Issue #191
GIGSE ~ Toronto Special Report
Dear Reader,
I'm back. And yes it was a good trip. I learned quite a bit on this one, many interesting and tantalizing things that I will convey to you my dear reader. So if episodes of surrealism, online casino gossip, and how love conquered pride enthrall you, then grab yo'self a hot cup o' java, and scroll on down...
Presently yours,
Bryan
Can't read this newsletter? Click here (or copy and paste this into your browser): http://www.casinomeister.com/newsletter.html#skip for the cool online version.
...and how love conquered pride.
So where should I begin? Perhaps in the Air Canada fight where my knees were nearly pressed up to my chest the seats were so small. We were getting ready to land at Pearson Airport in Toronto, in fact the wheels were just about to touch down when the plane suddenly lurched upward and we shot back into the sky. The pilot mumbled something incoherently over the PA, and then stated that he would explain what had happened in a few minutes. We (the passengers) just looked at each other, a little bewildered, a little unnerved, and then the pilot came back and explained that there was vehicle on the runway that didn't have clearance. Great, I thought, a near miss. I make it this far and nearly get creamed on Toronto's airstrip.But it was cool, we flew around and landed for real about twenty minutes later. Damn I thought, twenty minutes less of "fun time" on the ground. But it gave me the few extra minutes to contemplate my main mission for my visit to Toronto: gather online casino information for Casinomeister, and to rescue Vortran's love of his life - Brontë
Lest we forget, Brontë was somehow mysteriously snatched up and held hostage in Michael Caselli's "drug den" in London. This was reported in Casinomeister's Newsletter issue #190 and the sordid details were posted here. Before I left Germany, I had promised Vortran by hook or by crook, I would bring Brontë back to him.
Anyway, my time is very limited at these conferences, and I try to squeeze in as much as I can: movies, restaurants, and other chillin' extracurricular activities that I can't get in my little German village. And of course what brings me here is the Global Interactive Gaming Symposium and Exhibition, the GIGSE. It's the largest trade event that attracts just about everyone in this industry. My primary mission, (besides Brontë's rescue), was to gather information, and to convey this information to you my dear reader; this is very important to me.
Well, after the obligatory customs formalities, the bus ride to the hotel, and the checking in, I was hungry. And man, I was dying for some good ol' Tex Mex. I knew a place that was right around the corner, and I was hoping to find someone to dine with.
I picked my cell phone and gave Tim Whyles (Wagershare's affiliate manager) a call. I knew he was in town, and he'd probably be game for some good chow. The phone answered on the second ring.
"Hello, Bryan. You must be in Toronto." Cell phones always give me away.
"Yep, you hungry?" And as soon as these words left my lips, I realized that Tim was probably still in London. It was 2 o'clock in the morning in London.
"No Bryan, I'm not really hungry right now." At least he was quite jovial about my faux pas, and I wished him a nighty-night, and a tomorrow's pleasant flight.
Good enough. I met Brian Cullingworth in the lobby as he was checking in. Brian Cullingworth: the executive consultant for Infopowa news. We're in contact with one another on a daily basis, but he's in South Africa, and I'm in Germany most of the time, so it's always good when we sit down and chat in person. We set out for the local Tex Mex (El Paso), and had a lengthy conversation about industry stuff and perhaps some gossipy stuff about you my dear reader, naw just kidding. But it was a good conversation conversed over good food. I had the Chicken Chimichunga and bitchin' Strawberry Margarita. A very tasty meal indeed.
The following day I spent buying up what I can't get in Germany, at Wal-mart nonetheless (cheap sponges, freezer bags, and other household goods). I then caught "Troy" down at the Paramount theaters. A cool film that an undergraduate could use as "crib notes" for Homer's epic (except the Trojan War lasts for about ten years - the movies makes it seem a matter of weeks). The fight scene between Hector and Achilles I remember well from my dry read of a door-stopper of a book. It was nice to see this come to life via Hollywood (it was filmed in Mexico by the way...I was wondering why most of the extras looked Mexican).
That evening was spent wining and dining with the usual suspects.
Monday was the first official day of the GIGSE. That morning and early afternoon was spent mainly in the hotel lobby with some planned and spur-of-the moment meetings, some of which were quite insightful. Knowledge is power, and this is one of the reasons I attend these functions - to strengthen my brain.
That afternoon was my first official function acting as moderator for the "round table" discussion panel "Effective Marketing Strategies". Debbee Silverman (Gonegambling.com), Eric Morris (Gambling Online Magazine), and Michael "Girly-boy" Caselli (Online Casino News) were the panel. We met briefly before the discussion was to begin, and I gave them a bit of a rundown of what questions I was going to ask. It was difficult not to be distracted by Michael's bravado; he thought he was oh so manly by harboring the innocent (and presumably drugged) wooden figurine up in his hotel room. But I remained cool, not letting his swaggering demeanor affect my professionalism.
