonuses and winnings as per policy. The management of any establishment must be able to reserve the right to monitor and maintain operations within set guidelines. This is the approach of Black Widow Casino and our players, supporting vendors and software provider expect nothing less." They also claimed that all players had been responded to regarding this problem. This may be true, but I would not consider a vague form letter that doesn't pinpoint exactly what a player did wrong a response.

In my opinion, Black Widow did not handle itself in an acceptable manner. They stated "CSRs did an exceptional job of addressing each player’s request as it was received and the casino stands behind their work during that period." Apparently mistakes were by these individuals since a number of players were told explicitly that they qualified for the bonus. They have denied that mistakes were made, but to everyone involved in this, it does appear that serious ones occurred. To penalize players for errors made is unacceptable. I understand the process of the involvement of the security team later down the road, but to the players and everyone else involved, it seems like damage control.

These players were accused of fraud. I do not understand how someone can be accused of fraud when they are told explicitly that they are eligible for a bonus, and then they actually meet the playthrough requirements. These players also were given sub-standard responses concerning their "breach" of terms. I think this is what irks me the most. It is embarrassing for me to try to defend this sort of response. Please don't forget that this is not an ordinary case for me since Black Widow was a sponsor of Casinomeister, thus agreeing to the set standards that I hold all of my sponsors to. I cannot take any of this lightly.

A spokesperson for the casino pointed out that Casinomeister is an "infomation site" and asked "at what point does "information" transition to judgment and opinion?" My answer: My readers, visitors, and listeners rely on my judgments and opinions. I am obliged to them to be as objective and as informative as possible, and I believe I do a good job in doing so. I don't feel that this case has been under too much subjectivity, and I believe I am being fair.

You may read more about it here.
Please note: Grand Banks and Black Widow are two separate operations. The challenges of one have no bearing on the success of the other. Grand Banks has not had the same problems as Black Widow, but they tend to get lumped together because they are sister sites.