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Casinomeister's 2006 Newsletters

2006 Newsletter

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12 January 2006 – Issue #260

Dear Reader,

Yeah, I’m still chillin’ yet trying to work at the same time. Pardon the apparent slackiness, but that’s life in northern Bavaria right after New Years.

Appreciatively yours,

Bryan

BUT IT’S NOT ALL PLAY

Sure I’ve been taking most afternoons off this past couple of weeks. One of my oldest daughters is visiting from the states, so we’re playing tourist right now. I learned how to ski this past weekend (got my ass kicked, but I survived), and went skating for the first time today – didn’t fall down once. Been checking out the local castles and other neighboring things. It’s nice to try to see the familiar from the eyes of a tourist.

But it’s not all play. I’ve been working way late at night on a number of projects. One project is the Casinomeister awards that are almost complete. As tradition has it, they are announced the week prior to London’s ICE – and man, I’m right on schedule. There are some very interesting awards this year – several new categories, and it’s a decent retrospective view of the past year. I’m sure you will be pleased, entertained, amazed, and a few of you might be a little pissed. Watch this spot for the announcement – and subsequent webcast.

CASINOMEISTER CAUTIONS

I should have done this a long time ago since I was involved with at least one unresolved player issue with a Chartwell powered casino. The casino pulled a disappearing act – the player never saw his money, and the software provider tried to contact the operators but…no luck. This week I placed all Chartwell casinos in a new section at Casinomeister – “Casinomeister Cautions.” Why? I’ll tell you why.

I have always felt that the buck stops at the software provider when there is a problem. A lot of people disagree with me. They feel that it’s the operator, and if there is a problem, take it to the operator’s licensing jurisdiction. Well this is crap. You should know as well as I do that there are many licensing jurisdictions that couldn’t give a flying rats ass on what happens to a player. Licensors are concerned about getting paid, that’s about it. So when a casino has managerial problems, it’s the software provider I that I press for player solutions – not the licensing jurisdiction.

I have been dealing with player issues for nearly eight years now, and the times that a licensing jurisdiction has gotten themselves involved with a player’s problem…well I could count the number of times on maybe a couple of fingers.

Chartwell has a “hands off” policy towards their licensees. They have told this to me face-to-face and in emails. They will not involve themselves with player issues. Why? Because they feel that they do their due diligence when they take on a licensee. And I can’t dispute this. They have some solid organizations to which they provide their software: Victor Chandler, BetandWin, the Spin Room, Eurobet, etc., but they have had licensees that up and disappeared. I almost forgot about this poor player who was stiffed $600 because a Chartwell casino’s operators closed shop and *poof* vanished (Caribsunshine-casino.com). Now there seem to be problems at Frontroom and Liquid Club Casino – I’m not sure if it’s managerial or financial – but there are problems.

So players need to be advised that if they run into problems with Chartwell powered casinos – they may find out that they are in a very lonely place. More here: https://www.casinomeister.com/rogue/chartwell_gaming_software.html

End note: attitudes like this one (hands off) are just plain idiotic. Both Playtech and RTG had this attitude years ago – “we’re only the software provider”. Well they learned a hard lesson and their reputation still suffers because of this. Chartwell needs to get with the program and offer its players a safety-net. Players are owed this much.

SLOT JUNKIES WHERE YOU AT?

Slots!! Slots!! and more Slots!!

Hey, there’s a tournament you need to get involved with if you’re into slots! It’s at Slotjunkies.info, and it’s probably one of the most ingenious and fun tourneys to get involved with.

The Slot Junkies Challenges are a unique concept whereby players can opt into competitions for their favourite casino games and join in a community of like-minded players. Each month, casinos sponsor certain games and put up prizes for the best win, backed up by a screenshot, during the month.

The winning screenshots are those which show the highest win, based on the number of coins won rather than the actual amount. This gives the “low-rollers” a fairer chance to compete. The first prize each month will vary from game to game and the prize allocation is displayed for each game when you enter the Player Lounge. Second and Third place prizes are also usually available.

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Now For The Humor….

The Blonde Kidnapper

A blonde was down on her luck. In order to raise some money, she decided to kidnap a kid and hold him for ransom.

She went to the playground, grabbed a kid, took him behind a tree, and told him, “I’ve kidnapped you.”

She then wrote a note saying, “I’ve kidnapped your kid. Tomorrow morning, put $10,000 in a paper bag and put it under the pecan tree next to the slide on the north side of the playground. Signed, a blonde.”

The blonde then pinned the note to the kid’s shirt and sent him home to show it to his parents. The next morning the blonde checked, and sure enough, a paper bag was sitting beneath the pecan tree. The blonde opened the bag and found the $10,000 with a note that said, “How could you do this to a fellow blonde?”

19 January 2006 – Issue #261

Dear Reader,

Well here we go. Zipping through January, and February is on the cusp of the horizon. This month is one of my busiest – even though I chill out during the first couple of weeks.

What’s so busy about January? Well, there are the Casinomeister Awards and of course the ICE. What’s so great about these? scroll down and find out.

Happily yours,

Bryan

CASINOMEISTER AWARDS 2005

Yep, they were announced yesterday. And not to toot my own horn, these anticipated awards are held by many to be some of the most important and prestigious awards given to the online gaming industry. If you haven’t checked them out, now is the time to do so here:
Best and Worst of 2005

If you’ve already read them, you can still hear Vortran and I dish them out on this week’s webcast:
Webcast
https://www.casinomeister.com/webcast/webcast_archives/

And if you have any comments about any of these awards, please let the Casinomeister members know in our forum or pop me an email: commentsHere’s a brief run down on some of the top awards:
Best Casino 2005
32Red Casino

Best Casino Group 2005
Trident Entertainment
King Neptunes Casino
Trident Lounge
Vegas USA
Trident Poker

Best New Casino 2005
Vegas Splendido

Best Affiliate Program 2005
32Red Affiliates

Now those are the best. To check out who the worst were, check out the site.

ICE 2006 – LONDON

Yes, I will be there and this should be a pretty good trip. Lots of things happening. I’ll be meeting a number of webmasters, casino operators, and other industry people. My schedule is pretty much full – which is a shame since there are at least three movies I want to catch. And by hook or by crook, I’m gonna see them.

If by chance you want to meet up, please let me know. Thanks!

SLOT JUNKIES WHERE YOU AT?

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Lots more information here http://www.slotjunkies.info/slot_challenge_faq.php. Check it out!!

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Now For The Humor….

Brain Farts…

Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: “I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever,”
–Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest.

“Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.” –Mariah Carey

“Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life,” –Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.

“I’ve never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body,”–Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.

“Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country,” –Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.

“I’m not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president.” –Hillary Clinton commenting on the release of subpoenaed documents.

“That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I’m just the one to do it,” –A congressional candidate in Texas.

“Half this game is ninety percent mental.” –Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark

“It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.” –Al Gore, Vice President

“I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix.” –Dan Quayle

“We’ve got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?”–Lee Iacocca

“The word ‘genius” isn’t applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” –Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback &sports analyst.

“We don’t necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.” –Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor.

“If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.” –Bill Clinton, President

“We are ready for an unforeseen event that may or may not occur.”
–Al Gore, VP

“Traditionally, most of Australia’s imports come from overseas.”
–Keppel Enderbery

“Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.”
–Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina

“If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there’ll be a record.” –Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

26 January 2006

CASINOMEISTER NEWS: BLUFF MAGAZINE EDITOR UNDER OBSERVATION IN MENTAL CLINIC

Michael Caselli apprehended in Velcro Factory incident – under observation.

MONTREAL 18 May 2006

Michael Casseli, editor of Bluff magazine and I-Gaming Review remained under care at the psychological ward of the Montreal General Hospital after being apprehended at the ACME Velcro Co. in Montreal for trespassing and minor property damage.

“The damage was minimal,” said a spokesperson from Acme. “It turns out the guy had broken in and was trying to modify a pair of Velcro boots. These are the type used for racing competitions.”

But it was a bit more complicated than that. According the RCMP, a call was received from ACME’s security department that they had apprehended the suspect at around two AM. Caselli had broken through an alley way window, and was causing damage to company property. An officer described the bizarre and embarrassing scene.

“He found where the company had stored the boots for Velcro drag racing. He had wrapped duct tape around one pair and had written on the tape in big bold letters MIKEY’S BOOTS. The suspect then began to shave off the plastic hooks located on the soles with a Swiss Army knife.”

A company employee discovered Caselli in the act, Tami Smith who said, ” He didn’t see me at first. He was giggling and repeating over and over “Must beat Bailey, must beat Bailey…” When he saw me, he dropped the knife and screamed like a girl. He got up to run, but I tackled him. I was surprised he went down so easy since I only weigh 115 pounds. He didn’t put up much of a fight.”

According to witnesses, he began screaming, “Don’t you know who I am?” which puzzled them – they had no idea who he was. Mental Health officials were called in at that time.

“I’m afraid Mr. Casselli suffers from what we call hyper-delusional fixations,” explained Dr. Frankenfurter, MGH’s ward supervisor. “He is fixated with the webmaster of Casinomeister.com, a certain Bryan Bailey, and Caselli simply snapped.”

This may be the case. Several days ago, Caselli’s Lyceum Publishing distributed a bizarre press release claiming that Bryan Bailey had an unfortunate accident that involved Velcro and sheep. Bailey was contacted and stated, “Yes, that was an odd press release. The funny thing is, when I was supposedly chasing sheep I was actually sponsoring a picnic for the local orphanage. We were barbequing, and I was teaching orphans how to play American softball. In fact, Casinomeister has always been generous. We donated a decent sum of money for the charity drive at GIGSE. I don’t see Caselli doing that.”

And while this may be true, we spoke with one of Caselli’s office workers who wished to remain anonymous. She said, “He hasn’t been the same since he accepted Bailey’s challenge. He stares off into space and mumbles a lot. I think it’s really sad.”

More information here: http://www.gigse.com/2006/index.cfm/page/charity

2 February 2006

Special London Report – ICE 2006

Dear Reader,

I’m back and that’s a good thing. Lots of business to take care of, lots of emails to answer, lots of players looking for assistance – wondering where I am. Lots of grandieux plans. But before any of this is going to happen, you’re going to have to bear with me and hear of the tales of decadence and other cool things during my ICE London trip.

So grab yo’self a hot cup o’ java, and read on…

Busily yours,

Bryan

ICE – London

Forced to drink “Girly Drinks”…So where should I start? Perhaps I should begin with the delayed flight out of Charles De Gaul airport in Paris – the worst airport in the EU, or perhaps I should start with my train ride from Heathrow to London’s Paddington station – nope, too non-eventful. Me thinks I’ll begin this tale with my Sushi dinner with a fellow webmaster Webzcas and a bloke from Forwardslash.com

I think it was Webzcas’ first time at Sushi, and it’s always a treat to turn someone onto something a bit exotic – even though for some people, Sushi is quite the norm. Webzcas is the webmaster of Onlinecasinoreviewer.com, an excellent online casino portal and he’s a very sharp and dedicated webmaster. We discussed webmastery things like search engine optimization and how we deal with casino stuff. In fact, one of my missions in London was to meet with various webmasters and talk about what concerns us: webmastering.

Anyway, we left Sushi Uno and delved into the heart of London’s Soho district. London is by far my favorite city. There is so much history, so many faces from every nationality and culture, so many people to bump into – it’s always crowded. And we made it to the Detroit Bar, checked my coat and we descended the spiral staircase into the bar.

This is one of the best things about these conferences – the pre-partying. There are so many cool people in this industry, and I’m talking webmasters. Many of the webmasters present were from Casino Affiliate Programs and the party was being sponsored by Wildjack Gaming which did a great job. I remember back in 2001 – my first ICE – and there were virtually no webmasters or affiliates involved. Back then there was Spearmaster from Got2bet, the Winneronline guys, and a handful of others — nothing compared to now. This online casino stuff has exploded over the past several years.

Nevertheless, there were many familiar faces, Greedygirl, the Reviewed-casino guys, Tim Whyles from
I picked up my jacket at the cloakroom, and I had discovered to my dismay that someone had sabotaged the jacket’s zipper. It didn’t work no matter how hard I tried to make the zipper ends meet. But I finally got it, and I commenced to meander back to my hotel.

The hotel was maybe a ten minute walk away, but the once familiar streets were all turned around and whacked out. I had no idea where I was. So I hailed a cab, and left it up to him to get me back to the hotel. What a nice cabbie.

I was relived the next morning to find that I was still on one piece, that my wallet wasn’t empty, that I still had my mobile and all of my stuff. In fact, I didn’t feel bad at all, and I was ready to hit the ICE in all its glory.

The ICE – International Casino Exhibition – is the largest casino exhibition outside of Las Vegas. It’s focused internationally, but being in London it gets a lot of traffic from this side of the globe. I go to meet operators – good and bad – meet software providers, and licensing representatives, and all the other folks who are scattered about. This year’s show was huge, but I wasn’t too impressed with anything new.

I wandered about, and I remembered how innovative the industry has been – different payment solutions, poker, bingo, skill games, and games for the pocket computer and mobile. Even so, it’s still so drearily focused on marketing, and sometimes I get put off by the “make a load o’ cash” techniques many of these firms are touting. But then there are the organizations that are trying to better the industry by providing information for operators and players, or quality products that enhance the players’ experiences.

Suddenly, I bumped into Ed Ware the CEO of 32Red Casino, Casinomeister’s top rated casino for three years in a row. We were scheduled to have lunch, so we mosied out of the exhibition hall and down to The Atlas Pub. This was the place where I interviewed Ed Ware of 32Red two years ago (you can still hear the interview – it’s just as valid now as it was back then). It’s amazing how some things just don’t change.

So we sat there – chatted and ate some bitchin’ food. And while we were finishing lunch, Ed spotted Paul Gascoigne who had just entered the pub and was ordering a meal at the bar. Being the displaced Yank that I am, I had no idea who he was referring to – so Ed explained to me that this was probably the most famous footballer in the UK. Well, he looked pretty normal to me. I guess I could be bumping into all sorts of celebrities here and not even know it.

As we left, Ed gave Paul a friendly wave and told him it was good to see him. Paul returned the wave and smiled. What a nice chap.

I returned to the ICE and met with Catherine van Battum, the representative for Brand Conversions. Brand Conversions is an affiliate program based in the UK that promotes some of the leading UK based casinos and poker rooms. She was concerned that I had only recently given Chartwell Technologies a “Head in the Sand” award for 2005. Chartwell is the software provider for a number of casinos – some of which are very solid and promoted by Brand Conversions. The problem – as I stated in the award and in the “Cautions” section – is that in the past, the software provider does not offer assistance to players is they have issues with their licensees.

Well apparently, there are changes in the making. According to Brian Cullingworth, who was able to track down the right people, Chartwell seems to be relooking at this stance and is planing to implement some sort of player assistance. He reported:

Chartwell Technology has come in from some flak from the player community recently regarding its *hands off* approach to player-licensee disputes, and this is being addressed by the company through its major sixteen site “middle man” group Elite Club Management, currently operating a wide range of services from Curacao but about to move to a new complex in Singapore.

Elite Club is now tasked with dealing with player complaints at its 16 licensees, and the director of sales anticipates that through Elite’s immediate involvement and close communication with Chartwell disputes will be dealt with fast and fairly.

“No player will be disadvantaged in the unlikely event of any licensee going under,” he said.Well, that attitude is a major improvement since I spoke with them last. I will be following up on this in the next couple of weeks.

I had the pleasure in meeting “Caruso“, one of the more outspoken members of Casinomeister’s forum. We had met before last year at the ICE, but only briefly. This year we had a chance to talk for a while about a number of things.

He was just finished with speaking to both Playtech and Gambling Federation – two casino entities that have had their share of problems. He did a nice write-up which he posted in our forum here. Again, I was impressed on how this industry has gotten a number of players involved with trying to make things right. It’s not just a money churning entity, it’s an entertainment industry that can never forget its responsibility to the player community. “Caruso” is also a nice chap.

It was about time for me to head out – I had plans that evening to hook up with the iNetBet guys. Little did I know that I was to end up in a girly bar at the end of the evening. What’s up with that? Find out after this….

to be continued…

I like dem boobies… We went to the Strictly Hush restaurant in Mayfair. I almost didn’t find the street since it was barely on the map. It’s actually a tunneled alleyway which slips into an ancient courtyard. Another reason to love London. There are some really trippy old places to check out.

I was met by the operators of iNetbet, which is probably one of the best run RTG casinos on the planet (scroll back up to check out their exclusive offer just for you my dear reader). The restaurant is quite exclusive and it seemed a bit uppity at first. They didn’t have much to choose from in the beer department. Just some light Italian beer. But we had a drink and sat down to eat, and they told me the restaurant is owned by Roger Moore’s son. The problem with these places is that the food never seems to meet one’s expectations, but I was wrong here. The food was absolutely splendid, and the service top-notch. It was a very nice eating experience.

From there, we decided to go have drinks elsewhere. It was suggested that we go to “where all the RTG guys were hanging out”. This I thought would be interesting, little did I know they were jivin’ me.

We arrived at the Windmill International, and we checked our coats and went upstairs to the bar. Swarming around the bar were about twenty knock ’em dead young ladies – some hanging on the arms of middle aged men, or making eye contact with me. And down below us was a lounge area and a stage where some girlies were shakin’ their booty. Oh jeese, troublesville I thought.

A beer appeared – a Heineken – and a young brunette sided up against me, “What’s your name? Where are you from? What are you doing later tonight?” I thought – oh, pu-lease be real. I’m really not into this at all. But I tried to oblige her – I was polite and gave her the information she was asking for. What these girls are trying to do is to sucker you in to buying a lap dance that you can get for free at home. So I told her up-front the truth. I’m here for the beer, and I don’t need you near. But I was cool about it.

It was a trip watching some of the other guys in there playing into the fantasy. I guess it’s harmless, and for some of these older guys I’m sure it’s somewhat of an ego boost. But I sure felt sorry for these girls, having to put up with these guys just so they can pay the rent.

No sign of any RTG guys by the way – except for my hosts.

The following day I found myself having breakfast in Harrods drinking coffee and eating pastries with a representative of Fortune Lounge. The Fortune Lounge group of casinos were the recipients of Casinomeister’s 2005 Fall From Grace award for the recent spam issue. We went over my posted statements carefully – he had a copy of them at hand, and we came to the conclusion that we agree to disagree. We agree that they are one of the best and most solid casino groups around, but where we disagree is at the US CAN SPAM act. The FL group feels that this is a legitimate guideline to use to send out their mailers; I feel that it is only a license to send unsolicited bulk email.

The meeting was cordial and productive, but I still don’t plan to list them back at Casinomeister anytime soon – not until they reconsider their marketing techniques and their philosophy on the Can Spam Act. Casinomeister subscribes to SpamHaus’ viewpoint on advertising via email, and I won’t change my position.