The discussion panel went well, and I think it was very informative. These three individuals explained what worked well and what didn't work so well concerning marketing online as opposed to marketing offline. If you are involved in marketing in some shape or form, you should have been there.
The discussion wrapped up, and I began to collect my things - my mind wandering on how I was to get Brontë back from "evil-man's" sleaze lair, when a man stepped forth from the dissipating crowd and introduced himself as the owner of Slots Alley. He wanted to sit down and talk...
To be continued, but first this:
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So where was I? Oh yeah, Slots Alley. For those of you who are newly subscribed, or for those of you who merely breeze though this newsletter looking for the joke near the bottom and have no idea what I am referring to when I say "Slots Alley" here's a brief rundown:
I've accused Slots Alley (and all of it's sister casinos) to be using pirated source code for its progressives, to be running mock (fake) progressives, and for lying to me on a number of issues. Most of this is detailed here. Well, here I had the owner standing in front of me, I thought "Oh, shit. The goon squad is probably looming in the corners of the room." But it was cool. He asked me if I had time to sit down and talk, and I said "Yeah, let's grab a beer and talk."
So we sat in the hotel lounge and talked. He pretty much explained everything to me, he covered most of the bases, covered most of my accusations, covered just about everything...but my main concern was about the progressives. How is a small little no name casino supporting progressives as large as the ones at Intercasino and the Sands? Slots Alley's Keno progressive stands at $460,000 at the moment; Intercasino's "Rags to Riches" stands at a mere $205,000.
So what's up with that? He explained that he has set his own money aside, as well as funds from his partners to cover these progressives. He is willing to take a serious hit with these progressives since this is something he planned for - and as a result he hopes to be considered a casino group that pays its winners, and that has progressive games worth playing. He also explained that one progressive was paid off only a few weeks ago.
Fine and dandy, but my main point was that to earn legitimacy and credibility in this industry, you have to convince those of us who watch and investigate via transparency and "open frankness". Where is this winner? Why wasn't a big press hullabaloo made about this winner? The owner stated he was a bit apprehensive on making this widely public because it would have drawn more attention from me. Well, this was a mistake. If members of the press are not made aware of these progressive wins, then why should any of us believe that they actually happen? This industry is drenched with doubt and skeptics. Innocence is not taken for granted; it must be proven. The proof is in the pudding so to speak, so I'm willing to keep on watching these guys and to give them the benefit of the doubt and credit where credit is due. Let's see some winners.
He also mentioned that my exposés have brought him good traffic. This reminded me of the traffic that Black Widow's Brian Woods boasted about that he received from my rogue section. I guess it's not so bad getting listed there; there's no such thing as bad publicity.
That evening was the reception party, and it was jam packed - elbow room only. After a couple hours of jovial jocularity, a group of us exited with some of the good folks from Leopard Rock Casino, Greedy Girl, Brian Cullingworth, and a few choice others. We ended up having a marvelous dinner; sort of a world market buffet that was first class in quality and very inexpensive. I like the Canadian dollar. What a pleasant way to end the evening...and yet I had not a clue for what was in store for me the following day. An incredible day lay ahead...
Continuation after this brief moment. Scroll slowly and click away:
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Continuation of our saga...
Tuesday, or should I say - groovy Tuesday, because this is exactly what it was - very groovy. The day kicked off at the exhibition floor where many major software providers had their booths primed with free t-shirts and free beer, (Kudos to RTG, Playtech, and Neteller, for the free beer - but more on that later). One of the highlights of the GIGSE event was the luncheon with eCOGRA executives Andrew Beveridge, Michael Hirst, and fair gaming advocate Tex Rees. We were joined by Brian Cullingworth, Jeff Tuttle (managing director of Winneronline.com), Debbee Silverman, and Michael Caselli. This was a chance to share our ideas and pose questions for the directors as well as to enjoy a good meal.
eCOGRA (e-Commerce and Online Gamine Regulation and Assurance) is probably the closest thing we will have to regulation in this industry as long as governments fail to do so. I invite all of you to peruse their website and take a good look at what they are trying to achieve. They have come under fire by a few distrustful players stating that eCOGRA is a puppet of Microgaming (since Microgaming has put up funds to get this started), and is nothing more than another "Safebet". Plus there was a certain unawareness on the players' part on how casinos are "approved" by eCOGRA. This is no rubber stamp by any means, and not to sound redundant - I would recommend all players (and operators) to soak up the information that is available on their site specifically in the sections eGAP and Procedures.
