Dear ${token1},

Well, I'm on my way out the door to visit our friends in Prague: Slotland. Looking forward to some nice driving weather, not much rain in the forecast, and we're hoping that the sun will begin to poke through the clouds every so often. Until next week, ta ta.

Absently yours,

Bryan

An old cowboy dressed to kill with cowboy shirt, hat, jeans, spurs and chaps went to a bar and ordered a drink. As he sat there sipping his whiskey, a young lady sat down next to him.

After she ordered her drink she turned to the cowboy and asked him, "Are you a real cowboy?"

"Well, I have spent my whole life on the ranch herding cows, breaking horses, mending fences... I guess I am," replied the cowboy.

After a short while he asked her what she was. "I've never been on a ranch so I'm not a cowboy," said the young woman, "but I am a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about women. As soon as I get up in the morning I think of women. When I eat, shower, watch TV, everything seems to make me think of women."

A short while later she left and the cowboy ordered another drink. A couple sat down next to him and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?"

"I always thought I was, but I just found out that I'm a lesbian."

My thoughts on affiliated greed

As most of you know, I handle complaints from players of online casinos at Casinomeister, and usually these players grievances are ones that have either fallen through the cracks of some sloppy support center, or players simply didn't understand the casinos' terms and conditions. In fact, problems with bonuses make up a majority of complaints, but under normal conditions, these type of complaints are handled quickly and effectively by a responsive support section, or by the operators themselves.

I've been seeing a noticeable increase of player complaints, specifically with Real Time Gaming powered casinos, over the past several weeks. It's a real shame that this software provider allows its casinos to do some of the things they do. The Virtual Casino group is the metaphorical loose cannon on deck. RTG needs to strap this cannon down which some sturdy bindings because this group is going to blast holes throughout the ship. If they permit this to continue for very much longer, you're going to see this ship sink from self inflicted wounds.

So far, they've been pretty apt at dressing their wounds in the form of damage control, but they need some preventive measures initiated as well. I hope that any new-comers that come on board at RTG are controlled and scrutinized a bit more than the present bunch.

So what is going on at RTG? I don't know. The deceptive spam that the Virtual Casino group periodically spits out warrants a serious censure; at least from the software provider. Perhaps even a public apology was in order from Virtual stating that they were sorry for trying to deceive everyone on the planet who has an email address. But no; nothing was done about it. Perhaps there was a "behind the scenes" scolding of "don't do that again!", but I still receive spam mails from U1casino. Some scolding.

As most of you know, I had a meeting with Mike Staw, the CEO if RTG, Daniel Schultz, and Eddy Kleid last September at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. They assured me that things were going to change for the better at RTG. They were going to be more communicative, and more proactive with player complaints. Well it's been about six months now, and I feel more needs to be done. They have set up a "players support center" here, where players may lodge complaints. I've heard some squawking on some message boards that even though players have filled out the form, nothing had been done. No one has complained to me about this directly. If you have submitted a complaint via this webpage, and nothing was done, please contact me and tell me about it.

But I digress. Many of the player complaints that I receive are from first time players who exclaim "Man, I wish I knew about Casinomeister before I wagered at Prism Casino," and they kick themselves in the butt for being a dumbass. I wish they did visit me before Prism, but I don't have an army of webheads tweaking my pages to come up #1 at Google.com with the search term "online casino". But type in "Virtual Casino Group" and see what comes up. I can warn players via these "searches". But seriously, how many first time users actually do any research before they bet online? I bet the percentage of those who do are suprisingly low.

Perhaps a high percentage of scammed players come from spam victims, victimized by an ad that's too good to be true. Think about it, would you ever do business with a spammer? Well apparently there are a lot of people who do. Perhaps they haven't been online long enough to know any better. I feel sorry for them. But they may also be manipulated by their own sense of greed. Going to make that big win. Going to let that "ad copy" do its thing -- speak to the greed.

Affiliates are another problem. Anyone to promote a known rogue does not have any scruples and should be drummed out of the business. They couldn't give a flying rat's ass about you or any problem you might have with a scam operation, and would probably just laugh if you would ask them to help you out with one of their "referred" casinos. They are motivated by money and that's it. And I am the one who ends up with the screwed-over player crying at my doorstep, crying that the casino won't answer emails, that they won't pay winnings, that they've been victimized by greed.

Affiliates who promote these sort of operations need to have a wakeup call. I'm not quite sure how to go about it, yet. But these individuals need to be held responsible for the pain that they are inflicting on others. For starters, when players submit complaints via my "pitch a bitch", they will be required to indicate who referred them to whatever casino they are bitching about. If you are a casino affiliate, please peruse Casinomeister's rogue section. There are a number of casinos that you should be wary about. Don't betray your principles via a full scale greed attack. Be responsible and accountable for your activities online.

And that is the crux of the matter, accountability and responsibility. And this goes for everyone, players, casino operators, software providers, advertisers, affiliates, and people like myself. Don't be blinded by the secular sin of greed. It can become very dark and lonely.