From there I made it to the Partnerlogic offices. Once more, I met with the people behind the scenes at Intercasino and VIP Casino. I have recently been made the official mediator for these casinos and all of their brands, and so far so good I can gladly say. If whatever problem a player may have, and their support and management can’t resolve the issue – then it comes to me. It’s been pretty quiet so far.

I caught a matinee that afternoon. Now most people know that when I travel to London, it’s the movies that are way on top of the agenda for me. English language films suck in Germany because they are all dubbed. This is a reason (in my humble opinion) why the few Germans who are able to speak English speak it so terribly. They rarely hear the language. This goes for the French too (they dub all of their films as well), and there are very few French people who can speak without a heavy accent. Now head to the Netherlands, or Sweden, or any other country that keeps film and English television programming in the original language (it’s subtitled) and you will hear these people speak fluently, many times without an accent at all. Oh, I digress – but I think I made my point. Don’t be so damn lazy by overdubbing the voices.

I saw “Jarhead” which was a bit off base for me. Jarhead is about a platoon of Marines that are sent to the first gulf war. Some of it was pretty much how it was, but quite a bit didn’t ring true for me. Many of you probably know I spent nearly six months in the desert during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, and about eleven years in the US Army. And I can say for a fact that the leadership in any combat unit – whether it’s Marines, US Paratroopers, mechanics, or cooks, is a big part of your life – you’re either being lead, or you’re leading – and in most instances you are doing both. In this film, there was no leadership – no troop formations, no daily troop briefings, really nothing. And I know for a fact these sorts of things are something that happens every day. I was a squad leader, and I had squad meetings twice a day – once early in the morning – once at night. And in the months that I spent in the desert, we had only two days off – Christmas and New Year’s day. Every day spent in the desert we worked our asses off. I was in the combat engineers, and our main mission was to breach the Iraqi minefields. We spent weeks rehearsing on how to do this, and after the ground offensive – we spent about four months cleaning up the mess and collecting all of the Iraqi munitions. We had no time off until we were ready to redeploy back to Germany. It was then (our redeployment) that we were able to really party. After six months in a desert with no beer and no women, the GI bars in Germany became a bit chaotic. Man, another digression.

That evening I – and a number of very cool webmasters and personalities in the online gaming world met with Ed Ware, Patrick Harrison, and Lee Simmonds from 32Red Casino at Quaglinos’ Restaurant on Bury street. It’s a brightly lit modern English restaurant which serves modern English food. Some of the people joining us were Ted Loh, the webmasters for the Japanese portal Online Casino Fan, Online Casino Reviewer, onlinecasinouk.com, and forum member Vinylweatherman. The service was slow as hell, but it gave me the chance to find out that Ed Ware and I share many commonalties music-wise. I had no idea he was a big Joe Strummer fan (the Clash), and really into the new wave punk scene when it was happening. Some of my best “rock and roll” memories come from DEVO’s performances in Santa Cruz 1979, 1980, Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces tour and a myriad of other blurry memories. It was nice to finally talk to someone who could relate.

The highlight of the evening was watching two incredibly inebriated guests being assisted up the stairs (no, they weren’t from our party). One guy had food – looked like pudding – smeared on the front of his shirt. There was no way he was walking up the stairs without assistance. The waiters were most helpful – I felt sorry for the cabbie who would be the unfortunate one to give them a ride back to wherever they came from. I wondered how in the hell two guys could get so wasted, but I figured they were victims of having to wait an excruciating long time for their meals; it was the restaurant’s doing y’know.

The following day was my last day in London. I didn’t feel the need to go back to Earl’s Court – the location of the ICE, since I had about enough information that I needed. There are no casino operators to convince on how to run their operations, since most operators are doing what they feel is necessary to run their businesses anyway. This industry has matured, and casino operators – the ones who have survived so far – are set in their ways, for better or for worse. Sure, there are some newbie operators that I try to give guidance – I hope they listen carefully to what I have to say.

I met with Micki from Trident Lounge, Brian Cullingworth and Ted Loh at Memories of China on Kensington High street. Now I’ve eaten a lot of Chinese food in my day. I grew up within 45 minutes of San Francisco’s China Town. I had mastered the use of chopsticks at the age of three. I know good Chinese food when I eat it. This was probably the best I’ve eaten. They had these crispy sesame seed crunchy things for starters which are to die for. The food was fantastic, the service good, and the company very enjoyable. In fact, Sir David Frost was sitting adjacent from us – finished his meal and left.

By the time I left, walking was barely an option.

Micki and I crossed the street to the Shehrezade, a Persian restaurant that had a very nice bar. We sat down and Micki recorded an audio interview with me – which unfortunately didn’t record. So we did this over the phone once I returned (last week), and it’s a very interesting one (it’s about me of course) since it goes behind the scenes of Casinomeister – what makes it tick – what makes me tick. Trident Lounge should have this up on their site or announced in their newsletter in the near future. You can subscribe to their newsletter, or better yet – just join one of their casinos – Winner of Best Casino Group award for 2005 King Neptunes Casino, Trident Lounge, Vegas USA, Trident Poker.

That evening was the grand finale for me. I went back to my dingy St. Giles hotel room, changed, and then headed to Leicester Square to catch “King Kong” at the Odeon. What a magnificent movie! When I was about 12, I was a special effects, Ray Harryhausen, Willis H. O’Brien, freak. I could only imagine a movie like this back then – every kid like me back then could only dream for this. And here it is, our wishes came true. If you haven’t seen this film yet, please don’t wait for it to come out on DVD – this one deserves the “big screen” treatment. You’ll know what I mean when you see the Brontosaurus stampede scene.

Suddenly my time was up – had to check out of the hotel and the next thing I knew, I was back in Paddington station looking for the Heathrow express train. The trip was way too short. I didn’t meet half of the people I wanted to meet; didn’t see half the films I wanted to see. That’s the shame about these functions – everyone is so damn busy.

And coming home. I barely had a chance to reflect on the trip since I have a ton of emails to wade through, PABs to bitch about, and lots of website updates to contend with. I was happy to hear that I was responsible for spreading the joy in London. Since I gave Tim Whyles a big smack on the lips, just about every affiliate he meets does the same thing. I guess I’ve started a tradition.

And one thing is for sure, I like this job. Thanks for making this work for me. It’s because of you, my dear reader, that I do these things.

9 February 2006 – Issue #263

Dear Reader,

It’s snowing like hell outside. It’s early evening for me, and it’s pretty dark. I’m glad I’m in front of a computer screen instead of being on the outside – in the cold.

Actually, I wished myself here. I remember years ago when I was a US Army private. It was just below freezing, but instead of snow, an icy sleet was pouring out of a Ft. Bragg sky. I was in the middle of the woods, standing by a bush, pulling my shift of perimeter guard. It was probably about 4am, and I just stood there, and stood there, and stood there, letting the sleet pour over me. There was nothing I could do about it, but deal with it in my head. I wished for the future, to be warm and dry. And to be able to look out a window and say “Damn, that sucked.”

So here I am.

Comfortably yours,

Bryan

CASINO MANAGEMENT 101 In light of some of the reoccurring problems that players keep sending to me via “Pitch a Bitch”, I’ve chosen to dedicate this part of the newsletter to “Casino Management 101”. This is in anticipation that a manager or two might not only read this, but heed to its principles.

Dealing with Players Who Use Bonuses

If you offer a player a bonus, and this player meets the wagering requirements – pay her (or him). Please understand, you are not being cheated if a player plays the bonus to the last cent; you are providing that player a unique service – the ability to gamble online. This is your function as a casino, and your mantra should be “Pay the player. Pay the player. Pay the player…” Repeat ad nauseum.

Providing gambling activities online may be your function, but with a bit of creativity and ingenuity you can garner loyalty from this player to keep him or her coming back. The house always wins, and if you are going to survive in this highly competitive industry, you need to see this “win” as a long term goal. Keep your players happy, whether you like their style of play or not, and you will receive your just rewards: respect and loyalty.

What not to do.

Don’t lie to the player. Don’t let the player play out a bonus, and then deny the player his winnings when he requests it. To tell a player the following is the wrong approach:

It has been noted that you have not taken part in promotions offered by xyz Casino and its affiliate casino’s in the true spirit as intended. From your pattern of play at xyz Casino and other affiliated casino’s, it has been noticed that you only generate the sub minimum wager required in order to be entitled to cash out after receiving the bonus.

On at least one other affiliated casino, you again wagered the sub minimum required in order to be allowed to cash out after receiving the bonus and never returned to this casino to play further. When we plan our promotions, the aim is to reward loyal and regular depositing players with FREE bonuses. Unfortunately, your pattern of play across our affiliated casinos has not shown this intention of becoming a loyal and regular depositing player.

As a result, as per our terms and conditions, your initial deposit has been returned to you and all bonuses and winnings have been declared void.This is a no go. This gives the casino license to pay whom they want to pay. And to not pay a person who has met the wagering requirements is flat out wrong. I understand and sympathize with casinos which are hammered by bonus players, but if the casino invited them in by offering the bonus then whose fault is that? Casinos who feel victimized need to either review their bonus structure or in the method how these bonuses are handed out.

This email should read as follows:

….Unfortunately, your pattern of play across our affiliated casinos has not shown this intention of becoming a loyal and regular depositing player.

As a result, as per our terms and conditions, your winnings will be honored, but you will not be given further bonuses unless you can convince us that you will become a loyal player.Simple as that. The casino may take a financial hit now and then – but that’s just the way it is. Get used to it. Trust is what it’s all in this industry, and if players can’t trust you, neither can I.

HELP SEND A TEENAGER TO IRELAND

One of our forum members (Gaputernut), is trying to raise money to pay for her daughter’s tuition to go to the UK and Ireland next summer. Instead of plunking down this week’s casino allocation (you guys are on a budget, aren’t you?), how about contributing to this girl’s tuition instead? This is the deal:

From Gaputernut:

My daughter (15 yrs old) has been accepted to go to UK and Ireland next summer for a People to People ambassador program, (for more info go to http://www.studentambassadors.org/).

She was nominated by her teachers, and was accepted after an interview process and references from other teachers, she had to prove she would be a good ambassador. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for her, but the Tuition and costs are high, so we have put together a website to help raise money.

If you have a business and would like to have a link on another site, we are selling link space. Each block (75×50) is $5.00, for each block you buy we will post your banner. For example: if you would like a 150×150 banner posted, donate $30.00 and we will put your banner and link on the site. We also have an updates page where we will put a link to your site in the update.

We have already gotten a donation, so you can see an example at http://www.ukandirelanddream.com/

If you do not have a website but still want to donate, please do…we will post your name.

Once you have made the donation please forward us the email you receive from paypal (or a confirmation number) and your banner and link and we will have it posted within 2 days.

We have to fill all the squares to meet the tuition, we have all the details and updates on the web site.

http://www.ukandirelanddream.com/

They even had a press release posted here: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?id=13692

So c’mon and help the kid out! I did.

GLOBAL PLAYER BLACKJACK TOURNEYS

Have you checked out Global Player’s Blackjack tournaments?? If you’re a BJ player – perhaps you need to join. From the casino:

Discover the World of Blackjack Tournaments

For a casino, Tournaments are a good method of promotion. These events should have attractive payouts in order to entice players into the casino.

Firstly, let’s make this clear: We are not talking about the Blackjack “Tournaments” whereby you have ridiculous wagering requirements – on the contrary, Global-Player offers you real multi-player elimination-style Blackjack Tournaments, similar to those offered in land-based casinos or the World Series of Blackjack.

You pay a Tournament entry fee of $10 to $50 and your main goal is to beat the other players seated at your table, to qualify for the next round. Meanwhile, other multiple tables are running concurrently to yours.

Why should you play in such an event you ask?

The answer is easy: It is much more fun, because you compete against other players and not against the casino. You can even talk to the other players in “chat” as well as the Tournament Support Staff who will supply you with the latest information and offer their assistance. Furthermore, all entry funds are paid out to the Finalists, plus there are bonus prizes on top of that. Meet this challenge and join the GPC Blackjack Tournament community – you are guaranteed to enjoy it!

Global-Player, on line since 1999, also offers Sit & Go Blackjack Tournaments available 24/7 and weekly Video Poker Tournaments with 100%+ payouts. A list of GPC promotions for this month can be found on the events calendar.

Your choice ? so choose the one you can trust!

CASINOMEISTER TOURNEY AT 32RED POKER!!

32Red Poker is sponsoring a tourney this Saturday! This is for Casinomeister Forum members only!

Start Time: Sat 11th February, 10pm GMT

Name: ‘Meister Freeroll

$320 in the pot

Winner – 50%
2nd – 25%
3rd – 15%
4th – 10%
5th – 5%

This tournament is for Casinomeister Forum members only. You must be a member of this forum in order to participate. More information here.

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And Now For The Humor

Punishment

3 friends – Pepe, Jose and Juan were riding in a car when it was suddenly totaled in a freak accident

The 3 soon found themselves facing St. Peter.

St. Peter: Welcome to the Pearly Gates, Before I let you in, there is a rule here that you will be given a partner. If you were a good on earth, then expect your partner to be beautiful as a reward. And if you were bad, then you know what to expect as punishment.

Pepe was first called by St. Peter and he was given a not so good looking woman.

Jose and Juan broke out in laughter.

Jose was next called and he was given a female dog as a partner.

Pepe and Juan were rolling on the ground laughing.

Finally it was Juan’s turn and he was given Marilyn Monroe.

Pepe and Jose were dumbstruck. They went to St, Peter and complained that how come they got ugly partners and Juan, who was the worst of them is getting the beauty

St. Peter replied: Shhh.. Its Marilyn who is being punished!

ha ha ha

17 February 2006

Dear Reader,

Yeah! Friday! Hope your day is as good as mine!

Happily yours,

Bryan

CASINO MANAGEMENT 101

In light of some of the reoccurring problems that players keep sending to me via “Pitch a Bitch”, I’ve chosen to dedicate this part of the newsletter to “Casino Management 101”. This is in anticipation that a manager or two might not only read this, but heed to its principles.

Making mistakes

There is one thing that we all have in common – we make mistakes. No matter how sharp or wise we are, no matter how foresighted we can be, we have the ability to screw up. It’s bound to happen, and when it does – just get over it.

Get over it, you say? Yeah, you need to lighten up and learn to laugh about your mistakes. So you screwed up and forgot to disallow Black Jack from a lucrative bonus causing a 100k hit at your casino. Accept it and turn it into a positive. From Richard Carlson’s best seller “Don’t Worry, Make Money”:

“A decision to make light of your mistakes, to remain lighthearted, doesn’t mean you don’t care or that you’re not concerned with making an error. It simply means that you refuse to compound a problem by making a bigger deal out of something than is absolutely necessary. It means that you understand the value of keeping your perspective and sense of humor even in the face of adversity.”

In every mistake there is potential for growth. Inherent in every problem there is a solution. When you take the process too seriously, however, you interfere with your ability to see the answers.

When we screw up royal, our primal instinct is to deny everything and make counter-accusations. But that’s not the way to go in our situation – the online casino situation – our community. Yes, it’s a community – and you are part of it. In fact, you are an integral part of it. I couldn’t care less how many licenses from Gibraltar you have, or if you have a royal seal of approval from her Majesty the Queen of England; this industry revolves around trust. If players don’t trust you, you have nothing. If you make a mistake – be honest and admit it.

And as soon as you admit making a mistake – be willing to apologize. The act of apologizing makes us human. We bond with others and increase their trust in us as well by simply acknowledging our humaness and saying “I’m sorry”. Here is an example from our forum this week:

Why a check only?

I have just been told by Roxy Palace that they cannot refund other than the original deposit to my Neteller, and the only other option seems to be a check. The website states that it should be possible to refund winnings to Neteller too. I have never before come across this with an MG casino, and would most certainly not have expected this from Roxy Palace!! …

And this was the response:

Thank you for the posts in this forum. It appears that there was an administrative error which caused the players payment to be split between check and Neteller. This error was not due to a fund related issue at Neteller (as suggested in a post) but rather a pure admin error. The check has been cancelled and the balance due has been refunded to Neteller. We are currently investigating the promotional mailers point that was raised. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for the post.

So, how simple was that? There was no groveling on the casino’s part; just a simple admittance and an apology. This prompted the next posting:

Ahhh, faith in Roxy restored, thank God. And a casino actually willing to admit than an error was made rather than lie through their teeth. How refreshing!!WHAT NOT TO DO:

Casino managers: don’t act upon instinct and “deny everything and make counter-accusations.” This is the core for many failures in this business. There have been many instances where a manager lies (stretching the truth, providing disinformation, verbalizing a terminological inexactitude, whatever) They lie about making mistakes, or they blame it on others, funky software, banker’s holidays, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, etc., – I’ve heard it all. I’m not going to indulge you with examples. But it has happened often, and mostly in very public ways. Never ever ever underestimate the intellegence or sleuthing capabilities of Joe the player. It’s not worth getting caught in a big fat public fib. It’s embarrassing, and the cost is extremely high – something most casinos can’t afford to lose: the trust of a player. Trust is something money can’t buy.

LAST WEEK’S LESSON

Last week I discussed how to handle bonus players, and I gave an example of an actual email that has been sent to players in the past. The casino felt the player didn’t play in “the spirit” of the promotion, and the player’s winnings were confiscated. This prompted the operators of Lasseters Casino to respond (Please note – my highlights):

Hi Bryan,

I just read your newsletter and can’t get over what I saw. I’m referring to the unnamed casino’s stance on promotional abuse. First of all, I can’t believe that they are legally allowed to do what they have done, let alone their moral obligation.

Just to fill you in on the procedures here at our casino, we actually need to have our promotions and their associated terms and conditions approved by our licensing government before we can conduct them. If we were to apply a condition stating that all winnings would be void if the player outsmarts us, our auditors would laugh in our face.If we tried to pull such a stunt, we’d lose our license to operate

(Not that we’d consider it in the first place). Of course we are aware that certain players will attempt to profit from our promotions and I believe it is our responsibility to consider this when establishing the terms of the promotion.

We need to find a balance with our terms and conditions that will protect our profitability and still have appeal to our patrons. That’s one of the challenges of casino marketing.

As you suggested (almost word for word from our promotion terms and conditions page) if a player is deemed to be abusing our generosity, we restrict them from receiving further bonuses.The idea of voiding their winnings is beyond my comprehension.

I guess this is a prime example of why tighter regulation benefits the consumer. If only all casinos had the same audit processes we do.
I think this should be a dose of “food for thought.” Compare this statement to the hokey responses some casinos give to void winnings. This is a prime example of how an operation should be conducting itself. I expect this from any casino listed at Casinomeister – and I hope that many casinos will look at this, think about it, and follow this example.

ATTENTION BRITS!!! (and residents of the UK and Ireland)

Blimey!! Put down your Tea and Crumpets and check out this brilliant Intercasino UK new player bonus! For a limited time, they will add an additional ?10 to your initial bonus amount. This is good only until 28 February!

Terms and Conditions are as follows:

Deposit between ?25 and ?50 in a single transaction and they will match it 100% to a maximum of ?50. AND they’ll give you an extra ?10. The additional ?10 will be credited into your account 2 days after your initial deposit.