What is encouraging is that they are convincing other software providers to join. So far Casava has joined and it looks like there are more on the horizon. One question I had for Andrew was about their position on licensing: would a casino being licensed in say Costa Rica make any difference on being approved by eCOGRA? He said that licensing is a factor, but not a serious one since they do not rely on a third party's set of standards, but standards of their own. As long as a casino meets their (eCOGRA's) standards, they are good to go. This was a relief for me since I felt that some software providers (for example RTG) may be put off about this since most of their licensees are based in Costa Rica. I would hate to see them left out in the cold because of a poor choice in licensing decisions.
We finished our lunch, and mosied back to the conference where everything was in full swing. Again kudos to the free beer suppliers, they even had Becks! But the Award for the most Coveted Booth goes to Real Time Gaming. They had center stage as you entered the exhibition hall, and besides the normal floor layout with video monitors of the latest games and girls with clevage, they had an upstairs pavilion (about 3 meters by 4 meters) that included a bar (free beer) and a masseuse. The hell with the conference - just drink beer and get a massage!
But I had a mission. RTG complaints was an issue, and there are a number of them. I spoke with one of the RTG reps and he detailed what RTG should have done a long time ago - involved a controlling third party that will oversee these complaints. For the time being, all complaints for RTG casino should be submitted here. These will be forwarded to the third party for mediation and review. RTG will only handle complaints if and only when they have been submitted there. So if you have a pending complaint with Connect To Casino, Cirrus Casino, Crystal Palace group, or any RTG, you know where to go now.
Another mission: speak with someone at the Playtech booth concerning my concerns. No one there but salespeople, and another open bar. Oh well, moving on...
...and in doing so I gathered tickets for the GIGSE party at the "Indian Motorcycle Club" (sponsored by the Parlay Group) and two tickets for Second City Comedy Club (thanks to RTG). The day was finished, and it was time to go. And as I innocently left the conference center, I had no idea what was in store for me that night...
Scroll slowly downward for the continuation of this bitchin' saga.
Continuation of our saga...
Greedy Girl was my date for the Second City Comedy Club. Thanks to RTG, it was a true highlight of the week. For those of you unfamiliar with Second City, Second City has produced many of the greatest comedians of our current time - John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner, Martin Short, John Candy, Michael Myers, Eugene Levy, etc. Well, I don't think any of us laughed so hard in quite a while. Entitled "Invasion free since 1812" (alluding to the fact they share a border with the US, and the US hasn't invaded since then), it was semi political - totaly hilarious. I almost thought I saw a White Russian come out of Greedy Girl's nose she was laughing so hard. It was far-freaking out.
After the show, it was onward to the "Indian Motorcyle Club" bar. And it was here that things began to mesh. I had nearly forgotten about Brontë, but I was quickly reminded when I ran into Michael. He was half-lit and laughed when I told him that he needed to hand her over to me. He shouted over the music, held his drink, and pointed at me with his pinky, "You want Brontë? You want Brontë? Hah! Then I want something from you, and we trade."
I asked him what, and he spoke again, "Sumo!"
Sumo, I thought. What did Sumo have to do with this? And then it dawned on me. As far as I knew, Michael has never done anything macho recently, and one of the only reasons he was in Toronto was for the Sumo Wrestling match that was scheduled for the following day.
"You mean you want me to..."
"Yes!" said Michael, "I want the Sumo!"
I suddenly realized that it was the match that Michael wanted. This was the only way that Vortran was to see his beloved Brontë again. I felt a little unnerved, but I thought - oh what the hell, if it makes people happy.
So we hung out together, and it got much later - and as if on schedule - as tradition would have it, Brian Woods from Black Widow Casino walked into the bar - and it looked as if he was looking for someone. Was that someone me?
I approached him and asked him what was up - and I mentioned that it would have been cool to be scheduled together for the Sumo ring that next day: Casinomeister vs Black Widow. And I mentioned that I tried to contact him beforehand to arrange this, but his emails were bouncing. He was mildly taken aback; emails bouncing? Oh well, an opportunity lost - but we decided that we might get together in the near future, somewhere in Europe - and have a good time. And this is a possibility, but I only wish they would pay their players.
The rest of the evening was dedicated to getting some of our well inebriated friends back to their proper hotel rooms - the late evening seriously took its toll on a few hardy individuals.
And while I slept that night, I dreamt of Brontë, her sinewy wooden body - floating face up in a dark pond shrouded with fog. Vortran stood at the edge - begging for his lost love in his funny metallic voice. The most disturbing thing was that Vortran had no arms - and we all know that robots can't swim.
I awoke that morning with Michael's words repeating over and over in my head, "I want the Sumo," and the vision of a broken Vortran standing on the banks of a fog enshrouded pond. What a way to wake up.
