9 August 2007

WHITE LABEL CASINOS

Sounds like a brand of hard alcohol, but it ain't. A "white label" casino is an casino entity that has been with us for a long time. Simply put, it's a casino that is more or less run by an affiliate webmaster. Gambling Federation and the Grand Virtual Group have been offering these casinos for years. Webmasters can create a domain name and have the casino website hosted from there. The casino support, payments and backend is controlled (in most cases) by the host casino. The marketing and advertising is controlled by the webmaster. It sounds like a pretty cool idea for a enterprising young webmaster - and it's a way in which a casino can reach more players. But handled the wrong way, it can be a very bad thing - not just for players, but for the industry as a whole. Please let me explain.

Casino operators need to understand that they serve the player. Without players, there is no casino industry - period. Operators also need to understand that there is a limit to how many casinos this industry needs - it's not meant for everyone. And there are still a lot of crappy sites out there. These are "trying times" for many people in the industry at the moment, and the last thing this industry needs is more crap sites.

Enter the "white label". Why do we need these casinos? Well for one thing, a WL casino can be a great thing. It can serve our industry by filling a void where no casino has gone before. For instance, what if Belle Rock wanted to present one of their casinos to Mexican Ranch owners who frequent Las Vegas. A solution could be to offer one of their casinos as a "white label" to a Mexican portal master who could present a Belle Rock casino in a professional and legitimate way. Done right, this enhances our industry. It gives these people (the Mexican ranch owners) the opportunity to become acquainted with a really good group of casinos - and they should know exactly who they are dealing with.

Transparency. For casino operators, without reputation and trust - you have nothing. In order to gain reputation via trust, you must be transparent. Players need to know who they are dealing with and who to go to if they have problems. They deserve no less. And they do not need to be fed hyperbole on the "About Us" page about how xyz casino is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that the odds are better than in Vegas. The player deserves to be given specific information on the casino operation.

Operators need to ask themselves "why" a white label is important to their company, and "how" this white label will better our industry. White Labels need to be micro-managed and strict controls need to be in place. One thing for sure, the Internet has enough VegasOnlineGoldenCasinoPlayerClub.com's. For a casino group to allow these sorts of clones loose in cyber-land is unwarranted and unacceptable. The online casino horizon is cluttered enough without more of this garbage. So you see, there is a right way to do this, and a wrong way.

Right way: Belle Rock has given a White Label casino to Lycos. Lycos has the opportunity to do some co-branding and incorporate some of their resources here. You'll notice right at the top it says "Powered by Belle Rock", and there are plenty of links for anyone to peruse in case they have a problem.

Wrong way: Playshare has a group of White Label casinos - one of which is Casino2See - which is one of the stupidest named casinos since "Joyland". Please note that there is no indication on who is responsible for this casino, and it's cheesy as hell. Up until yesterday, there were direct links to porn sites. This is a Microgaming casino - and I believe that something has fallen through the cracks. Take a look at the female 24 hour customer support person. She's in a "doggie submission" position with a smile on her face. What a joke. What a laugh. And I am flabbergasted that anyone who works for a Microgaming casino can claim that "due diligence" and quality control is in effect.

This week, one of our more active forum members, Pinababy69 has brought this to our attention here. This thread is a must read for all - players, webmasters, affiliate managers and operators. What is surprising, is that Playshare is a really good casino group. Their flagship casino Grand Monaco Casino is a Casinomeister Accredited casino and they are very active and responsive to player issues both good and bad.

What needs to happen is a act of reigning in the horses - a complete review of their White Label policy is in order. In fact, I hope that all WL operators take a good look at what they are doing. They need to ask themselves how they are making our playing environment a better place. If the answer is a shallow one, they need to pull the plug on it.

There were 246 new members in July - up from 161 new members in June. But the majority of these new members were not referred. Some of you guys are missing out. Many of the newbies signing up stated in the "How did you find Casinomeister?" field "through a friend". Well, friend or no friend - if they don't place your user name in the referral field, you can't get credit.

In July - two winners: Pokeraddict who had a total of 8 referred members, and Asidea who referred 7 members. Both of these members have won a $30 Amazon.com/uk gift certificate. Watch your email.

Read the guidelines for referring members - it's really quite simple. The instructions on referring members are located here