This is only open to new account holders and not existing players.

Baccarat and Craps do not count towards your minimum wagering requirement.
Have a smashing good time!!

Only residents of the UK and Ireland are eligible to receive the free match bonus.

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And now for the humor……

The Devil

People were in their pews talking at church. Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the front entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from evil the incarnate.

Soon everyone had exited the church except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew without moving, seeming oblivious to the fact that God’s ultimate enemy was in his presence. So Satan walked up to the old man and said, “Don’t you know who I am?”

The man replied, “Yep, sure do.”

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” Satan asked.

“Nope, sure ain’t.” said the man.

“Don’t you realize I can kill with a word?” asked Satan.

“Don’t doubt it for a minute,” returned the old man, in an even tone.

“Did you know that I could cause you profound, horrifying, agony for all eternity?” persisted Satan.

“Yep,” was the calm reply.

“And you’re still not afraid?” asked Satan.

“Nope,” said the old man.

More than a little perturbed, Satan asked, “Well, why aren’t you afraid of me?”

The man calmly replied, “Been married to your sister for 44 years.”

ha ha ha

PLAYTECH LISTING CONFIRMED

Rumours are true – Israeli owned firm plans IPO in London

The rumoured London listing of turnkey provider Playtech was confirmed this (Friday) morning by a company spokesman, who said that his company hoped the shares would be placed with institutional investors by the end of March.

The spokesman confirmed that Playtech plans to raise GBP 175 million in a London stock market flotation that will value it around GBP 550 million.

The firm, majority-owned by Israeli internet-gaming entrepreneur Teddy Sagi, counts the Tote, Bet365 and BetFred among its clients and is the latest in a series of online gambling firms to opt for a London listing. Yesterday, Excapa Software, which also makes online poker software, floated on London’s junior AIM market and saw its shares rise 5 percent in early trade.

Cyprus-registered Playtech said in a statement it made sales of GBP 27.4 million and a post-tax profit of GBP 20.5 million for the financial year to December 31, 2005.

Collins Stewart has been appointed as sole bookrunner, nominated advisor and joint broker. Seymour Pierce is joint broker.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.
More news here.

23 February 2006

CASINOMEISTER NEWS UPDATE

Dear Reader,

I read something funny the other day. Well, it wasn’t too funny – but…well, it was an article about people who literally died laughing. It seems that Chrysippus a Greek philosopher from the 3rd century died laughing to death after seeing a donkey eating prunes. What a way to go.

Smilingly yours,

Bryan

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And now for the humor……

Before It Starts
A man comes home from an exhausting day at work, plops down on the couch in front of the television, and tells his wife, “Get me a beer before it starts.”

The wife sighs and gets him a beer.

Fifteen minutes later, he says, “Get me another beer before it starts.”

She looks cross, but fetches another beer and slams it down next to him.

He finishes that beer and a few minutes later says, “Quick, get me another beer, it’s going to start any minute.”

The wife is furious. She yells at him “Is that all you’re going to do tonight? Drink beer and sit in front of that TV? You’re nothing but a lazy, drunken, fat slob, and furthermore . . .”

The man sighs and says, “It’s started . . “

ha ha ha

2 March 2006 – Issue #266

Dear Reader,

If I seem a bit slower this week than the usual slow, it’s because I was home alone with my boy for most of the week. My wife and little girl took off for a few days to go visit family, and it was just us guys hanging around the house. So instead of a lot of Casinomeister stuff to deal with, I helped build snowmen, walked through spooky haunted forests, and fought vampire aliens. It’s been a pretty tough week.

Adventurously yours,

Bryan

HA HA HA – WE SO FUNNY!

They did it again – Golden palace sent a streaker to the 2006 Winter Olympics <yawn>. How much more of this crap do they want us to take? C’mon already! This is like being forced to listen to Richard Nixon jokes 24/7. It ain’t funny – enough is enough.

But what is disturbing to me is they did this in spite of their licensing jurisdiction’s condemnation of the 2004 Summer Olympic incident.

From the Kahnawake Gaming Commission’s news section:
http://www.kahnawake.com/gamingcommission/

KGC Investigates Golden Palace

In the past two weeks, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) has received numerous complaints concerning an incident at the Olympic Games in Athens involving a person who ‘streaked’ an event displaying the name of one of the KGC’s permit holders: Golden Palace.

The KGC did not approve or condone the incident in question and does not approve or condone this type of ‘marketing’ by its permit holders.

After investigating the Athens incident and meeting with representatives of Golden Palace, the KGC has directed that:

1. Golden Palace will not use, promote, encourage or fund this type of ‘marketing’ ever again, and

2. Given the seriousness of the incident and the negative effect it has had on the community’s reputation, Golden Palace will make a substantial donation to Kahnawake organizations to be identified by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.

The KGC is satisfied with Golden Palace’s cooperation throughout and considers the matter closed.

For further information, contact the Kahnawake Gaming Commission at 450-635-1076.

Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake 3 September, 2004

How embarrassing for the Kahnawake Gaming Commission – I guess Golden Palace couldn’t care less of what their licensing jurisdiction thinks. Doesn’t say much for Golden Palace or the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. I’ve asked the Kahnawake Gaming commission if they are planning to address this. But apparently they don’t feel the need to answer my emails. What a shame.

You can check out the mumblings about this in our forum here: https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/online-casinos/11311-more-golden-palace-stoopid.html

OOPS! DID I FORGET SOMETHING FROM LAST WEEK?

Yep, sho ‘nuf, I forgot to tell you that the King Neptunes Casino published an exclusive interview of yours truly here:
http://www.kingneptunescasino.com/newsletter/feb2006/
You can either listen to the audio or read the transcripts – but I discus just about everything that concerns Casinomeister – it’s origins, my background, choice experiences. So take a few minutes out of your busy day and check me out.

HELP SEND A TEENAGER TO IRELAND

From Gaputernut:

My daughter (15 yrs old) has been accepted to go to UK and Ireland next summer for a People to People ambassador program, (for more info go to http://www.studentambassadors.org/).

We have already gotten a donation, so you can see an example at http://www.ukandirelanddream.com/

If you do not have a website but still want to donate, please do…we will post your name.

Once you have made the donation please forward us the email you receive from paypal (or a confirmation number) and your banner and link and we will have it posted within 2 days.

We have to fill all the squares to meet the tuition, we have all the details and updates on the web site.

http://www.ukandirelanddream.com/

They even had a press release posted here: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?id=13692

So c’mon and help the kid out! I did.

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Now For The Humor….

From the archives.

HOW TO SING THE BLUES
1. Most blues begin “woke up this morning.”

2. “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the blues, unless
you stick something nasty in the next line. Like:

“I got a good woman — with the meanest dog in town.”

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat
it. Then find something that rhymes. Like:

Got a good woman
with the meanest dog in town.
He got teeth like Margaret Thatcher
and he weighs `bout 500 pounds.

4. The blues are not about limitless choice.

5. Blues cars are Chevies and Cadillacs. Other acceptable
blues transportation is Greyhound bus or a southbound train.
Walkin’ plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does
fixin’ to die.

6. Teenagers can’t sing the blues. Adults sing the blues. Blues
adulthood means old enough to get the electric chair if you
shoot a man in Memphis.

7. You can have the blues in New York City, but not in
Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont or North Dakota are
just a depression. Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City are still
the best places to have the blues.

8. The following colors do not belong in the blues:
a. Violet
b. Beige
c. Mauve

9. You can’t have the blues in an office or a shopping mall.

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. The highway
b. The jailhouse
c. The empty bed

Bad places:
a. Ashrams
b. Gallery openings
c. Weekend in the Hamptons

11. No one will believe it’s the blues if you wear a suit,
unless you happen to be an old black man.

12. Do you have the right to sing the blues? Yes, if:
a. Your first name is a southern state–like Georgia
b. You’re blind
c. You shot a man in Memphis.
d. You can’t be satisfied.

No, if:
a. You were once blind but now can see.
b. You’re deaf
c. You have a trust fund.

13. Neither Julio Iglesias nor Barbara Streisand can sing the
blues.

14. If you ask for water and baby gives you gasoline, it’s the
blues.

Other blues beverages are:
a. Wine
b. Irish whiskey
c. Muddy water

Blues beverages are NOT:
a. Any mixed drink
b. Any wine kosher for Passover
c. Fruit smoothies (all flavors)

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s
blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a blues
way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, or being
denied treatment in an emergency room.

It is not a blues death, if you die during a liposuction
treatment.

ha ha ha

9 March 2006 – Issue #267

Dear Reader,

Another glorious Thursday – closer to Friday with each and every minute. And I’m looking forward to the weekend so we can start a new week, and do it all over again. Ain’t life grand?

Anticipatingly yours,

Bryan

FIGHTING H.R. 4777, THE INTERNET GAMBLING PROHIBITION ACT

It doesn’t matter what role you play in this industry: player, affiliate, casino manager, software provider. This bill – if passed – will affect us all. Even though you may reside outside the US (like me), this could have grave consequences for you as well. Many large casino groups rely on the US player, and a ban on online gaming from the US would mean many of these companies would fold, many people would lose their jobs, some of your favorite sites (not this one – have no fear) would dry up and whither away. In short, everything would suck.

Why? Because a bunch of Bible thumpers feel that you are not able to do the due diligence it takes to protect you or your family from online gambling. These politicians want to ban online gambling in the States – where all but one state (Hawaii) has one or more forms of legalized, State controlled gambling. Last December’s edition of IGWB Magazine (International Gambling and Wagering Business) gave a breakdown of what is allowed in the US by state:

Charitable Bingo – 47 states
Charitable Games – 40 states
Card Rooms – 13 states
Casinos and Gaming – 15 states
Indian Casinos – 24 states
Sports Betting – 4 states

This doesn’t include lotteries which are allowed in 41 states

By the way, for parimutuel wagering – telephone wagering is allowed in CA, Conn, Idaho, KY, LA, NV, NH, NJ, NY, ND, OR, Penn.,VA and WY.

But what’s up with the Internet? Some misguided and ill-informed politicians want to ban online gambling. Why? Probably because they aren’t imaginative enough to figure out how to regulate and tax it. It’s just easier to ban it.

Well, it’s time that Americans get busy and protect what they cherish the most – their freedom. Here are some useful links to help you get started:

Here is the bill, so you can read what it says and try to understand it:
h4777ih.txt.pdf

The bill has been passed on to the Judiciary Committee for review
http://clerk.house.gov/committee/index.html?comcode=HJU00
Since this is one of the most important stages of the passage of a bill – it’s being debated – you should contact these members of Congress. On the right is a link “Write Your Representative” which is pretty easy to do.

Here is a link to monitor the Roll Call Votes on the bill
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/index.asp

Then there is an article at Wall Street Journal
Web-Gambling Opponents Restore Old Fight
Which also contains a poll that shows the readers are about 80% against any banning bill being passed:
Reader’s Poll

And then there is a link from “Poker Players Alliance” and the text is primarily poker focused, but you can edit this at will: fill out the address, choose “email” or “snail mail” and send it – it automatically goes to your rep. Pretty nifty.
http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/issues/alert/?alertid=8522976

Finally, there is a thread in our forum that is currently bringing together information on this situation: click here

So there you have it. I’ve given you just about everything you need to get started and do your civic duty. So what are you waiting for? Get busy – it’ll probably take about 10 minutes of your time.

SILENCE FROM THE KAHNAWAKE GAMING COMMISSION

Am I being stonewalled by the KGC? I’ve sent several emails (very polite ones mind you) to the administrator at the KGC asking them how they were planning to address the Golden Palace streaking incident at the Winter Olympics. Either the Gaming Commission is on Winter break, or they just don’t feel my emails are important enough to get back to. Well, I’ll keep trying. and I’ll let you know next week if they bother to answer.

FUTUREBET BACK IN THE NOT RECOMMENDED SECTION

You can read about it here.

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Now For The Humor….

A man was speeding down the highway, feeling secure in a gaggle of cars all traveling at the same speed. However, as they passed a speed trap, he got nailed with an infrared speed detector and was pulled over.

The officer handed him the citation, received his signature and was about to walk away when the man asked, “Officer, I know I was speeding, but I don’t think it’s fair – there were plenty of other cars around me who were going just as fast, so why did I get the ticket?”

“Ever go fishing?” the policeman suddenly asked the man.

“Ummm, yeah…” the startled man replied.

The officer grinned and added, “Ever catch all the fish?”

ha ha ha

16 March 2006 – Issue #268

Dear Reader,

It’s hard to believe that Spring is within a few days’ grasp, and yet it’s minus 4 degrees outside. C’mon sun! Do your thing!

Wishingly yours,

Bryan

CASINOMEISTER’S FORUM

This week I spent a hell of a lot of time working with some of the scripting in Casinomeister’s forum, mainly on the Casino Representative page. What a pain in the ass! But lo and behold, it seems to be functioning fine.
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/showgroups.php

So what’s up with this page? Well, it lists over 80 casino reps – casino managers, affiliate managers, customer service supervisors, CEOs, and casino operators who represent over 250 casinos and poker rooms. They are members of our forum, and their participation makes Casinomeister’s forum one of the most productive forums in the online casino industry. There is some good stuff happening there, and it’s only going to get better.

CALLING ALL CASINO OPERATORS!

Do you have a representative in our forum? If not, why not? This is your opportunity to use our forum for public relations fallout prevention, crisis management, question and answer exercises, and to just simply have some good ol’ fashion fun. This is why we do what we do, right? To enjoy ourselves.

Anyway, you should have a representative who monitors the forum activities, and to simply get up to snuff on what’s going on in online casinoland. There is a hell of a lot going on, so join up here:
https://www.casinomeister.comhttps://www.casinomeister.com/forums/login/

Then email me or request to be added to the Casino Representative group, and I’ll get you hooked up. Once you are listed, you (or your rep) will just be a click or two away to solve any player issue that might pop up.

Things to consider:
When players feel like bitching and moaning, Casinomeister’s forum is where they go. Why? Because there are many problem solvers who frequent the place — many players hang out there. In the past six weeks alone, there have been over 400 new signups – many of these are players looking for advice, or looking for a solution for a problem.

It’s a moderated forum. In other words, there are rules that are followed by most everyone, and when members get too emotional or step out of line, they either are corrected or they correct themselves. It’s a pretty cool place to be. It’s not a player vs casino sort of atmosphere. There are many members who like to keep the forum in a “productive” mode.

Most of the active members can chew gum and walk at the same time.
Some of the most intelligent and entertaining people post in our forum. From the US political scene, to gaming odds and statistics, my mind is blown away on a daily basis from reading what some of the well-read people have to say. Casinomeister’s forum is a magnet for brainy people.

So c’mon, what are you waiting for? Gabba gabba hey! Be one of us.

SPRING CLEANING

It’s time to clean out your Private Messages – both the inbox and out boxes. These can be easily downloaded, y’know. So you don’t have to worry about losing everything. Also, if you are a member, you need to update your user profile – email addresses, etc., need to be current.

FORUM THREAD OF THE WEEK

If you’re not following the discussion in our forum concerning the H.R. Bill 4777, you’re wrong. The thread contains up to date info on this bill – and this bill is designed to screw you over. Be informed! Take action! Check it out here

THE KAHNAWAKE GAMING COMMISSION ACKNOWLEDGES MY EXISTANCE

Two weeks and four emails later the Kahnawake gaming commission finally acknowledged my question on how they were handling the issue about Golden Palace’s breech of their agreement not to disrupt the Olympics with their stupid juvenile marketing stunts.

So how are they handling this? Well, they told me it would be done internally.

Are we owed an explanation on how they handle Golden Palace’s blatant in-your-face thumbing of the nose response to “Golden Palace will not use, promote, encourage or fund this type of ‘marketing’ ever again”? This sort of response does not say much for the policing efforts of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. I’m really disappointed in how this was dealt with, and I’ve lost a lot of faith in this licensing agency. How do you feel about this? Feel free to let us know here

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And Now For The Humor…..

From the archives:

Three turtles, Joe, Steve, and Poncho, decide to go on a picnic. So, Joe packs the picnic basket with cookies, bottled beer, and sandwiches. The trouble is, the picnic site is, 10 miles away, so the turtles take 10 whole days to get there. By the time they do arrive, everyone’s beat.

Joe takes the stuff out of the basket, one by one. He takes out the beers and says, “Alright, Steve, gimme the bottle opener.”

“I didn’t bring the bottle opener,” Steve says. ‘I thought you packed it.”

Joe gets worried. He turns to Poncho. “Poncho, do you have the bottle opener?”

Naturally, Poncho doesn’t have it, so the turtles are stuck ten miles away from home without beer. Joe & Steve beg Poncho to turn back home and retrieve it, but Poncho flatly refuses, knowing that they’ll eat everything by the time he gets back.

Somehow, after about two hours, the turtles manage to convince Poncho to go, swearing on their great-grand turtles’ graves that they won’t touch the food. So, Poncho sets off down the road, slow and steadily.

Twenty days pass, but no Poncho. Joe and Steve are hungry and puzzled, but a promise is a promise. Another day passes and still no Poncho, but a promise is a promise. After three more days pass without Poncho in sight, Steve starts getting restless.

“I NEED FOOD!” he says with a hint of dementia in his voice.

“NO!” Joe retorts. “We promised.”

Five more days pass and the two are near starvation. Near death, the two turtles weakly lift the lid to get a sandwich. As they open their mouths to eat, Poncho pops out behind a rock, and says, “Just for that, I’m not going!”

ha ha ha

24 March 2006 – Issue #269

Dear Reader,

Today it’s a quick one – but extremely informative at that. Lots to do; busy bees are we.

Succinctly yours,

Bryan

FIGHTING H.R. 4777, THE INTERNET GAMBLING PROHIBITION ACT
……Someone reported a few posts above that there are now 130 co-sponsors to HR4777. Where can we find out who these folks are and how we can email them? Even though they may not be our state Rep, we can still let them know we won’t forget for the next presidential elections and we will also broadcast their record of limiting citizen’s freedom as much as we can. Most of the co-sponsors belong to the party that cherish right to life but then don’t give you much freedom to do something with it. Thoughts?

You can find out who they are by going to thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.04777: and clicking on “Cosponsors”. Copy the reps name you want to contact, do a Google search and “voila” – the reps website with a “contact me” section. Get busy!

Read the thread here.

FUNKIFIED SOFTWARE

Oops!! Software screwed up, so the casino chooses to void all winnings and losses during this period. This seems to be covered in their terms and conditions, but is it the right thing to do? Read about this here

FINALLY! NEW WEBCAST IS UP!!

Hear Vortran and I talk about…Futurebet screwupKahnawake Gaming Commission disappointmentCasino Reps in the ForumVortran007’s Casino Warning

All this and more here

You can now download the webcast as a MP3 file for your iPod or other MP3 player!! Now you can now listen to us at the gym, at the beach, while shopping, or on the train on the way to work. Isn’t life grand?!