Late that morning, I had a very good conversation with Jeff Tuttle from Winneronline, and we discussed a number of industry related issues as well as some trivial things. Did we talk about you? Perhaps so. Webcast fans - stay tuned for an upcoming interview with Jeff - it should be up by the beginning of next week. I also met with the operator of Roxy Palace who will be this years first Bier Fest sponsor. This will be kicking off next Tuesday, the 1st of June. This is a "must join" contest - the winner will receive 10 liters of locally brewed Bier - what a deal!
Anyway, I was still on a mission to hook up with someone from Playtech, but alas their stand was populated with free beer drinkers and a couple of sales people. I then bumped into Amit Jain, the general manager of the Virtual Casino Group. Some of you remember that last January I had met with the owner of the Virtual Group, and he wanted me to set up a special section at Casinomeister for Virtual complaints, and that was also going to put links on his casinos indicating that I was available to assist players if they had unreconciled problems. Well since then (the end of January), I have only eight recorded complaints - none for May - and all were resolved (except one) in the player's favor. So in short, it looks like they have finally gotten their act together. Nobody is complaining.
Finally, the time was nearing for the Sumo match...Michael approached me, put his arm around my shoulders and walked me up to the RTG beer stand. We sat down and went into sumo training mode - beer style. And it was then that he stated "Don't forget, I have something you want." And the image of my little buddy Vortran, home alone, was stuck in my head. "Okay, what the hell - let's do it." I said.
The River City group had arranged several mats in a rectangle on the floor to simulate a Sumo ring (more like a Sumo rectangle). And a large crowd encircled this "ring" and began to make their wagers. The River City Group had handed out $1000 of play money per person for the betting. Michael and I squeezed into our Sumo suits (mine had breasts which was pretty cool), and we were the first ones up. Wittingly entitled "The Expatriate Act" (both Michael and I are expatriated persons), the match kicked off with our exhibition.
Brontë and Vortran were on my mind.
After the match, Michael was as giddy as a little school girl. This was okay with me since I new that there was no reason for Michael not to keep his word. Besides, I had many instances of my time in the sun - or the limelight so to speak. Just give me Brontë back - and he did (photographic proof of the Sumo wrestlers and the hand-off).
Anyway, this was the close of the conference - and I had yet to hook up with anyone in Playtech. So I will take the opportunity to ask my questions now. Feel free to answer at your earliest convenience:
- 1. What is the process for licensing your casinos? Is this a responsibility of Playtech, or does the responsibility fall upon the operators? Who monitors or oversees this?
- 2. Are casinos allowed to operate before there licenses are fully processed?
- 3. What is the relationship between Playtech and the OPA? Is the OPA certification taken at face value or is there an agreed to process?
- 4. The Chance Group has a notorious reputation for delaying payments to their players - is this something that Playtech can rectify?
- 5. Why do Playtech casinos let player cashins sit for 3-5 days before being processed? Is there a way to expedite these cashins?
- 6. When can players expect to see other variations of the multihand poker (Joker-Poker, Double Bonus, etc.)? - I guess the sales guy could have answered that one - oh well.
Anyway, for a grand finale, Microgaming invited a large group of us to feast at "The Sultan's Tent", a fine Moroccan Restaurant with an extraordinary pleasant staff (the maître d' helped me with my jacket when I left, that doesn't happen very often), and a four course gourmet meal. The decor was brilliant, simulating Moroccan tents strewn with comfy couches to sink deeply into. There was a tantalizing floor show with Indonesian contortionists...and then the belly-dancers came out and did their stuff. I dig belly dancers. The evening ended with the introduction of a real live Tiger that each one of us had the opportunity to pose for a splendid framed photo. When I showed the photo to my wife back in Germany, she freaked - and scolded me reminding me of what happened to Roy from Siegfried and Roy. Anyway, it was a very nice evening -- thanks!
The Toronto show was over and it was time to go home. I won't bore you with the last day or two of shopping in Toronto for sponges, T-shirts, and Dental Floss, or my seeing the fabulous musical "Hairspray". I was tired and just wanted to come home.
And home is where I'm glad to be now. It was good getting back to real home cooked meals, and real beer. Besides, it's always good to jump back into the saddle again and tackle whatever comes my way. The first thing I got hit with was a "Joe Job" (spammers using my email address as a source for spam). Some dweeb had nothing better to do but to spam others in my name, and I believe it was probably the evil webmaster of fortuneaffilliates.com (notice the additional "l" in affiliates). He's got his panties tied in a knot since I contacted the real Fortune Affiliates about his spam operation. Oh well...
...and so it goes.
Brontë and Vortran are once again reunited. Seeing their love re-blossum was well worth the "defeat" in the Sumo wrestling ring. And I want to thank Sue Schneider, Mark Balestra, Nancy Kraus, and all those at the River City Group that made all of this possible. Vortran thanks you too. Thanks!
Complaints? Kudos? Please let me know.
Peace
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Bryan Bailey Webmeister Casinomeister |  |