Dear Reader,

What? It's Friday already? I'm a day behind and this is unacceptable and inexcusable. Everyone knows that Fridays are the worst day to send off a newsletter. Most of you read these at work (yes, I know these things), and on Fridays people are more apt to hit delete instead of taking the time to read. You're too busy trying to leave early, and you just don't bother with them until Monday. And then Mondays suck for most people; there is a weekend's worth of spam to weed through. Woe to the one who is tardy and publishes on Friday.

But there many good tidbits in this issue: Bethedealer is redeemed, Windows does another nasty, Prism Casino loses its mind, two new casinos at Casinomeister, another Microgaming casino launches its Viper software. All this and more! So sit back, relax, grab a hot cup'o java, and read on...

Belatedly yours,

Bryan

From the archives.

An American businessman was at a pier in a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow-fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied only a little while.

The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.

The American then asked the Mexican how he spent the rest of his time.

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, señor."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and, with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. "You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then, senor?" asked the Mexican.

The American laughed, and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public. You'll become very rich, you would make millions!"

"Millions, señor?" replied the Mexican. "Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

Food for thought

DUKES DISCLOSURES CONTINUE
Be The Dealer takes action

Last week we reported the disgraceful and thoroughly unprofessional departure of Dukes Gaming.com, leaving unpaid players, ignored emails and a $1 million sweepstake scandal in its wake. Developments toward the end of the week were the identification of a Be The Dealer site carrying the Dukes Gaming identity, and raising ethical questions about the probity of commercial relations with companies that behave in this manner.

Be The Dealer has responded to the extensive public coverage by defending its business strategy. The BTD network it seems runs all operational facets of their sites such as gambling software, Support and Cashier activity. However, its "partners" whose identity often appears on the sites have responsibility for marketing, and BTD states that it has no control over that facet of its business, leaving gaps in accountability.

This was the situation with Dukes Gaming, which had signed up with BTD as Dukes Be The Dealer.com prior to it's fall from grace as a Wagerlogic-powered online casino. Dukes provided its brand and its marketing database as their end of the deal, raising questions as to whether its casino players wanted to opt-in to marketing material from a new site.

In fairness to Be The Dealer, it has to be said that the network was not aware of the $1 million sweepstake scam or, apparently the unceremonious nature of Dukes Gaming.com's closure.

After explaining their business position regarding accountability to the players, and being informed of the circumstances surrounding Dukes Gaming's departure, the BTD people notably Gal Haber did rescue credibility by removing all trace of Dukes Gaming identity from the BTD site, and offering stranded players bonuses at the new site in compensation over and above the payouts from Wagerlogic.

It is not clear whether they have severed their commercial relations with the people behind Dukes, who remain anonymous and continue to ignore emails.

In fact it would appear that Dukes, as the main players in this drama have actually done the least for their erstwhile customers. Wagerlogic apparently acted decisively on being advised about the $1 million sweepstake scam, and then followed that up on closing the Dukes operation by guaranteeing that players would be paid their dues. BTD has, as outlined above, made similar moves.

But what has Dukes done? They have yet to explain the mystery behind their $1 million sweepstake promises, they have ignored player and media emails seeking answers to relevant questions surrounding the closure and it would appear that they have left others to pick up the pieces of their customer payouts.

Efforts to identify the people behind Dukes are being made but tracking is being hampered by the refusal of the companies involved to identify them on grounds of commercial confidentiality. Thus far addresses in the UK and North America have been found, and enquiries are continuing.

BONEHEADS AT VIRTUAL CASINO
Prism problems

RTG-powered Prism casino has a close relationship with the notorious Virtual Casino and has been taking flak for some strange tricks lately. This week several players were denied winnings at the casino's Pontoon BJ because the casino alleged that the software had malfunctioned. Winning players were told they would have their deposits refunded, and the malfunction was described by a casino email in the following terms "Imagine this: It is similar to having a slots machine that suddenly went haywire and paid a jackpot to every single client on their first pull." Real Time Gaming may have many shortcomings, but bum software is not one of them...in fact their download software is widely held to be among the best around, which creates some doubts about this claim. And the alleged malfunction does not seem to have affected any other RTG casino.

Stop Press: RTG's reaction to our questions must have been immediate and direct, because as we went to press Prism management appeared on the message boards denying that there had been any "malfunctions or glitches" with RTG software and offering to redress the problems of any player prejudiced by the "erroneous" email sent from their casino. Kudos to RTG for bringing these people to order.

More articles like this in our news section.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.