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And now for the humor……

A couple were driving to a church to get married. On the way, they got into a car accident and died. When they arrive in heaven, they see St. Peter at the gate. They ask him if he could arrange it so they could marry in heaven.
St. Peter tells them that he’ll do his best to work on it for them.

Three months pass by and the couple hear nothing. They bump into St. Peter and ask him about the marriage.

He says, “I’m still working on it.”

Two years pass by and no marriage.

St. Peter again assures them that he’s working on it.

Finally after twenty long years, St. Peter comes running with a priest and tells the couple it’s time for their wedding.

The couple marry and live happily for a while. But after a few months the couple go and find St. Peter and tell him things are not working out, and that they want to get a divorce.

“Can you arrange it for us?” they ask.

St. Peter replies, “Are you kidding?! It took me twenty years to find a priest up here. How am I gonna find you a lawyer?”

ha ha ha

PLAYTECH, EMPIRE AND OTHERS SUED FOR PATENT INFRINGEMENT

Austrian plaintiff alleges that over-the-Internet gambling system has been misused

Turnkey provider Playtech and three other foreign companies this week faced patent litigation from an Austrian company on what appeared to be a claim involving live-over-the-internet gambling systems, although full details are still emerging.

The Israeli business press reported that the Austrian company Lubar and its CEO, Yaakov Rafaeli of Rishon LeZion, have filed a lawsuit with the Tel Aviv District Court against Playtech Cyprus Ltd. for patent infringement relating to its “….system and method for remote online gambling at actual casinos.”

Lubar has named three other defendants, all foreign companies operating online gambling sites, including Empire Online Ltd., controlled by CEO Noam Lanir.

The claim is unfortunate timing for Playtech, which is currently on the run-up to a London listing believed to be scheduled for the end of this (March) month and its majority shareholder, Israeli entrepeneur Teddy Sagi.

According to papers filed by the claimant, before the development of the Lubar system and method of online gambling at actual casinos, gambling was carried out at virtual gambling sites, with the results calculated by the website’s computers. The claimant says its invention was the first to make possible online gambling at an actual casino, where the operator was a real person, and where the results of the game were determined by where the roulette ball fell.

Although this has yet to confirmed, from this description the patent sounds like a “live over the Internet” videostreaming technology similar to that used by Casino Web Cam and the subject of heated legal clashes in the past.

The claimants allege that they have parallel patents in the US and Australia, that they were applying for patents in European and other countries, and intend to enforce their patent rights worldwide.

No statement of defense from any of the accused companies has yet been filed, and InfoPowa’s request for a comment went unanswered by Playtech.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.
More news here.

30 March 2006 – Issue #270

Dear Reader,

Again, lots going on – so I won’t waste your time with reports on the weather or what book I’ve just finished, or a anecdote about a movie I’ve just seen. No siree Bob, let’s delve into the unabridged Casinomeister’s Newsletter.

Informatively yours,

Bryan

DUE DILIGENCE

The has been a major issue brewing since August 2005 involving a under age gambler and Grand Prive casinos. This is a Microgaming group – nine casinos total – and they are eCOGRA certified. Here is the problem in a nutshell: The player, who resides in Las Vegas, joined each one of these casinos made deposits and occasionally won here and there. She was never asked for her ID, and the fact that she was only 19 was never an issue. But when she made a larger withdrawal, the casino requested her ID. These are required by the agreement that the casino has with eCOGRA. They must ensure that the player is a legitimate person who is lawfully allowed to play. Well, she lives in Nevada, and the gambling age for jurisdiction is 21. So the casino voided her cash-in and returned her deposits. Sounds fair? Well fairness is not the issue here. The issue is a casino’s accountability, responsibility, and their relationship with the online casino industry.

The casino failed to do it’s due diligence. They have all of the power within their means to prevent under age gambling. They relied solely on their terms and conditions, and in these times when underage gambling is such a hot topic – this is unacceptable. Underage gambling is beyond nickels and dimes, it is a behavior that is prompting the Bible thumpers in the US to hop up on their soapboxes and preach about the evils of online gambling. Reliance on the gambler to police his or her activities is a careless and irresponsible attitude to take. There is no excuse to have let this happen.

The casino considered this case closed last August since they turned this over to eCOGRA which understandably ruled against paying this player. There is absolutely no way eCOGRA or any other entity could consider asking the casino to honor a dime of her winnings.

But to the average Joe player, this casino appeared to be selective in who they were paying. It seemed to them that once the player had a big win, the casino found a loophole and decided not to pay. “She’s a teenager – don’t pay her” And this is the furor of the public. In the eyes of most players, casinos are crooks – you have to earn the players’ trust, and this whole scenario fanned these flames of suspicion.

The casino failed us – those who work in this industry – by not making a bold statement to this episode. I was trying to convince them that the only way to face this would be to take this player’s winnings and donate them to either a charity of her choice, or to some other organization – perhaps Gambling Anonymous. This would have nullified the notion that this casino was being selective. It would have cost them 20k (or whatever amount the winnings were). Hopefully it would have made the player feel that her negative experience was transposed into something positive – feeding hungry kids, providing counseling to problem gamblers, giving the homeless a home.

It would have saved a lot of anguish for the casino. And most importantly, it would have demonstrated to everyone that casinos will not profit from catering to under age gamblers. In short, this would have made many positive messages and provided something for the needy.

But in the casino’s short-sightedness, they have chosen not to do this.

I’ve discussed this situation with a number of people, and I am deeply frustrated. I feel that this casino group has let everyone in this industry down by just letting this be and not engaging themselves in this problem. And I question how many more players like this one are out there.

I hope this serves as a wake up call to operators who are not doing their due diligence on protecting their players, their casino, and the online casino industry. Grand Prive Casino group, welcome to the rogues.

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And Now For The Humor….

George Carlin’s New Rules For 2006New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com! There’s a reason you don’t talk to people for 25 years. Because you don’t particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days: mowing my lawn.

New Rule: Don’t eat anything that’s served to you out a window unless you’re a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy’s chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Trout?

>New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards.

New Rule: If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you’re a dope. If you’re a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. If you’re a grown man , they’re pictures of men.

New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here’s how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we’re done.

New Rule: There’s no such thing as flavored water. There’s a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That’s your flavored water.

New Rule: Stop messing with old people. Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that’s square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue. Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.

New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the ass hole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a “decaf grandee half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n’-Low and one NutraSweet,” ooh, you’re a huge ass hole.

New Rule: I’m not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering my PIN number, pressing “Enter,” verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don’t want cash back, and pressing “Enter” again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.

New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn’t make you spiritual. It’s right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to “beef with broccoli.” The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren’t pregnant. You’re not spiritual. You’re just high.

New Rule: Competitive eating isn’t a sport. It’s one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What’s next, competitive farting? Oh wait. They’re already doing that. It’s called “The Howard Stern Show.”

New Rule: I don’t need a bigger mega M&M. If I’m extra hungry for M&Ms, I’ll go nuts and eat two.

New Rule: If you’re going to insist on making movies based on crappy old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what’s playing on the other screens. Let’s remember the reason something was a television show in the first place is that the idea wasn’t good enough to be a movie.

New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it’s for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn’t gift giving, it’s the white people version of looting.

6 April 2006 – Issue #271

Dear Reader,

It’s a late night, and I’m trying to get this out before midnight – my deadline. It’s been a hell of a busy week, so there may be a chance it’s a few minutes late. But regardless, you probably won’t tell the difference.

Always yours,

Bryan

GOTCHA!

Every year April 1st makes its rounds around Casinomeister. One year, the site was sold to Doloplex, last year the site ended up in the hands of some Russian mob guy, and this year – well, for about three hours on Saturday (the 1st) visitors were treated to this:

April Fools – ha ha ha!

The site was redirected to HR4777.com (which has been changed now) and for a number of Casinomeister visitors, it caused a bit of a panic.

I fell for it totally, the ditz that I am. I e-mailed everyone on my list of representatives, called th FBI (both in Northern VA who routed me to Norfolk location). And gave them a piece of my mind this morning! I said my piece on the HR 4777 bill through e-mails today to all of them. You did good. Very, very good. Got my attention and off my tush! (Too funny after the fact) My very first April Fool’s with ya and you got me!And:

This morning I was quite happily reading/adding messages to the Casinomeister forum. Went to lunch, came back, and wham….this…

You are probably aware of this by now from Spearmaster or one of the others, in which case I apologise. However, from a personal point of view I am absolutely livid. I am *not* a US citizen, the gambling bill has not yet been passed by the senate, and even more galling is the fact that I can still access xxxxcasino.com sites and GAMBLE! I can’t access the forum giving me the positives/negatives of gambling, but I can still gamble! Makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

Just another example of the USA trying to be masters of the universe. Morons!!!And

OMG……..I just sent e-mails to my senator, governor etc..OMG tooo funny…well..I hope everyone else does the same ..the bill 4777 needs to be stopped..OMG …too funny…Thank You..I feel much better now knowing Bryan has not been hijacked! Geezes…I even called my service provider……Laffin too hard..gonna beat him…Even though it was a funny ha-ha, it was somewhat of a wake up call. There are some scary people in the US Congress who would probably support an actual ISP block. In our thread in Casinomeister’s forum, a member posted a response from her Congressman concerning her asking him to not support the HR4777 bill. This is what he had to say:

Dear Ms. XXXXX:

Thank you for contacting me in opposition to H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.

Introduced by my colleague, Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, H.R. 4777 would prohibit the placing of bets or wagers over the internet. Gambling is currently illegal in the United States unless regulated by the States. The numerous gambling websites from outside our borders are unlicensed and unregulated and thus violate the laws of all 50 States in the Union. Gambling is an issue for the States to decide and internet gambling has taken away the State’s power to regulate.

I have joined 126 of my colleague’s in the House in co-sponsoring H.R. 4777. Currently, this bill is awaiting action in the House Committee on Judiciary. Although we do not agree on this issue, I appreciate your input and I will certainly remember your concerns as this bill continues to move through the legislative process.

Once again, thank you for getting in touch with me. In the future, do not hesitate to contact me on this or any other issue that is on your mind.

Sincerely,

Jerry Lewis Member of CongressThis is a scary response. The Congressman has not researched this issue and it seems he has merely relied on what he’s been told by others with biased perspectives. These lawmakers need to hear from you – especially if they are representing you on Capital Hill. Get busy people – how to fight this bill is listed here HR4777.com

CASINO AFFILIATE CONVENTION – AMSTERDAM

Yes, I’ll be chillin’ there. And I wish everyone a safe and interesting trip getting there. It should be a great experience – the speaker lineup is great, and there is nothing better than to meet up with operators and webmasters alike. I’ll be covering this in upcoming newsletters, so stay tuned. And if you have the desire to meet up, just send me an email and perhaps we can make it a possibility.

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And Now For The Humor….

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband. Suddenly her husband burst into the kitchen.

“Careful … CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my GOD! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my GOD! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re going to STICK! Careful … CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!”

The wife stared at him. “What the hell is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?”

The husband calmly replied, “I wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving with you in the car.”

ha ha ha

Thanks Grandmaster!

12 April 2006

Casinomeister’s Amsterdam Adventure

Dear Reader,

Yes, I’ve been trippin’ around if you haven’t noticed. And before I get to your emails, or PABs or telepathic signals, bear with me while I communicate some jovial jocularities to you, my dear reader.

So grab yo’self a hot cup o’ java, and read on…

CAC – Amsterdam

Ein, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Funf, Sechs, Sieben, Acht…

There’s something about listening to Kraftwerk and riding on an Inter City Express train in Europe. I was chillin’ listening to my iPOD; “Numbers” popping off in my head while updating a new section at Casinomeister on my laptop. The section isn’t quite finished yet; it has to do with how to spot roguish elements of an online casino. Something that players need to be aware of.

The weather was fresh, mildly chilly; a thin jacket was essential. The scene – Bavaria: rolling farmlands, vineyards and forests breezed by in a blur outside my window while I thought about you my dear reader – yes, you. It’s because of you that I venture to places like the Casino Affiliate Convention in Amsterdam. This is where I am able to collect information first-hand and meet the people who operate online casinos or their marketing personnel. And I have the chance to hang out with fellow webmasters and share ideas and problems. These conferences are the meat and potatoes of running a website like Casinomeister. Meeting face-to-face with people in this industry is really a good thing.

I had a 20 minute stopover in D�sseldorf – a large Northern industrial city – big, flat, and grey. I was grabbing a meat and cheese crêpe when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Lo and behold it was fellow webmasters Peralis and Mito from Reviewed-Casinos.com. Chance meeting them there, but Düsseldorf is their hometown. We exchanged howdy-do’s and we were coincidently scheduled for the next train for Amsterdam. And then along came David Sack from Fortune Affiliates – and then a string of other affiliates and aff managers. They had been hanging around the Reviewed Casino guys for the past few days. How nice. They were already getting a head start on the festivities of the conference. Our train pulled up, and we got on.

I like trains. They are comfortable – it’s relaxing, and virtually stress free. Perhaps this is why I like the Amsterdam conference so well. It’s a mellow way to travel, and mellow I be when I get there.

My Hotel – the Victoria Hotel – is situated right across the street from the main train station and right down the street from the Grand Krasnapolsky where the CAC was being held at.

My first impression of Amsterdam – I was more or less taken aback on how crowded the streets were. It was packed with people, tourists, students, riff raff of all sorts. And this was only Spring! It must be chaotic in the summer months. I prefer to be there in the Spring, and Spring it was.

That first evening was fantastic. I was invited to the Comedy Club Boom Chicago thanks to Partnerlogic. The place was packed, but it was a very nice dinner and improv. Improvisational comedy always blows me away. And even though we were in Amsterdam, the comedy team was American – great choice! From there we headed to some packed bar that was the main opening drinking party for the CAC. The place was wall-to-wall affiliates, affiliate managers, and other weirdos. Waiting in line for drinks sucked, but it was good seeing many old friends and acquaintances again. But as soon as the Tequila shots came out, I knew it was time to catch a cab back to my hotel room. That was a smart thing to do.

Day one of the convention was hyper-busy. And I suddenly realized that these conferences/conventions need more time. Two days is not enough time to get what I need to get done. I had a few objectives – one of which was to meet with the Grand Privè people. They understandably wanted to meet up with me after their “rogue” status was bequeathed upon them last month. This was a very serious issue that some people felt was harsh, but I felt – and still do – that it was the only recourse. But I’ll explain later.

I spent most of the day browsing through the booths, meeting affiliates and affiliate managers. Many old faces, and a number of new ones. In fact, there are a slew of photos on the CAC page here. In fact, let’s play “Spot the Meister”. The first person who can identify me in one of those photos will win $30. Hint – there are actually two photos of me, one you can see my face – one you can’t. Good luck! Answers next week.

Another highlight for the day was meeting up with the Lasseter’s guys. At the end of the conference activities we grabbed a few beers in a Dutch pub way down the street. If you’ve never been to Amsterdam, well you gotta go. Some of the pubs are downright ancient, and this had the flavor of being so. We drank some “white beer” which is a little like the German Weiss Bier – excellent – and we talked about everything from roguish casino operations to Frank Zappa. We left from there and walked to China town. I was getting a little leery seeing a few shops with chickens hanging in the windows with their heads still on. The bird flu crossed my mind. But we chanced upon a cool Thai restaurant that served some of the best Thai food I’ve had for a long time.

And of course, from there we had the obligatory stroll through the funkified red light district – Amsterdam wouldn’t be Amsterdam without this. Looking at these girls as a young guy, I would have thought “hot diggety dog – lookit dat!” But as I age and mature, I look at these girls and think “That could be my daughter” or “Do your parents know where you work?” Sometimes my brain disappoints me..

The following day was just as eventful. I met up with Yashin, the marketing director of Grand Privè. I was anticipating a conversation of “what do we have to do to get off of the ‘Rogue’ list” or something of that nature. It wasn’t. It was a very professional explanation of what exactly happened and their perspective of it all. I’m not going to go into detail about this, but if you want to know what I’m talking about, you can read this here. But how they handled this was understandable to a point. The main issue, (which I emphasized once again) was the players’ and the public’s impression on the whole matter. The fears of the player public – that the casino merely found an excuse not to pay the player her winnings – were never addressed. It could have been handled much differently. The casino should have gone beyond the call of duty in this instance – and we both agreed upon this. But they didn’t, and that’s a real shame. That was more or less the end of the conversation.

A highlight of the day was when the representatives from the three leading software suppliers gave a presentation showcasing their software. Ah, such friendly competition. Microgaming’s Roger Raatgever, Wagerlogic’s Peter Marcus, and Playtech’s Tom Hall each gave a convincing demonstration on why their software was the best to market to players. They presented their new games and how their platforms differed, but most importantly, they were open to questions and comments from the webmasters. Curiously enough, there weren’t very many questions. I had one comment – to Peter Marcus who just announced that Wagerlogic casinos were doing away with the infamous pin number (players had to wait for a pin number delivered via snail mail before withdrawing funds from an account). I’ve never had a problem with this, and actually I thought it was a good idea – sending pin numbers via snail mail. It verifies the user’s real address, and eliminates many cases of player fraud. Nevertheless, most of the complaints that Wagerlogic casinos receive were related to lost pin numbers or snail mail being too snail-like. I’ve participated in Wagerlogic casinos for eight years, and honestly – I’ve never lost a pin number. But this is a good move by Wagerlogic. They will be relying on other resources to verify legitimate players – which is great.

And then there was the beer session. Marc Lesnick’s conferences are always capped at the end with the “beer session”. It’s a panel discussion with a group of leading webmasters and affiliate managers, and the discussion is normally a heated one fueled by free beer. I can’t remember what the hot topics were, and I was in the front section. I probably wasn’t paying attention since I was sitting next to a good friend of mine who was filling me in with some good casino gossip.

And then *poof* the convention was over. Everyone was packing their bags and heading to the airport. I was exhausted. Too fast – too quick – and here I was going out to dinner with Simmo! and Webzcas and Brian Susskind from Wagershare(who had cordially invited us). It was a trippy modern cuisine that served creative odds and ends. One dish was a small bowl of Octopus that sat in a concoction derived from its own Octopus ink. Yummy!

The highlight of the meal was desert. The Flan was really very good. But I was ready to pass out at the table. I could hardly keep my eyes open.

As midnight came and went, it was finally time to leave, and we strolled back to our hotels and I bid adieu to my friends. But before going to my room, I grabbed some chicken at the local KFC. Now THAT was good.

The next day – bright and early – I was on the train heading back home. And while chillin’ looking out the window, I anticipated my Spring Break which was to commence at 1 AM the next morning. I dreaded the wake up call, but it was unavoidable – it was coming. There was nothing I could do about it…

To be continued…

SPRING BREAK 2006

Spanish Castles made of sand…

One of the things that was perplexing for me with the CAC was that it was scheduled at the beginning of Easter Break here in Europe. If you have kids in school, these breaks are the only time you can go on vacation. And believe me, my family needed a break from a long hard winter. We needed a warm beach and sunny weather, so at the last minute we found a four star hotel on the Andalusian coast. The PlayaLuna Hotel in Roquetas de Mar near Almeria was our destination. And we were really looking forward to it. I wasn’t looking forward to the 1 AM wake up call and 2 1/2 drive to Munich International, but sometimes sacrifices must be made.

We arrived at the airport safely and motivated to have a good time, my wife, 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old little boy. The Nintendos and Gameboys worked their charm on making the kids good campers.

And then we were suddenly there – smack dab in the middle of the hotel lobby with swarms of loud Spaniards (these are really loud people, and they don’t notice it) – and our room wasn’t ready. The hotel service went downhill from there. What we weren’t told before getting there is that this hotel was geared toward Spaniards and they really don’t cater to English or German speaking tourists. This is very odd at a four star hotel in a European tourist town. But it happens.

My wife was semi-cool about this since she can speak a little Spanish. I was a bit perturbed, but I know how to order a beer (thanks to my US Army days in Central America). And my kids can get just about anything they want because they look cute, y’know – like me.

The weather wasn’t all that great, windy as hell. But what do you expect in mid-April in Spain? Yet once out of the wind, the sun felt refreshing – and the last couple of days I really began to dig the beach weather being the Californian that I am. As long as I stayed away from the hotel, I was happy. We had cushiony lounge chairs, and the beach was relatively deserted since it was off-season. This was nice.

But after a few days, the hotel food began to suck. It was pretty much the same food everyday. And what was astounding is that this hotel is in the middle of one of the most productive areas in Spain for produce. The surrounding area is covered with tomato fields, lettuce, strawberries, etc., but did they serve this? Hell no. They served some fresh lettuce and cucumbers, but the rest of the salads and vegetables came out of jars and cans. I’ve seen better food in an Army mess hall.

But enough of me bitching and whining, other than that we had a decent time. And for once, the kids behaved themselves for the entire trip. Insubordination of the child can turn the nicest place into a hell-hole. We were lucky this time.

And hell, I’m back. My office looks like a couple of grenades went off – don’t even ask me what my desk looks like. But I’m grabbing this bitchin’ bull by the horns, and things should be back to snuff next week. PABs being answered and resolved, webcast being uploaded, new Casinomeister casinos being showcased, all this and more. So hang tight.

Or perhaps it’s time you took a break? Whadya say? Maybe I can be your trip planner.

24 April 2006

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4 May 2006 – Issue #273

Dear Reader,

Spring may be here, but it’s dark as hell outside – another late night for me. But finally, I’m finished.

Toilingly yours,

Bryan

WHAT A MESS

This week has been a mess – and no I’m not talking about my inbox or the way my desk looks – I’m talking about what’s been going on in casinoland. Here are a few issues that you should be aware of:

Issue #1
It appears that 888.com (Casino-on-net, Pacific Poker) employs individuals who market 888.com in an unorthodox manner. Besides being accused by numerous webmasters of “scraping’ websites – using software that visit casino related sites and copies the text at a high rate of speed. They then upload this text to numerous websites that link to 888.com and Pacific Poker – they are spamming blogs. Let’s take this website for example:

www.casinoonnet-online.com redirects to 888.com. Here is the registrant information:

Registrant [52981]:
Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd.
Europort 601-701
Gibraltar
Gibraltar
1111
GI

Administrative Contact [52981]:
Guy Margolin
Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd.
Europort 601-701
Gibraltar
Gibraltar
1111
GI
Phone: +350.49800
Fax: +350.50309

Cassava incidently is the company that owns 888.com. So here we have a website casinoonet-online.com (what a stupid name by the way) that is apparently owned by Cassava and redirects to 888.com. Well there is nothing wrong with that, is there? But next, let’s figure out how visitors get to casinoonet-online.com. Go to Google.com and paste this in the search field link:http://www.casinoonnet-online.com/. This will give you a list of all the websites that link to casinoonet-online.com.

Hmm, something odd here. These are all forums and blogs that have nothing to do with gambling. Take a look at this link that appears at the bottom of the first search results page http://www.p45blogs.net/ok/archives/000407.html.

This poor blog, which concerns Napster info, is nothing but spam crap from Casino-on-net, casinoonet-online.com, 888.com, pacificpoker-online.com, and a bunch of pharmaceutical idiots. This is the sort of garbage that pollutes cyberspace. It needs to stop – now.

I am bewildered as to why 888.com feels that this sort of marketing is necessary, and it is beyond me why a publicly traded company feels that this is acceptable. Do they not care about how this industry appears to the wayward Google searcher looking for a Napster blog? Do they not care that this “searcher” may be a teenager or a conservative US Senator’s wife? Have they lost their minds? Perhaps so.

At press time, 888.com was dropped from the Casino Affiliate Program – de-certified in other words – stripped of their membership. Kudos for CAP.

And yes, I know that 888.com is huge and I guess no one is going to tell them what to do. But just because you’re huge doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.

Players, please keep in mind that when you patronize a casino, you are supporting everything that they stand for and what they do. Affiliates, please do not support casino groups that practice or condone unorthodox marketing techniques. 888.com – off to the rogues with ye.

Issue #2
What the hell is going on with Oddson’s Video Poker? Over the weekend a player noticed something unusual with the doubling of Video Poker hands and posted his findings in our forum. A bunch of other seasoned players joined in, and the results were not good. Michael Shackelford, the Wizard of Odds, has been Oddson prime auditor and he was called in to evaluate the game logs. This is an ongoing issue and he has not posted his findings yet. But you can read about this here:
Online Poker Complaints
In the meantime, all Oddson casinos have been removed from Casinomeister until after the findings have been publicized.

Issue #3
Is anyone awake at Kahnawake Gaming Commission? What is proving to be a flaccid and “lights on nobody home” syndrome – the Kahnawakees are AGAIN stonewalling me. Lest we forget, they never answered my emails until they were prodded by a third party concerning the Golden Palace streaking incident. As far as I know, Golden Palace can do whatever they want. You can read about that here.
https://www.casinomeister.com/newsletter/2006/16march2006.html#Kahnawake

Well guess what? They are doing it again. They refuse to answer my emails concerning Kaave.com. This is a Turkish Poker/Casino site that is sitting on Kahnawake servers. Kaave claims they are licensed, but Kahnawake told a player flat out that they weren’t. This casino is not listed on the Kahnawake Gaming Commission’s website either.

So I emailed a polite request to find out if this casino is indeed licensed by the Kahnawakees, and if so – fine and dandy! If not, then why is this casino sitting on their servers? Simple enough, yes? Hell no. I’ve been stonewalled. I feel like the proverbial red-headed step child.

One thing I can say for sure is that I have lost most of my confidence in this “Gaming Commission”.

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And now for the humor……

Three old ladies are sitting in a diner, chatting about various things. One lady says, “You know, I’m getting really forgetful. This morning, I was standing at the top of the stairs, and I couldn’t remember whether I had just come up or was about to go down.” The second lady says, “You think that’s bad? The other day, I was sitting on the edge of my bed, and I couldn’t remember whether I was going to bed or had just woken up!” The third lady smiles smugly. “Well, my memory’s just as good as it’s always been, knock on wood.” She raps the table. With a startled look on her face, she asks, “Who’s there?!”

ha ha ha

SPIN PALACE GROUP ACQUIRED BY FAIRGROUND GAMING

Recently merged online casino and poker room group acquired for US $ 66 million

Surprise disclosure this week was the takeover of the recently merged Spin Palace- Piggs Casino group by London listed company Fairground Gaming Holdings plc for a $66 million consideration. Trading of the shares on the London AIM was suspended as the deal went through.

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* The Acquisition is the first by Fairground Gaming since admission to AIM in October 2005, is in line with the Company’s strategy and is conditional on re-admission to trading of the enlarged issued share capital;

* The Spin Palace Group comprises two recently combined businesses, Spin Palace and Piggs Casino, and is a licensed online casino and poker group offering over 200 different games to a global customer base;

* Core domains include www.spinpalace.com, www.rubyfortune.com and www.piggscasinos.com;

* The technology platform of the Acquisition is underpinned by Microgaming considered by the Fairground directors to be the leading provider of software to online casinos;

* Scope for further integration and exploitation of new products; Existing management teams and staff to remain with the enlarged group on completion of the Acquisition;

* Acquisition incorporates a marketing business and scalable call centre to which Roundit previously outsourced these functions as well as an award-winning affiliate programme;

* The initial consideration of approximately US$46 million, consisting of US$10 million cash payment from existing Fairground Gaming resources with the remainder being satisfied through the issue of ordinary shares in Fairground Gaming and warrants over Ordinary Shares in Fairground Gaming;

* Further earnout consideration payable of up to US$20 million, dependent upon the EBITDA of The Spin Palace Group for the year to 31 December 2006; and

* The acquisition constitutes a reverse takeover for the purposes of the AIM Rules and accordingly the Directors have requested that Fairground Gaming’s shares be suspended from trading on AIM with immediate effect until such time as an AIM admission document is published.

Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Evan Hoff, Chief Executive of Fairground Gaming, said:

“The Spin Palace Group will be the cornerstone in the execution of Fairground Gaming’s consolidation strategy. Both Spin Palace and Piggs Casino are well managed and cash generative businesses and, combined, we believe they have the potential to be scaled upwards to enhance future revenues of the Company. We look forward to working with management in growing the business and seeking out complementary acquisitions that will assist us in achieving further scale and product and geographic diversification. We look forward to providing further information to investors in due course.”

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.
More news here.

11 May 2006 – Issue #274

Dear Reader,

Looking forward to next week. Why? Scroll down and find out…

Expectantly yours,

Bryan

GETTING READY FOR GIGSE

The Global Interactive Gaming Symposium and Exhibition is on the horizon – it’s next week in fact. I’m really looking forward to this trip because I’m hoping to educate operators – newbies and old-timers – with some philosophical advice. Online Casino Management 101 will be held on Wednesday 1:30 PM in the Exhibition Hall. I have a crapload of material, and it’s going to be hard to condense this into one half hour presentation. So what I’ll be doing is hanging around the conference center giving you advice (whether you ask for it or not).

In most cases, it’s easy to give advice on what not to do. And over the past few weeks I’ve seen a lot of “not to do’s”, like don’t baffle people with bullshit when you make mistakes. This may have worked in the Army, or at Staples, but running an online business is a bit different. People save email, gaming logs, terms and conditions are archived, IP addresses are tracked, there are a number of reasons why it’s best to be upfront with players when you (the operator) make a mistake. Lie, and you’ll get caught. This is not a good thing in an industry that relies on trust.

If you eff up and make a mistake – admit it. You’ll be much better off in the long run. Believe me, you will.

Anyway, for those who will miss my presentation – no need to start slitting your wrists, I’ll be uploading the presentation online sometime next week.

My agenda: (besides meeting with several operators and webmasters):

Convince 888.com that they are doing everyone in this industry a disservice with their unorthodox marketing techniques.
Hope to meet someone from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission to renew my faith. Right now, I’m highly disappointed in them.
Meet with the Oddson people along with Ted Loh to find out what really happened with their software “glitch“
Eat sushi.
Catch a movie or two.

Last but not least, convince Michael Casselli (editor of Bluff Magazine) that he doesn’t have a chance in hell winning “Velcro Race 2006”. He’s challenged me to race across some velcro track wearing velcro boots, and it’s all for charity. You can check this out here: http://www.gigse.com/2006/index.cfm/page/charity. This year the River City Group is running a charity drive for The Gordon House,and gamAid.com, and so far they’ve raised over $100,000. Good stuff.

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29 May 2006 – Issue #275 GIGSE 2006 Montreal Special Edition

Dear Reader,

Well here it is finally – the Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo 2006 report. Cool encounters, suck-ass parties, scandalous activites (me not included).

So….grab yo’self a hot cup o’ java, and read on…

A blur of suits… Every year that I travel to the GIGSE, whether it is in Toronto or Montreal, I’ve been harassed at the Canadian immigration booth. It wasn’t until last year that I discovered why. There is an American Brian C. Bailey who was wanted for auto theft (or something of that nature). And this is just one of the reasons I’m a stickler on why people need to spell my name first name correctly – with a Y instead of an i. Well, I guess they caught the guy because for the first time in years, I slid right on by.

Or maybe the immigration officer (it was a young lady) was impressed by the way I articulately and flawlessly replied when she asked me what my business was in Montreal. I meticulously stated, “I’m a gaming consultant, and I’ve been invited to speak at the Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Exposition.” Oh, that must have sounded much better when an officer (a guy) asked me the same question a few years ago, and I replied – “I, uh, operate websites.” (You can read about that conversation here. That reply got me sent to the room full of turbans. But then, I was perhaps an auto thief – well, according to them.

I breezed my way into the country this time, grabbed a cab, and found my hotel: the Hotel XIXe Siecle which was right around the corner from the conference center. A wonderful boutique hotel (it used to be a bank years ago), the only thing wrong was that I didn’t know how to pronounce its name. Was it “Hotel Ex – Eye – Ex Siecle”, “Hotel 19th Siecle?” and was I supposed to say this in English or French? I always made sure I had the hotel’s name written down on a piece of paper to give to a cabbie. Language in Montreal can be pretty funkified

My mission at the GIGSE:
I was hoping to meet up with anyone from the Kahnawake gaming commission. If you can recall, my dear reader, there have been a number of awkward silent moments from the gaming commission concerning Golden Palace marketing exploits, and a couple of other things. Kahnawake is next to Montreal, so I was hoping for some luck. I also was included in a panel discussion that dealt with marketing concerns. And I was also slated to give my own presentation: Online Casino Management 101. And the usual hope of meeting a operators who could solve some ongoing problems. I was also scheduled to take on Michael Casselli in a Velcro drag race. Beating him would be my redemption for his underhanded victory two years ago. This trip turned out to be a success.

But before the conference was to start, I had a couple of days to catch up with myself and with some friends as well. Most of you know that one of my main functions at these conferences is to catch a flick or two during my free time – or what’s left of it.

I had no idea on what to see. I have been waiting patiently for a few films to be released – one is the new Jack Black film Nacho Libre, but it hasn’t come out yet. I was at the Paramount Theater on Rue Ste-Catherine – starring at the movie schedule wondering what to see. Nothing. Maybe Mission Impossible III, but I had heard it was dreadful. To me, MI2 was absolutely excruciating – why would I want to waste my money on the third piece? I had heard that United 98 was a very realistic and heavy film. I wasn’t to sure if I was ready to see this yet, especially alone. I’m a big softie sometimes, and sitting alone in a theater dabbing my eyes with a hankie didn’t really seem like fun to me. But it was the only film that had any potential to be interesting. I bought a ticket an hour before showtime and took a walk around the underground mall.

Note of Interest:
While walking the mall, the mall’s muzak speakers were playing REM’s “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” How surreal.I was worried that the film would be overly dramatic or would demonize the hijackers. It was not. It was a real-time depiction of what had probably happened in-flight, and on the ground. The film recruited some of the actual flight controllers acting as themselves, and it was one of the most intense films I have seen for a long time. I highly recommend this film. It’s been carefully thought out and it’s effective.

So, this gave me something to dwell on through the night – meeting friends and discussing how I felt about it.

Day one of the GIGSE was a blur; mostly a blur of suits. Last year it was noteworthy that many more “suits” were showing up – investors and other interested parties getting involved in the industry. The industry is no longer dominated by the casually dressed casino operator and software developer, it has definitely moved into the mainstream where wearing a suit is the uniform of the day. Me? I’m a casual kind of guy, and I hung my uniform up years ago. No suit for me – thanks!

That afternoon, I was a member of a panel discussion that covered marketing: past, present and future. Hosted by Debbee Silverman, who is by far one of the leading experts in the field, the panel included me, IGaming Business Magazine’s Michael Casselli, David Hallonquist – Spotted Dog Media, Michele Oster of the Trident Group, and David Wang, WPT Enterprises. It was really quite a good panel discussion since we come from differing positions in the field. One thing that makes Casinomeister unique is that it’s a perfect example on how viral marketing works. Obviously it’s a popular site – or you wouldn’t be reading this newsletter, would you? I get a decent amount of traffic and I spend zilch on marketing. When Goto.com was a reasonable option for a webmaster to get his site out there (before it was Overture.com), I had a budget of $25 a month. When the pay-per-click ads got too whacked out price-wise, I said the hell with it. Thus I do that no more.

I consider myself lucky, there aren’t too many sites like mine that can rely solely on viral marketing – at least for now that is.

As the discussion closed, I chimed in on how there needs to be a certain level of responsibility towards public opinion when marketing one’s casino. If a casino is out there doing something stupid (I used Golden Palace’s Olympic intrusions as an example), it affects everyone in the business since we all get painted with the same brush. This is extremely important especially with the Bible thumpers thumping away in the States.

And it looks as if my words are being taken in consideration by the people who count. As I left the stage, I was met by the commissioners of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. You may recall some of the frustrating experiences I’ve had trying to get answers from the commission. Well, here they were in the flesh – and they weren’t there to jump me. They wanted to reassure me that they were willing to hear me out and open a channel of discussion. This was great. They also wanted to let me know that all references to streaking, naming babies, and the Olympic intrusions have been removed from the Golden Palace website. How about ‘dem apples? That was a high-point of the day.

That evening was the GIGSE cocktail party that was a who’s who of online gaming. I briefly met a number of operators and casino representatives many of whom thanked me for allowing them a spot in Casinomeister’s forum where they have direct contact with players. Sometimes casino support doesn’t fulfill it’s intended obligations and a communication conduit is needed which can be found here:
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/showgroups.php
And if you are a casino operator or rep and you’re not listed here, c’mon – what are you waiting for? 100 operators and their representatives can’t be wrong.

I ran into Andrew Beveridge from eCOGRA who filled me in on the latest eCOGRA news – of course interesting and we both hope that what’s developing will materialize. Of course it’s too early to discus now, but things are really looking good for this organization.

Question from Andrew: When do you think Grand Privé will be removed from the “rogue” list.
My answer: I don’t know. That’s a toughie.We also talked about 888.com and the blog spamming problem. There was a rumour that eight or nine 888 affiliates were fired. But that’s not the real problem. The real problem is that Casava is behind this blog spamming, not just the affiliates (they were doing most of the site scrapping I believe), and I illustrated this here. I saw John Anderson from a distance, but he disappeared by the time I got to where he was standing. There were hundreds of people in the room.

I met the operator from Black Widow casino, and we talked. And he was wearing a suit.

Day Two kicked off for me in the exhibition hall. I was due to give a presentation “Online Casino Management 101: Letters from the Trenches. It was well attended – and yes, I had a lot to say. Most of the material I used was actually from this newsletter (aren’t you glad you subscribed?). Issues #263, 264, and 265. I covered “gaining player trust”, “maintaining player trust”, and wait to do (or what not to do) when you screw up. Using real live issues and correspondences from casinos and players, it went over rather well. Ted Loh was there, and he was wearing a suit. He’s finally been assimilated.

Ted was slotted for a panel discussion about on self regulation moderated by eCOGRA’s Michael Hirst, and included Card Player Magazine’s Roy Cooke, and Andrew Beveridge. One thing that I found interesting is the amount of distrust poker players have towards online poker rooms. Roy Cooke mentioned that only around 5-10% of the poker players he knows from the card rooms in Vegas ever venture online. They fear other cheating players and obviously, this is a major hurdle poker rooms need to eliminate. Obviously there is a lot of room to work in this arena – player trust and following through on that trust is what it’s all about. Why this industry lets us down in this realm almost on a daily basis is beyond me. Ted brought up the issue that licensing agencies are failing players because they (in most cases) are non-responsive to player issues. If a licensing agency chooses not to police their licensees, why should players be concerned whether a casino is licensed or not?

After their informative rap session, I wandered over to Playtech’s both to grab a free beer (a positive note for Playtech), and while the barkeep poured the beer, a guy who was sitting at the bar looked up at me and congratulated me on a presentation well done. He then introduced himself as the marketing director for Indio Casino. I couldn’t help but laugh (excuse me) – astonished I was since it was Indio Casino that I used as an example of bad casino policy in my presentation. It sort of blew me away, but he said he didn’t realize that the email example (it’s on their rogue page as well) came from their casino. How strange.

Nevertheless, we chatted for a few minutes, and I explained where I was coming from and how I disagreed on their policies and why. And we’ve renewed direct communications again. If players are having difficulties with these casinos (Indio, African Palace) please let me know and maybe I can assist.

That evening brought on the Bodog Media Mixer where a number of press, or press-like people were invited to speak with Calvin Ayre and get the scoop on what’s new in the Bodog scene. It was nice seeing some old faces again, and there were quite a number of people I didn’t know. In fact I sort of felt out of place since they all seemed to know one another, and a number of them were all hyped up for some reason. Perhaps the raw oysters and shrimps were having an effect, or that there were cameras all over the place.

Calvin gave everyone a briefing on some of his plans, and they sound exciting – particularly the “Battle of the Bands” he’ll be sponsoring. The best band wins $1 million USD. Bodog is going mainstream and that’s a good thing.

Calvin Ayre to the meister: your site is sort of like Sting’s. You both kinda do the same thing.I met Michael Casselli, and we sat down for the buffet dinner. He looked a little nervous since he was slotted to race against “the meister” in a race for a charity run the following day. I told him not to worry, I wouldn’t beat him too badly – didn’t want to embarrass the guy to much in front of the ladies.

From this party we moved on to the Golden Palace sponsored event at some club which was a total waste of time. It was overpacked – surprised that the fire department didn’t show up to shut the place down. In order to get drinks, one had to tolerate being mashed up against horde of people hoping to slide in up to the sticky wet bar. Sign language was in effect since there was no way to speak over the dude blowin’ away on his harmonica to the tune of some prerecorded rap music. What the hell? And there was a constant stream of Playboy bunnies coming in through the door and heading into the cloakroom and then disappearing downstairs into some cellar. It seemed that there was a planned bikini contest, and that they were to be paraded in front of the captive audience. Whoop-dee-friggin’-doo. I might have been impressed if I was 18 and hadn’t been laid for about a month. But this was plain stupid. I stood there and thought to myself “I could be answering emails,” and at that point I knew it was time to leave. Which I did. I met a couple of guys from Bodog who were leaving as well. We trekked on back towards the hotel, and my evening ended watching the Conan O’brien show.

Day Three: Beside my anticipated glory over Michael Casselli in the velcro drag race, one thing I was looking forward to was the meeting between me, Ted Loh, and the operators of English Harbour. But first, there was a panel discussion The Impact of I-Gaming: What Have We Done? that I really wanted to attend. Moderated by Sue Schneider, it included Calvin Ayre from BoDog.com, Michele Oster, Trident Group, and Detlef Train from Intertops Sportwetten GmbH. Calvin brought up some interesting issues: There is a lot of money in Costa Rica from the sportsbooks and online casinos, but the non-English speakers are not feeling the benefit of this and it’s actually having a negative effect by inflating the cost of real estate, etc. Casinos need to have some sort of social conscience since economic growth can have a negative impact. He also felt that casinos need to offer entertainment but something beyond casino games. He considers his competitors to be companies such as Paramount and Sony, but he still feels that online casinos are light years from the main stream. He also stated that he felt that most online casinos couldn’t survive if it’s legalized in the states – it’s too competitive. In essence, he feels that the biggest challenge to online gaming is growth.

Detlef from Intertops said dryly that he has no fear – that he’s seen it all. The online gaming environment is so dynamic that it can withstand most any blow. But everyone, he warned, needs to pay attention to what is happening in the States.

And when the questions went to the audience, some guy stood up and accused everyone at the conference of trying to fool people by wearing suits. He kept saying “You need to dress like Americans. And if you want to impress Americans, you have to dress like one.” Eh? I didn’t get it. Besides, we were in Canada – and there are very few Americans involved in this business. But here we go with the suits again.

From there we moved on to lunch with English Harbour. If you’re living in a cave, and your computer hasn’t been turned on for the past few weeks, there is a hotly debated issue in our forum concerning an incident where a script was uploaded and caused the Video Poker to malfunction in the casino’s favor. Not good.

Ted Loh is experienced in programming and has taken it on his own to try to find out what happened and how it happened. I already mentioned in our forum about how I feel about the whole mess – I’m not going to regurgitate it here – except briefly: I have no reason to believe that it was not an honest mistake – a seriously bad bad mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. So far Ted has been receiving an incredible amount of flack in the fora for his participation in trying to find the root cause of this, which is totally uncalled for. We anticipate his findings, and hopefully a couple of others, within the next day or two. Opinion follows: in my opinion, they are guilty of implementing the wrong code, of not ensuring safeguards were emplaced, and of not handling this very well publicly.

Question from Ted: Do you want some of my fries?
Me: Don’t mind if I do…

So while we wait for Ted and perhaps others to publicize their findings, English Harbour ought to make a public statement that details exactly what happened so that some of the speculation can be put to rest. This speculation is extremely damaging, and I’m also tired of seeing unnecessary thrashings in public.

But a necessary thrashing was about to commence…

To be continued…

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Continued From Above

Casselli takes a fall…

The pinnacle of day three’s events was of course the charity race. And I was pumped ready to go. Never forgetting how he beat me by a point during the Sumo Wrestling match in 2004, this was payback time. We wore ski boots outfitted with a large plywood bottom which had velcro affixed to the sole. The track had a velcro strip that was completely stripped out. But nonetheless, it was like trying to run wearing snowshoes.

And I beat the guy. So there.

That evening it was good to catch up with friends, Ted, Debbee, and Brian Cullingworth. We had dinner in the old part of town at Gibby’s. And then it was over.

Before I knew it I was checking out of my hotel – the week was nothing but a blur – my head swimming in meetings, discussions, faces and business cards. Plus emails from you my dear ${token2} were probably awaiting my answer. Sorry if I haven’t gotten to them already.

And even though I’m just catching my breath, I’m heading out this week for the states to celebrate my grandma’s 100th birthday. Vortran is at the controls so stay tuned for our Bierfest announcement, and other cool things he has in store.

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23 June 2006 – Issue #276

Dear Reader,

It’s good being back in Bierland. The World Cup is in full swing and tomorrow may be a difficult day for me. I’m an “old country” American – generations of being mixed in the American gene pool since the 1700s, with some family members coming over in the 1600s from England. So I’m a true mutt. But I am one quarter Swede (grandfather – mother’s side) – so I identify with the Swedes a bit more than the Germans, even though I live here. Saturday it’s Germany vs Sweden, and guess who my friends will be rooting for tomorrow? I’ll be in the corner with my little Swedish flag awaiting my ostracization.

Discretely yours,

Bryan

YEP, I’M BACK

If you couldn’t tell, I was tripping around California for the past 2 1/2 weeks. It was my grandmother’s 100th birthday and it was quite a big celebration for the family and friends. She forgets a lot, and sometimes it can be a little funny. My brother-in-law had made a slide show of old photos of her from the 20s and 30s; her with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren as babies. It was the finale of the party – shown in a small auditorium for all to see. The next day she had forgotten she had seen it. So we showed it to her in her room on a laptop. About half-way through, a photo appeared of her and my grandfather (the Swede) taken in the early thirties. They were sitting and she had her arm around his shoulders. “Who’s that woman with her arm around my man?” she said. We sort of laughed it off and explained that it was her. “Well, I don’t like it. That’s my husband.” Okay grandma. But at least she’s good natured, and laughs when she realizes that she’s forgetting things. Perhaps this is one of her secrets for longevity.

She’s also always preached to me “You have to do what you’re interested in.” And simple as that may seem – that is a gem to pursue. I remember when I left the Army years ago, the skills I had were knowing how to blow up things, emplacing minefields, shooting at stuff, jumping out of airplanes, and training soldiers how to survive in a myriad of situations. What the hell was I supposed to do in the civilian world? Blow stuff up and shoot at things? Nope, that wouldn’t work out too well. Besides, I was getting a bit tired of those sort of activities. But people always interested me, and I missed my soldiers – so I chose a path that led me to teaching, providing information, and getting involved with people. And what I’m interested in, I’ve integrated into what I do – well, most of the time at least.

It was good being back in my homeland – California. I spent a great deal of the time chillin’ at Laguna Beach – body surfing and chowing down on Mexican food, Sushi, and anything else I can’t get or eat here.

And it’s good to be back. I have a lot of work to get done, so please bear with me as I slowly get back up to speed. I’m still in a semi-chill mode.

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And now for the humor……

One day George W. went out to dinner with a Jewish friend. The friend recommended a kosher place nearby.

They arrived and Dubya’s friend ordered them both the house specialty: matzo ball soup. The waiter brought the bowls and George looked at the soup suspiciously, but his friend urged him to try at least one taste. So he took a bite of matzo ball and slurped some soup and clearly liked it.

After Dubya was finished he said, “Mmm mmm, that was good! But tell me, do you Jewish folks eat other parts of the matzo, or just the balls?”

ha ha ha

888.COM STRIKES BACK

A promise to investigate any credible complaint against the black hats, but a veiled legal warning too

Some months into an increasingly bitter dispute (see earlier InfoPowa reports) with the online gambling affiliate sector over alleged tolerance of “black hat” search engine optimisation tactics involving site scraping and blog spamming, 888.com has struck back.

The giant online casino group has been the target of repeated criticism for allegedly turning a blind eye or profiting from the black hat practices of some of its marketing affiliates. Allegations include site scraping or content theft, inappropriate targeting and the irrelevant spamming of blogs in attempts to push the search engine rankings of 888.com higher. Several prominent affiliate sites have roundly condemned the activities as prejudicial to affiliates and unethical in nature, and have disassociated themselves from 888.

There has also been widespread and continuous criticism of 888.com, mainly by affiliates on a diversity of leading public message boards around the Internet, and suggestions that affiliates take retaliatory action by linking their sites and publicising the issue. A key irritant for affiliates has been the public silence on the issue by 888.com.

This week, Nicholas Lev, a 888.com and Random Logic executive based in Israel sent a letter on the issue to a number of prominent affiliates, who published it on their sites.

After several paragraphs highlighting the good reputation of the company and its brands, Lev gets down to business by addressing the accusations, saying: “No official process of any kind was conducted by ANY authorized party to verify these allegations. Additionally most of the affiliates who have been singled out for practicing “Immoral” marketing techniques on 888.com’s behalf are providing marketing services to several other large and small online gaming companies.

“Strangely enough only 888.com was continually accused of working with these affiliates. Some CAP Members have even raised the suspicion that our competitors have directly or indirectly contributed to these accusations. While we have repeatedly attempted to contact several members who have lodged complaints, our attempts were ignored.

“It seems resolution is not what the accusations are aimed at achieving but rather damaging 888.com’s hard earned reputation hiding behind anonymous identities as the Web permits.”

Lev goes on to draw attention to the group’s Affiliate Program contractual terms, which specifically exclude the conduct on which the allegations are based, and reveals that: “We have recently investigated several hundred affiliate accounts that were brought to our attention and immediately blocked the ones who have violated our policies.”

He points out that his company recently added a notice on its Affiliate Program homepage outlining 888.com’s Ethical Marketing Practices Policy with a link to report any misbehavior of 888.com affiliates, and emphasises that every time a credible allegation that a member of the program has engaged in any sort of illegal or illicit activity is made, the company will investigate it thoroughly.

“If the evidence that is gathered proves wrongdoing there will be decisive action taken, including blocking their affiliate account and suspending all payments, towards the affiliate found in breach of this policy. We encourage all moderators and members to share any evidence of misbehaviour of our affiliates and 888 guarantees that there will be a prompt and efficient investigation.

“However, that being said, we will not tolerate baseless accusations by anonymous moderators or members and will take legal action against those who libel 888,” Lev concludes.

Whilst this semi-public appearance and explanation of its actions against black hat SEO activity is welcome, albeit belated the threat of legal action was probably unnecessary and will not sit well with many affiliates who have been prejudiced by black hat activities.

It may be a better strategy for 888.com to get together with senior affiliates or representatives of groups of affiliates in a consultative process to get to the bottom of these allegations and then take genuine remedial action should this be required.

888.com should also consider the benefits that can flow from an open and communicative posture in industry disputes of this nature – by leaving the field to its detractors it has done more harm than good to itself, and a more proactive stance would have served it better.

Taking something positive from the development, which occurred as InfoPowa was going to press this week, at least the parties are now communicating with one another and with the right sort of commitment to a solution on both sides these black hat activities can be stamped out.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.
More news here.

27 June 2006

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30 June 2006 – Issue #277

Dear Reader,

Germany’s playing today – gotta run. But first,
you’ve gotta read this…

Happily yours,

Bryan

ATTENTION WEBMASTERS

A few years ago, I had a links page at Casinomeister for my fellow webmasters. It listed their websites and a brief summary on what their site was all about. Well with the passage of time and the relauch of Casinomeister in 2003, it went to the wayside. It was just too time consuming to keep up, and it was abandoned. Oops – not a good thing.

This section has been resurrected and it’s being rebuilt. Thanks to my little helper “Cooky” she is in charge of uploading links and keeping them updated. Do you want to link to Casinomeister? Check it out here: https://www.casinomeister.com/online-links/. You can contact Cooky here: listings@casinomeister.com.

CASINOMEISTER’S BIERFEST KICKS OFF!!

You may sign up at one casino or all four, your choice. One entry per casino. The more entries you have, the more chances you have to win.Make thirty “pulls” at a maximum bet at “Major Millions” – either the 3 reel/3 line slot OR 5 reel/15 line slot game. It don’t matter! Just play!Email us your account number and other details here. It’s that simple!!!On 19 July, one entry per casino will be drawn at random and winners will be announced.

The Bierfest at Casinomeister has commenced and Jackpot Willi is your host!! You have the opportunity to win $200 WORTH OF BAVARIAN BREWED BEER!!! Open an account at the sponsoring casino, play the slots, and YOU’LL BE ENTERED TO WIN!!! Party time is NOW!Open a real account at one of the following casinos:
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VORTRAN’S BITCHIN’ CONTEST

Congrats Luke M. from Downingtown, PA – you’re the “Bitchin Contest” winner for last week!! Here were the questions and answers from last week’s contest:
You were to read: Did Vikings really wear horns on their helmets? and then answer these questions:

1. What was dredged up from the Thames?
ANS: An ancient Celtic type of horned helmet was dredged from the Thames

2. Who was Gustav Malmstr�m, and what did he do?
ANS: Gustav Malmstrom was a 19th Century Swedish artist who “was the first to give horns to Vikings”, in illustrations for an edition of Frithiof’s Saga.

3. Did Wagner write an opera about Vikings?
ANS: No, Wagner never wrote an opera about Vikings (he had one which included Germanic Gods though).
So what will it be? Beer or the $50?

And stay tuned for further beer offerings!!

THIS WEEK’S FORUM HIGHLIGHTS

I’ve reorganized the Online Casino and Poker Room Complaints section into separate areas that separate bonus complaints from non-bonus complaints.

In the Casino Complaints Non-Bonus Issues section:
bellerock being awkward over ID – locked accs and no payouts. Well it looks like there is more than meets the eye. It looks like groups of fraudsters being busted out in this thread.

Mathematical Proof that English Harbour is cheating is finally put to rest. EH has been placed in a newly created section in Casinomeister’s Rogue Section “Bumblings, Blunders and Negligence”. You can check it out here:
long-ass thread or here or here.

Looking for work?? Help Wanted Ads section:
WANTED
Marketing Director – Canada
Poker Marketing Manager – Panama
Poker Product Manager – Canada

Check them out here:
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/help-wanted-ads/

Not a member of Casinomeister’s forum yet? If not, why not? Come join the crowd and be one of us. Gabba gabba hey!!!

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And now for the humor……

NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE

To all the citizens of the United States of America,

To the citizens of the United States of America, in light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II resumes monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.8% of you who have, until now, been unaware there’s a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America. Congress and the Senate are disbanded. A questionnaire circulated next year will determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid your transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. Look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary. Check “aluminium” in the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you pronounce it. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour’. Likewise you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary.”

Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up “interspersed.” There will be no more ‘bleeps’ in the Jerry Springer show. If you’re not old enough to cope with bad language then you should not have chat shows.

2. There is no such thing as “U.S. English.” We’ll let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’.

3. You should learn to distinguish English and Australian accents. It really isn’t that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). Scottish dramas such as ‘Taggart’ will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.You must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is “Devon.” If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become “shires” e.g. Texasshire Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. You should relearn your original national anthem, “God Save The Queen”, but only after fully carrying out task 1.

5. You should stop playing American “football.” There’s only one kind of football. What you call American “football” is not a very good game. The 2.1% of you aware there is a world outside your borders may have noticed no one else plays “American” football. You should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls.

Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American “football”, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

You should stop playing baseball. It’s not reasonable to host an event called the ‘World Series’ for a game which is not played outside of America. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls’ game called “rounders,” which is baseball without fancy team stripe, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

6. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns, or anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because you are not sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you need a permit to carry a vegetable peeler.

7. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday. It will be called “Indecisive Day.”

8. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left. At the same time, you will go metric without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

9. Learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren’t French, they’re Belgian though 97.8% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Potato chips are properly called “crisps.” Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

10. The cold tasteless stuff you call beer is actually lager. Only proper British Bitter will be referred to as “beer.” Substances once known as “American Beer” will henceforth be referred to as “Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine,” except for the product of the American Budweiser company which will be called “Weak Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine.” This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

11. The UK will harmonise petrol prices (or “Gasoline,” as you will be permitted to keep calling it) for those of the former USA, adopting UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon, get used to it).

12. Learn to resolve personal issues without guns, lawyers or therapists. That you need many lawyers and therapists shows you’re not adult enough to be independent. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.

13. Please tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us crazy.

14. Tax collectors from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

The citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

ha ha ha

7 July 2006 – Issue #278

Dear Reader,

It’s really difficult getting the newsletter out on time during the summer months. Actually, summer “month” in Germany because that’s about all it will last here – one month. Then it starts raining and everyone gets depressed. But when summer kicks in, the evenings are splendid. You can go bike riding with friends to tucked away Biergartens. You can chill out until late (it doesn’t start to get dark until 10) drinking beer and being mellow. During the day – it’s hot and sweaty, and it’s easy to say “Ah, the hell with it – I’m going swimming!” But so much for that; I’m here my dear, bringing you cheer and perhaps a beer – so stay near.

Cheeringly yours,

Bryan

BOOO – DECEPTIVE MARKETING PRACTICE

One of my big pet peeves are casinos that practice deceptive marketing tactics to try and convince players that they are the ones they should be doing business with. What’s even worse is when affiliates who do this. Unscrupulous affiliates are harder to catch if there is no “quality control” implemented by the casino. The following serves as an example as to why affiliate managers need to be proactive in controlling what their affiliates are doing.

Spam message to me:
Good day to you Sir!

iH Roller is the best in the industry because we offer:

* 24-hour support
* Featuring 85+ Award Winning Games
* Including blackjack, roulette, slots, craps, baccarat, and video poker…
* Several options that allow you to control the playing environment

Give us a try! Remember, Free $888.00 is ON THE HOUSE!

Knowledgeable and helpful 24/7 phone and live chat support team

Start Winning Now!

http://familyrollcall.com/d1/check

Learn to say no It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin Elementary sartorial techniques initially applied obviate the need for repetitive similar actions to the square of three. Don’t byte off more than you can view.

Well for one thing, this was just one out of a crap-load that were sent to a number of email addresses that are listed at Casinomeister – I was victimized by a site scraper – he scraped the site harvesting any email addresses he could find.

The spammer is using at ISP in Brazil to send these messages which are totally deceptive and misleading.

The URL: familyrollcall.com/dl/check leads to a casino page that has been designed to cloak whoever is responsible for the casino. For the links “Fair Gaming” and “Completely Safe”, you are forced to download the casino software. This is BS.

Well, I downloaded it and began the install – it’s Vegas Red Casino – a Playtech casino that marketed by Casinopartners.com. This information was posted in our forum, and according to some forum members, it seems as though this has been going on for some time.

I hope that CasinoPartners.com takes immediate action and shuts down this affiliate’s account. There is no room on the Internet for crap like this.

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You may sign up at one casino or all four, your choice. One entry per casino. The more entries you have, the more chances you have to win.

Make thirty “pulls” at a maximum bet at “Major Millions” – either the 3 reel/3 line slot OR 5 reel/15 line slot game. It don’t matter! Just play!
Email us your account number and other details here. It’s that simple!!
On 19 July, one entry per casino will be drawn at random and winners will be announced.

MORE BEER HERE!!

As I have been beating over your head – it’s Bierfest at Casinomeister. We’re going craaaaazay and giving away FREE BEER and/or CASH prizes. Here goes:

Was Mr. Ed a horse – or was he actually a disguised Zebra from the Jungleland animal park in Thousand Oaks, California? The first person who contacts me with the correct answer (with cited references) wins $50 or $50 worth of Beer. One entry per person (make sure it’s correct) and please include your age and mailing address.

And stay tuned for further beer offerings!!

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And Now For The Humor…..

WATCH AND LEARN

A rather confident young man walks into a bar and takes a seat next to a very attractive young woman. He gives her a quick glance, then casually looks at his watch for a moment.

The woman notices this and asks, “Is your date running late?”

“No,” he replies, “I just bought this state-of-the-art watch and I was testing it.”

Intrigued, the woman says, “A state-of-the-art watch? What’s so special about it?”

“It uses alpha waves to telepathically talk to me,” he explains.

“What’s it telling you now?”

“Well, it says that you’re not wearing any panties…”

The woman giggles & replies, “Well it must be broken then, because I am wearing panties!”

The man exclaims, “Damn – this thing must be an hour fast!”

ha ha ha

ONLINE GAMBLING BAN INCLUDED IN “AMERICAN VALUES AGENDA’

Goodlatte and Leach Bills may be combined and have been passed to the House for debate next month

Further details are now available on the surprise news that the Goodlatte and Leach Bills seeking to hamstring online gambling in the USA have been forwarded on for debate on the floor of the House of Representatives – effectively another step forward for this legislation.

Dennis Hastert, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, published the list of measures this week. “The American Values Agenda will defend America?s founding principles. Through this agenda, we will work to protect the faith of our people, the sanctity of life and freedoms outlined by our founding fathers,” he said.

The two Bills have been included in the ‘American Values Agenda? being proposed by the majority Republicans in the House of Representatives. The party hopes it will energise conservative activists and voters ahead of the mid-term elections in November.

A Republican spokesperson has revealed that “it is likely” that a combined Goodlatte/Leach bill could be among the first of the bills to go before the full house, possibly in July.

Rep. Jim Leach, whose proposed bill HR 4411 seeks to add credit cards etc. to the list of illegal online gaming payment methods, is reported to be seeking to combine his proposal with that of Rep. Bob Goodlatte to avoid either Bill fouling the progress of the other. Unofficial reports suggest that a deal could be worked out in the near future with Goodlatte, whose bill HR 4777 seeks to modernise the Wire Act.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.
More news here.

20 July 2006 – Issue #279

Dear Reader,

It’s freaking hot!

Faintly yours,

Bryan

BITS AND PIECES

I was approached by a player last week who had a big problem: he is experiencing one of the slowest paying payouts in online gambling history. Let’s cut to the chase…

Situation: The player gets a bonus offer from Club Player Casino – an RTG casino affiliated with Cirrus Casino, Palace-of-Chance, Coolcat casino, and a number of other Costa Rican outfits. He deposits $20,000 USD in July of 2005 and makes a staggering collective win of $150,000 (after their sticky bonus was removed). The casino then proceeded to implement their terms and conditions for payouts: he was to be paid $2500 per week until his balance was 0.

They made two payments – one on 11 August and another on 12 September. In October of 2005, they amended their payout policy, adding a clause stating that inactive accounts (such as his) would be paid $1000 weekly at the discretion of the manager. In March, amount was again reduced to $500 per week at the manager’s discretion.

This is from his complaint:

Bottom line: In the year that has since elapsed, the casino has made only 17 payments totaling 16,000 since my win…in other words, not even my initial deposit has been returned to me. 134,350.20 is still owed, plus approx. 2700 worth of comp points. Club Players management will not return my phone calls, respond to my e-mails, or address my concerns. I have called them approximately 70 times in the past year and written at least 20 e-mails, but by a remarkable string of coincidences not once has Cynthia Williams or another manager been available to assist me, only front line customer service employees who lack the authority to make any changes to my account.

I should add that I have never been anything less than polite and professional to any employee of the Club Player Casino, even in the face of such childish tactics. As your site suggested, I submitted my problem to Montana Disputes almost two months ago. They didn’t address the casinos modification of their weekly max, but managed to extract a promise from the casino to continue to make weekly payments broken immediately. I assure you this is not a joke. I have just discovered this resource and I would be very grateful for any assistance you can render. When stories like mine circulate, they cause embarrassment to the entire industry. I have gambled quite extensively on the internet and I am well aware that the vast majority of the industry treats their players respectfully and honestly. Club Player has done neither one. Thus far I have kept things entirely private but I am rapidly losing my patience.

I’d also like an apology.
I spoke with the affiliate manager of this casino a couple of days ago, and she was very concerned about this situation – no one has really had any problems with this casino, except for this player. She asked how this should be reconciled, I said it was easy – pay the player according to the original payment agreement, and skip the $500 per week crap. That’s just plain stupid.

So – it’s a “wait and see” mode; wondering what’s up and how this casino plans on sticking to its payment plan. What irks the hell out of me is that quite a number of casinos enforce these “payment plans” at whim. If they are clearly stated in the terms and conditions, then no problem. But if the casino fails to immediately credit back the deposit, and reneges on its agreement, well that is definitely roguish behavior. Players don’t need the grief. Last week, there was even a Microgaming casino that had a “piece meal” payout scheme for a progressive win. C’mon, get with the program! You claim to be a casino, well act like one.

MORE STUFF
Spoke with Amit, the General Manager of the Virtual Casino Group. They are continually trying to clean up their image, and he wanted me to make sure I forward any complaints directly to him so he can get involved. So far there haven’t been too many with this group of casinos. It’s mostly the stories from ex-employees and others that have had personal encounters with them. It just creeps me out, that’s all. But sure, if anyone has any problems with the Virtual Casino group – send them via PAB and I’ll have Amit get it sorted.

DON’T BETONSPORTS

The Feds are cracking down on sports betting this past week by arresting David Carruthers, CEO of BetOnSports, and a number of his partners and co-workers for Racketeering, violating the Wire Act, Mail Fraud, Tax Evasion, and a number of other serious offenses. Carruthers is a citizen of the UK, BoS is a publicly traded company in the UK, and operates from sunny Costa Rica. He was arrested in the States while waiting to change planes to head to Costa Rica.

This really sucks, not just for him, but for the entire industry. He and his partners are being brought up on specific charges which can be found here:
Federal Indictment

This is rattling the cages of probably most anyone who deals with sports betting and accepts bets over the telephone. This is against the law – no grey areas here, and if you think you are untouchable just think about David Carruthers and co. What gives the US Feds the right to nab a British citizen whose main business is not on US soil? Well it looks like he is breaking the law by accepting these bets from US players over the phone. The Feds allege that he is operating illegally and not paying US taxes on these wages. He has committed mail fraud by claiming that his casinos are “legally licensed and insured” (hmmm, where have we heard that before?). These are a number of other allegations.

One thing that bothers me is the following:

(23) On or about April 12,2006, BETONSPORTS PLC owned web site BETonSPORTS.COM solicited and accepted wagers from an individual residing in the State of Washington, in violation of that State’s laws.

That’s scary. Side note: it’s a federal offense in the State of Washington to place bets on the Internet – this goes for casinos and pokerrooms. This could open up a whole can of worms if the Feds are able to make this stick. If Carruthers and co. are convicted of this – then everyone hold on to your hats – it’s going to be crazy town. Are the feds going to start extraditing casino CEOs and owners to Washington state? Look out William Hill, you just might have a pending visit to a rainy place called Seattle. Stanley Ho? How’s your English? Hope you’ve boned up on it pretty well because you might find yourself in a pickle if the Feds can pull this one off.

Imagine what will happen if the Senate passes the anti-online gambling act this fall.

Calvin Ayre, CEO of Bodog, has stated that the Fed sting was BetOnSports specific and that his operations are completely different. He’s probably safe as long as they aren’t taking bets via phone lines. In fact, anyone who is doing this should not make this available to anyone residing in the states (especially from the “Evergreen State”).

I’m glad I never really dealt with sports books, especially those in Costa Rica. They’ve always sort of creeped me out. I don’t know what it is, something about seeing images of American Football, Basketball, and Baseball players on web sites gives me the heebie-jeebies. That ten foot pole just got longer.

FINALLY! NEW WEBCAST IS UP!!

Hear Vortran and I talk about…
FREE BEER!!Stupid US Congress Bible thumpersSlow Pay CasinosVortran’s Casino Warning

All this and more here

CASINOMEISTER’S BIERFEST IN FULL SWING!!

Who are the winners?

They’ll be announced early next week as soon as they have been selected. As for now, congrats go to John Steed who was the first person to answer correctly the following: What were the Mothers of Invention called before Frank Zappa took charge? They were “The Mothers” and before that “The Soul Giants”. $50 goes to JS since he’s in Korea and that’s a funky place to send Beer!!

MORE BEER HERE!!

As I have been beating over your head – it’s Bierfest at Casinomeister. We’re going craaaaazay and giving away FREE BEER and/or CASH prizes. Last week’s question:

Was Mr. Ed a horse – or was he actually a disguised Zebra from the Jungleland animal park in Thousand Oaks, California?

Ha! thought I pulled a fast one on some of you, since at Snopes.com there was an article on how the studio used a trained Zebra to act as Mr. Ed. It was a Red Herring. Congrats Jonas W. of Sweden – he’s our winner of $50!!

This week’s question:
What happened to Jimi Hendrix’s guitar that he burnt at the Monterey Pop festival?

The first person who contacts me with the correct answer (with cited references) wins $50 or $50 worth of Beer. One entry per person (make sure it’s correct) and please include your age and mailing address.

*If you’ve already won beer (or cash) during this beer fest, that’s your share until next year. Don’t bogart that beer my friend.

And stay tuned for further beer offerings!!

NEW EXCLUSIVE OFFER!!

THIS OFFER GOOD FOR ALL CURRENCIES – PLEASE READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS TO SEE WHICH CURRENCY YOU QUALIFY FOR!!!

PLEASE NOTE: THESE OFFERS ARE ONLY VALID FOR PLAYERS WHO DOWNLOAD FROM THE LINKS AT CASINOMEISTER OR NEWSLETTER — COPYING AND PASTING THIS OFFER ELSEWHERE IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN

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THEY KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING!

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Check them out today!!

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Casinomeister ®: Online Casino Authority – Advocate of Fair Play

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And Now For The Humor….

WORLD CUP JOKES ARE STILL A’COMIN’

There was an Italian, a German, and a Frenchman all on holiday in Saudi Arabia. They were busy partying drinking illegal beer when they were suddenly busted by the Saudi cops.

They stood trial the next day – were found guilty of illegal Beer consumption – and were to be punished by the traditional 20 lashes.

The judge told the Frenchman, “Before you receive your sentence, I will grant you one wish.” The Frenchman thought for a moment and stated “I wish for a nice thick pillow to be strapped to my back before my lashings.”

No problem – the judge ordered the guards to strap a pillow to the man’s back. After the fifth lashing, the pillow exploded into a cloud of feathers and the French guy was victim to the following 15. Ouch.

It was the Italian’s turn, and the judge asked him if he wished for something before his sentence was to be delivered. He said, “Yes, make it three thick pillows strapped to my back!”

The pillows were strapped on, and then the whipping began to commence. The pillows lasted until the eleventh blow when they exploded into a cloud of feathers and the Italian got the rest.

All eyes were on the German. The judge, feeling sorry for the other two said, “I’ll tell you what, you may have two wishes before the lashings occur.”

The German thought for a moment – then said, “For my first wish, I wish for 100 lashes.”

“Oh my, said the judge. You may not survive the punishment.”

“And for my second wish,” continued the German, “I wish for the Italian to be strapped to my back.”

ha ha ha

CASINOMEISTER NEWS UPDATE – 21 July 2006

There have been a number of developments and interesting articles posted in Casinomeister’s News today. The arrest of BetOnSports CEO in the US continues to reverberate throughout the industry:

NO BAIL FOR CARRUTHERS
BetonSports executive is regarded as a “flight risk” say American officials
https://www.casinomeister.com/gambling-news/

IS NON-SPORTSBOOK INTERNET GAMBLING ILLEGAL?
In any event, don’t travel to the US to find out, recommends legal expert
https://www.casinomeister.com/gambling-news/

PLAYTECH IN DAMAGE CONTROL MODE
Turnkey provider notes that it does not develop sportsbetting software
https://www.casinomeister.com/gambling-news/

BAD NEWS FOR U.S. PLAYERS FROM CORAL EUROBET
Spooked by the DoJ actions in the States, major UK gambling group bars U.S. players
https://www.casinomeister.com/gambling-news/july2006 .html#bad All this and more here:
https://www.casinomeister.com/gambling-news/

28 July 2006 – Issue #280

Dear Reader,

It may seem a bit quiet because many folks are on vacation, or just taking a summer break – but at Casinomeister, things have been busy as ever. So kick back, relax, and scroll down to see what’s up in Casinomeisterland…

Pleasantly yours,

Bryan

SUMMER LULL

It’s common during this time of year that things slow down a bit. People are chillin’ by the pool, going on holiday, or saying the hell with it because of rolling blackouts. Even so, Casinomeister has been busy with the usual player complaints of delayed payments from RTG casinos, forum postings of interesting political topics, and the obligatory crisis of the week.

Some exciting news though – on the horizon is Casinomeister’s relaunch. Besides a sharp new look, we will be welcoming a more noticeable functionality of the site. Casinomeister is synonymous with online casino information. And that’s what you’ll get. The entire site will have a new search engine that will allow you to search both the main site and forum simultaneously. Can’t find rogue-ass-casino.com? Well now you will.

Also, a toolbar is being designed for Internet Explorer users which will incorporate much of this stuff – information, links, forum, fun, etc. So stay tuned for further announcements on this.

More stuff – if you’re not fascinated by the recent turn of events in the US political scene and David Carruthers’s arrest and ousting as CEO of BetonSports, check your pulse. It’s hard to keep up with the latest, but we’re doing our best to keep you updated with what’s up in Bible thumpingland. Casinomeister’s forum – Casino Industry Discussion section will keep you up to snuff in this arena. The latest from ATE:

BetonSports hoping to reopen within a week
BetonSports is hoping to restart its operations within a week according to a report in the UK Daily Telegraph newspaper. The beleaguered betting company hopes that the sacking of its CEO will give it enough leverage with the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen.

U.S. gambling bill put on ‘hold’
Congressional sources cited in the Washington Post have said that the bill banning most forms of internet gambling was not going to pass. It is thought that some Republican senators have broken rank and put a ‘hold’ on the legislation, which will prevent it from being brought up for vote until concerns on the measure are resolved.

Check out http://www.ateonline.co.uk/ and/or join the discussion here
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/casino-industry-discussion/

NEW CASINOMEISTER MEMBER!!

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The Mansion Casino Video Poker Issue

This week it was reported Mansion Casino’s (a Casinomeister Accredited Casino) video poker was recycling discarded cards. In other words, let’s say you’re dealt three aces, a ten of spades, and a three of hearts. You hold the three aces (obviously) and discard the ten and three hoping for that fourth ace. With recycled cards, you might get the same cards back that you discarded – and that sucks, especially when the game rules state that you are dealt new cards. Intercasino has a video poker game like this, but they state that the cards are recycled and give you bonus points when they reappear. Whoop-de-friggin’do, it’s still a stupid game.

With this glitch (even I witnessed it while playing) their links and banners came down until it was resolved. And just a side note – I’ve noticed this phenomena while playing a “Casino Action” video poker game at the Luxor in Vegas – I think it was 50 play or 100 play Deuces wild. I noticed cards being recycled – but I didn’t know who to complain to, so I just said the hell with it and quit playing.

Anyway, Mansion Casino got on this – their software guys fixed the problem, they are reviewing player logs on a case by case basis and should be coming out with a statement in the next day or so. The statement will be posted here when I get it.

MORE BEER HERE!!

As I have been beating over your head – it’s Bierfest at Casinomeister. We’re going craaaaazay and giving away FREE BEER and/or CASH prizes. Last week’s question in our webcast:

What was Frank Zappa’s band called before he became the leader of “the Mothers”? Answer: the “Soul Giants”.

Congrats John Steed!! Oh so wise, he be. He chose the $50 (beer is too friggin’ hard to send to Korea). Good going!!

Last week’s newsletter question:
What happened to Jimi Hendrix’s guitar that he burnt at the Monterey Pop festival?

Answer: Frank Zappa salvaged this – got it to work, and used to play it at concerts. Amazing.

From Wikipedia

Zappa retrieved the burnt and broken parts of the Fender Stratocaster guitar that Jimi Hendrix destroyed onstage at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival. After Hendrix’s death in 1970, Zappa rebuilt the instrument and played it extensively during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2002, Zappa’s son Dweezil put the guitar up for auction in the U.S., hoping it would fetch $1 million, but it failed to sell. Dweezil also used this guitar on his albums “Having a Bad Day” and “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama”; on the latter album, Dweezil covers a song first recorded by his father.

Congrats Steve C. from Sunny California – you won BEER!!

This week’s question:
Name the movie star who plays a cirus performer that apparently has no arms. But he does have arms; he keeps them hidden and one of his hands actually has two thumbs. What was the character’s name and who played him?

The first person who contacts me with the correct answer wins $50 or $50 worth of beer – your choice (unless you live in a place that I can’t send beer to – then you get the fifty bucks).

*If you’ve already won beer (or cash) during this beer fest, that’s your share until next year. Don’t bogart that beer my friend.

And stay tuned for further beer offerings!!

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And Now For The Humor…..

LITTLE SIS’

My wonderful girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year, and so we decided to get married. There was only one little thing bothering me. It was her beautiful younger sister.

My new prospective sister-in-law was twenty-two, wore very tight miniskirts, and generally was bra-less. One day “little” sister called and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when I arrived, and she whispered to me that she had feelings and desires for me that she couldn’t overcome. She told me that she wanted to make love to me just once before I got married and committed my life to her sister.

Well, I was in total shock, and couldn’t say a word. She said, “I’m going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want one last wild fling, just come up and get me.” I was stunned and frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. When she reached the top she pulled off her panties and threw them down the stairs at me. I stood there for a moment, then turned and made a beeline straight to the front door.

I opened the door, and headed straight towards my car. Lo and behold, my entire future family was standing outside, all clapping! With tears in his eyes, my future father-in-law hugged me and said, we are very happy that you have passed our little test…..we couldn’t ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family.”

And the moral of this story is:

Always keep your condoms in your car

ha ha ha

CONFLICTING SIGNALS

Or are we trying to read too much into some of these statements?

The huge coverage and focus on every word uttered by officials and lawyers on the BetonSports issue this week has understandably led to company execs trying to fathom what the federal action is really all about.

One of the burning questions has been whether the action taken against BetonSports and its people is company-specific (ie aimed at nailing a high profile company that has allegedly questionable origins and a sports telephone betting record) or is the start of a wider persecution of industry activities in the United States?

Certainly the hardass initial statements of Missouri AG Catherine Hanaway gave the impression that there was more to come. She said: “Illegal commercial gambling across state and international borders is a crime. Misuse of the Internet to violate the law can ultimately only serve to harm legitimate businesses. This indictment is but one step in a series of actions designed to punish and seize the profits of individuals who disregard federal and state laws.”

However, later statements by DoJ spokesfolks had a milder ring. Jackie Lesch said the indictment against BetonSports was consistent with previous US policy, and emphasised that the DoJ did not intend to go after all US-facing operators. She added that “Under three federal statutes online gambling is illegal, both sports betting and casino games.”

Asked why the DoJ had picked on BetonSports rather than, say, PartyGaming, she said: “We weigh up the evidence and pick the cases that we think will have the greatest deterrent effect.”

Mitch Garber, CEO of Party Gaming countered: “I would ask the DoJ that if online gambling is illegal, why are there three Bills waiting to go to the Senate trying to make online gambling illegal?”

Jon Tarasewicz, a leisure analyst at Deutsche Bank’s City arm, seemed to agree with Garber, saying that the action may be aimed specifically at the Kaplans and their associates. The family had run physical gambling operations before going offshore and BetOnSports made greater use than rivals of telephone betting, in contravention of the Wire Act in America.

Tarasewicz said: “If this is not driven by trying to get at the founders and is genuinely the start of an industry clampdown, the timing seems odd, given that politicians have passed legislation through Congress whose whole point is that existing legislation is not robust enough to prosecute anyone.”

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, arch-enemy of online gaming in the House of Representatives seemed to admit that the question of illegality was not as cut and dried as Department of Justice spokesmen believe it to be. Praising the actions of the DoJ, he said: “We join with them in trying to make it clear that the law covers all forms of gambling. It is quite clear that the Wire Act covers sports betting, [but] the Wire Act because it was written in 1961 is not at all clear as to whether it covers other forms of gambling.”

The existing law does not clearly ban such things as a virtual roulette wheel, poker and other kinds of online gaming, Goodlatte said, also drawing attention to the fact that executives with other overseas gambling companies should take note of the prosecution.

Another DoJ spokesman, Brian Sierra said: “The view of the Department of Justice is and has been that Internet gambling is illegal,” According to Sierra, the new laws and Congress’ interest in online gambling have nothing to do with the latest round of charges lodged by the Department of Justice. “We’re not trying to send a grand scale message here,” he said. “We’ve been saying it for years: Internet gambling is illegal.”

Sierra’s comment to Dow Jones Newswires earlier in the week downplayed suggestions the indictment may trigger a clampdown on the online gaming sector. “I wouldn’t read too much into one indictment. It is obviously a fairly significant case on its own with a number of defendants,” he said.

Sierra says the department’s position is and has always been that anyone either in or outside of the U.S. who operates illegal online gambling operations to take bets from U.S. residents is committing a crime. Period.

UK gaming lawyer Hilary Stewart-Jones believes that much of the Department of Justice’s tactics are based on scaring the industry into compliance.

“I don’t think it’s going to be part of a flat-out campaign to prosecute everyone associated with online gambling,” she told OCN. “I don’t think they [US Department of Justice] have the resources or the appetite to do that… I would imagine it is much more about putting a marker in the sand and being seen to be taking action. The Department of Justice stance throughout all of this has been to try and control by fear as a deterrent, rather than pushing through clear legislation for example, or pushing through to test cases and prosecutions, so the fear factor has featured largely in deterring companies from going all out to take bets from the US.”

Several sector observers and analysts in London opined Tuesday that investors were overreacting by selling off online gambling holdings: “The indictment seems to be very BetOnSports-specific, yet the market seems to be treating all online gaming companies in the same manner,” said Wayne Brown, an analyst with Altium Securities in London.

Martin Owens, a US attorney who specializes in online and interactive gaming law, says “The arrest of David Carruthers represents a giant step backward in American gaming policy. It serves only to daunt and intimidate precisely that segment of the industry, which is attempting to bring online gambling into a harmonious and useful relationship with the licensed gaming regimes already in place. Grabbing Carruthers does nothing at all against the true pirates of the industry – to the contrary, it reinforces their position.”

“There is a genuine controversy here, based on the fact that Internet gambling is legal under the laws of at least 70 countries at the same time that the United States purports to ban it,” comments Owens. “I say purports because that is not a clear law or decision. At the time of this writing, there is as yet no federal law on the books unequivocally banning i-Gambling, and no federal court decision to that effect. The issue of whether or not American state or federal jurisdiction is invoked simply by the act of an American contacting an offshore gambling site has not even been intelligently addressed, never mind decided”.

Mark Grossman, US technology lawyer and the author of the “TechLaw” column, which has appeared as a weekly feature in the Miami Herald adds to this sentiment:

“I don’t think this [arrest] spells doom and gloom for the industry. This has always been an industry where those in the business understood the legal risks inherent in their operation. For years now, the government has been aggressive in the public positions they have taken about the legality of online gaming operations. The fact is that the laws are ambiguous and Congress, after years of trying to pass news laws that address the ambiguities, has not been able get anything approved by both houses of Congress. So does the latest arrest spell the end of the industry? Of course not. However, I suppose that there will be fewer layovers in Dallas by executives involved in an online gaming business.”

Jim Halpert, partner at the DLA Pipe law firm in Washington, DC, said: “The record of enforcement in this area is one of periodic high-profile enforcement actions, designed to deter what the Department of Justice views as ongoing systematic violations of US law.”

US legal expert Anthony Cabot said that over the past decade, federal officials have prosecuted many operators of online sports books with U.S. ownership or operations because federal law prohibits using phone wires to place those bets.

In a celebrated case from 2000, prosecutors won a conviction against Jay Cohen, a U.S. citizen who ran an operation in Antigua that took sports bets from Americans over the Internet. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison. But the wire law doesn’t cover other types of casino betting, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled. That has left some doubt about whether prosecutors can shut down poker and other casino games that target American players, Cabot said.

“The Justice Department has said [all] Internet gambling is prohibited, but most legal experts would say they are wrong, that this only applies to sports betting,” opines Joseph Kelly, a legal scholar at the State University of New York at Buffalo, who has consulted for the government of Antigua and others on US law.

Kelly said it was an unusual coincidence that the indictment – which was handed down in June but only unsealed this week – came in such close contiguity to the House of Representatives passing a new bill banning some, but not all forms of Web gambling in the USA.

“Why would Congress try to make something illegal if it is already illegal?” he asks.

The Times says that Britain will refuse to extradite suspects for breaking US laws against internet gambling. Extradition is an option only if conduct is illegal in both the UK and America.

The Telegraph added to other independent reports that several senior online gambling executives had been in the United States without hassles very recently, and quoted analyst opinions that this may indicate that the crisis was company-specific and not an all-out attack on the industry.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.
More news here.

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4 August 2006 – Issue #281

Dear Reader,

Things have been quite hectic this week, so it’s time for a command decision: it’s time for Casinomeister’s summer break! I’ll be chillin’ on some mountain in Austria for a few days with the family starting tomorrow. So until then – bye.

Absently yours,

Bryan 4 August 2006 – Issue #281

CASINOMEISTER TOOLBAR!

Yes it’s finally here – the long awaited and coveted Casinomeister Toolbar. This is designed for Internet Explorer, and it includes all of the cool stuff that makes Casinomeister what it is. Once you’ve downloaded and installed this (takes about one minute – if that), you’ll have at your finger tips direct links to: Casino Searches, Accredited Casinos, Rogue Casinos, Dispute Services, Casino Representatives, Forum Access, Webcast, Online Casino News, Online Casino FAQ, Screenshot tools, Spyware Detection tools, bitchin’ music feeds, some really neat surprises and a whole hell of a lot more. You don’t have to be on the Casinomeister website to have all of this – you can have Casinomeister wherever you go – that’s the beauty of it.

It has a search function much like the Google or Alexa toolbar that many of you use, and for now it searches the forum (with Casinomeister’s pending relaunch, it will search the entire site). Let’s say you are checking out yo-mama-casino.com and you want to see if anyone has posted about this in our forum – just copy and paste the name in to the search field in the toolbar and voila, you’ll have the search results.

You can download this here:
Casinomeister’s Toolbar!!

http://toolbars.winthemes.com/casinomeister/

And you can post your likes or dislikes about it here:
Toolbar Discussion
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/online-casinos/13567-casinomeister-toolbar-beta.html

HOT DAMN! NEW WEBCAST IS UP!!

Hear me and Vortran blab about the following:

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ANOTHER NEW CASINOMEISTER MEMBER!!

MORE BEER HERE!!

As I have been beating over your head – it’s Bierfest at Casinomeister. We’re going craaaaazay and giving away FREE BEER and/or CASH prizes. I ask a question, the first one to answer correctly gets $50 or $50 worth of BEER. Here is last week’s question:

Name the movie star who plays a circus performer that apparently has no arms. But he does have arms; he keeps them hidden and one of his hands actually has two thumbs. What was the character’s name and who played him?

I thought that this was a hard one, but man – I had no idea that there were that many Lon Chaney fans out there. Yep, it was Lon Chaney’s character carnival knife thrower Alonzo the Armless in “The Unknown” (1927)

You can check out a short clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHYnY3uO6ng&search=lon%20chaney

And congrats Deb W. from the USA – $50 was hers.

This week’s question:
Identify this sound clip:

Identify the movie and the character – first one to do so wins $50 or FREE BEER!!

And stay tuned for further beer offerings!!

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And Now For The Humor…..

Words Women Say

From the Archives:

FINE
This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

FIVE MINUTES
If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

NOTHING
This is the calm before the storm. This means “something,” and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with ‘Nothing’ usually end in “Fine”

GO AHEAD
This is a dare, not permission. Don’t do it.

LOUD SIGH
This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A “Loud Sigh” means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over “Nothing”

THAT’S OKAY
This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. “That’s Okay” means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

THANKS
A woman is thanking you. Do not question it or faint. Just say you’re welcome.

WHATEVER
It’s a woman’s way of saying *!#@ YOU!

ha ha haA

eCOGRA COMPLIANCE COMMITTEE REPORT ON JACKPOT FACTORY SEARCH ENGINE ISSUE

eCOGRA PRESS RELEASE

On 28 July 2006 the Compliance Committee of eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance, made up of Mr. W. Galston OBE (Chairman) , Mr. F. Catania and Mr. M.Hirst OBE, all independent directors of the organization, considered all the facts regarding an incident in which complaints were received concerning search engine optimisation practices be conducted by the Jackpot Factory group.

The Committee received a report of an independent and on-site investigation which had been carried out by external auditors. This covered the circumstances surrounding the issue, its causes and effects and the remedial actions taken by the company.

The Committee findings are that:

1) The nature and tenor of the Jackpot Factory search engine optimisation project was totally unacceptable because of the fictitious and misleading scenarios it portrayed. This had resulted in widespread public disapproval of the campaign.

2) However, there was no evidence to show that any individual or group of individuals were harmed or persuaded to indulge in potentially harmful behaviour by the campaign, which represented an important mitigating factor.

3) Similarly, there is no evidence to suggest that Jackpot Factory management had any deliberate intention to encourage vulnerable persons to participate in gambling activities at group casinos

4) The investigating team report indicates that it is satisfied that the Jackpot Factory claim to have outsourced the project initially is correct. However, the report finds, and Jackpot Factory management conceded that the company’s supervision of the project was inadequate.

5) The report confirms that internal disciplinary action taken by the company against those responsible was appropriate.

6) The Committee also considered the more positive aspects of the case and in particular the actions of Jackpot Factory in the immediate aftermath of the issue coming to public attention. On two occasions the company admitted fault in the matter and offered public apologies.

Management backed this up by re-directing company resources and mounting a committed and energetic exercise to track down every element of the campaign that could be found in order to remove it, at the same time urging the public to report any elements discovered so that these could be addressed.

7) Jackpot Factory management cooperated fully with the independent investigation team, presenting verbal and documentary evidence without reserve to assist in its investigations.

8) Jackpot Factory management has since deployed control improvements in its systems as suggested by the investigation team, which will guard against any repetition of this unfortunate incident. Processes are now in place to ensure that any further material that may surface as a result of this campaign is dealt with on a timely basis.

9) Evidence was produced showing that the damage to business and reputation suffered by Jackpot Factory was substantial, as a consequence of public disapproval and the suspension of the Play It Safe seal.

10) Before the incident, Jackpot Factory had a solid reputation for compliance with all eCOGRA standards and requirements.

Having considered all of the above, the Compliance Committee has made the following ruling:

The suspension of the “Play It Safe” seal is lifted, but Jackpot Factory will be subjected to increased eCOGRA monitoring to ensure compliance with the new content code of practice. This is to ensure that all remaining traces of the campaign are removed wherever this is possible. The Compliance Committee is aware of the existence of inactive search engine links, but is satisfied that these do not provide access to any offensive material. The removal of this type of link is solely under the control of the search engines.

The Committee wishes to thank all those representing players’ interests for their comments during the initial complaints and throughout the investigation. It also notes that the investigation team received the full cooperation of the Jackpot Factory management and is satisfied that they have shown their determination that this should not happen again.

The goal of eCOGRA in incidents such as this is to remove the immediate cause and potential for harm as quickly as possible, and then through fair and factual investigation isolate the reasons and ensure that systems are in place to guard against any repetition. These objectives have, in the opinion of this Committee, been met.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.
More news here.

18 August 2006 – Issue #282

Dear Reader,

I’m back, and there is a whole hell of a lot going on at Casinomeister. Want to know what’s going on? Well stop reading this salutation, scroll down, and find out.

Bluntly yours,

Bryan

SUMMER BREAK

Yep, it was nice. We spent a week in the mountains about 150 kilometers south of Salzburg, Austria. No TV, no computers, just the family, books to read, and games to play. The only thing that sucked was the weather – it’s been a typical raining August in central Europe. And the video recorder’s battery pack died on the second day – and the recharger was back home. Nevertheless, I’m hoping that all of my Casinomeister members are able to take a pause from your bosses’ agendas, company goals, spreadsheets and proposals and instead spend time with your families or go off by yourself. Vegas doesn’t count.

WHAT’S NEW AT CASINOMEISTER?

…a whole hell of a lot. Unfortunately you can’t see it yet. Casinomeister’s relaunch is on the horizon, and it’s much more than a tighter new design. The main purpose is to give you, my dear ${token2}, a better experience in navigating to wherever you’re trying to go to, or for finding whatever you seek. Meanwhile, Casinomeister’s forum has been upgraded with many new features. There is a new “Infraction” system where Meister Members are able to give warnings or “infractions” to other members who get out of hand (it happens y’know). Senior members and above can add images to their signatures. You can “multi-quote” posts, and the posts that you quote are hyperlinked for easy reference. Lot’s of cool stuff – check out your User CP, and it’ll only get better as I begin to tweak it a bit more and add some more bitchin’ plug-ins. Stay tuned for more…

Not a member? If not, why not? Become a member of one of the most highly regarded and visited online gaming forums on the Internet. Share your gambling experiences, bitch and moan about how all the casinos are ripping you off, post your winning screenshots, tell us why your government sucks, post pictures of fat Elvis, join our Casinomeister community – gabba gabba hey – be one of us:

CASINOMEISTER TOOLBAR!

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MORE BEER HERE!!

You guys are too damn smart. Each “Bierfest” question has been answered in literally minutes after it’s been published. Thanks to Google searches, music and film questions are a cinch. I thought last issue’s question Identify the movie and the character in this sound clip:
https://www.casinomeister.com/mp3/needle.wav would have you scratching your heads for at least a little while. Sheesh! Zoozie gave me the correct answer within minutes of publication. As if he was anticipating the newsletter and went straight to the contest. Good going dude! $50 is yours!!

But anyway, let’s try it again. Put on your thinking caps and identify this clip – the movie and the characters – first one to do so wins $50 or FREE BEER!!

Audio Player

00:00

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

Submit your answers to: bierfest@casinomeister.com
Incomplete answers don’t count! Good luck and stay tuned for further beer offerings!!

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