Dear Readers,

Man, what a trip! In case you haven't noticed, I have been pleasantly absent from my place of duty, Casinomeister, for the past two weeks. I spent the first several days in Las Vegas visiting the Global Gaming Exposition (G2E), and the last several days meandering about the Casino Affiliate Conference in Vancouver, B.C. In the in-between time, I spent my time doing drugs and gettin' nekkid. Ha! Got your attention now!

Actually, it was a very interesting trip. I met with the head guys at RTG, Boss Media, Wager Works, Microgaming, just to name a few. And many of our online personalities were there as well; Spearmaster, Hitmob, OPA Mary, again, just to name a few. So, I hope you have a few extra minutes for this *special* newsletter since there is lots of worthwhile reading in store.

Busily yours,

Bryan

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and what a long strange trip it's been. Part 1 of 2

The worst part about any trip is unpacking. I always come across something I should have done, or forgot, and there is not much I can do about it. I found a cashout ticket for $20.61 from the Luxor Hotel that I forgot to cash in, damn! So to begin with, this ticket is good for another 49 days and if anyone will be in Vegas before then, email me I'll send it to you. You can use it for any game of your choice, and if you win big, don't forget where it came from :)

So, trip highlights: let's start with Vegas. The Luxor was a very cool place to stay. The casino floor has the usual selection of games, but the entertainment really calls for a return visit. Have you heard of or seen the "Blue Man Show"? Absolutely mind blowing and I even bought the CD. Some of you may have seen them as the three "blue men" on the Intel commercial pushing Pentium IV. They play percussions with PVC pipes. I caught one before he could escape

Another "must not miss" entertainment feature at the Luxor is "The Haunted Mansion" playing at the IMAX theater on the upper level. It's a 45 minute 3D movie that is another mind-blower! The special effects are the same caliber as those created for The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Wow!

I also found that I like Spam! Yes, there is a new Spam Video Slot that is absolutely hilarious! You can actually play the 1¢ version and milk the hell out of a twenty dollar bill. (C'mon waitress, bring me another beer). I ended up winning about $75 on this one particular machine before I left. Great graphics and theme from IGT!

But let's get down to business. My main mission was to gather information from the exhibition hall of the G2E (why they don't abbreviate this as the GGE is beyond me). The online casino presence was small and a bit disappointing. Some of the usual booths and personalities were there. And I am happy to report that some of the software providers have some very cool things in store for us. If you are a Bingo fan, Boss Media has Bingo by the horns. They will be releasing a new site in the next couple of weeks that will please Bingo players and probably make those of us who never took Bingo seriously into new found fans. More details pending.

IGT, the guys who make about 110% of the landbased video slots had a huge section of the floor which lured me away from the online stuff. This company leads the way when it comes to video slots. "Young Frankenstein" was presented along with "Universal Creatures". An interesting pair which provides state of the art graphics and some very addicting play action. You don't want to stop. You have to see what the creatures will do when you hit the bonus round. Thank God for 1¢ machines!

But these guys are trend setters, and I'm sure many on the online casino software developers were checking some of the games out themselves; getting creative and hopefully not stealing ideas. But I may be wrong.

What was unsettling was that I, and Mary Snyder (my IGT gaming guide), recognized a number of characteristics from numerous games that have been copied by several software developers. There may be trademark, copyright, or patent violations that vendors of casino software may not be aware of. Who is to say if the vendors researched where or how their developers created their graphics, or got their ideas. There could be some very serious problems for some software providers down the line if this isn't addressed right away.

Another highlight was my (our) meeting with the CEO from Real Time Gaming. One of the main reasons to meet with Mike Staw was to create a communicative relationship between the Online Players Association and RTG. There have been some serious issues with RTG powered casinos in the past (rogue-like activities of Casino Extreme and its offspring, Virtual Casino and its cryptic and insulting behavior, Vegas Strip casinos and its half-truths and blatant lies) just to name a few.

The dinner meeting went rather well, and RTG had made the following assurances: that Casino Extreme and its sister casinos are under completely new ownership and management; and that they will be more responsive to customers from now on, that RTG will proactively handle their complaints by providing links in their software, that all complaints coming into the RTG site via the dedicated service page were being handled as they came in, and finally, that all Danes have been paid by the Vegas Strip group of casinos.

The latter I'm a bit skeptical of since I personally handled about a hundred or so of these complaints, and Vegas Strip stopped replying to my emails. This was a year ago. If you are a Dane and are still owed your deposit from a Vegas Strip casino, please contact me or if you are a member of the Online Players' Association, file a complaint here.

Leaving Las Vegas: it wouldn't be complete watching a friend of mine winning $1,500 at the "Checkers" machine at the Green Valley Ranch (a locals' casino). It's a very addictive game where you are issued up to nine checkers on a board, and you have three Kings. The object of course, is to jump as many checkers as possible. She jumped eight out of nine on the nickel machine at a max bet. It was my first witness to the ritual of a $1500 cash payout right there by the machine. Wow!

Next week: The Casino Affiliate Conference in Vancouver. I make the "Vancouver Sun"! My meeting with Slotland's Ray St. Jon, and much more!

And a collision with the players is possible

There was a time in a far off industry a long time ago when turnkey casino providers could get away with a hands-off approach regarding aggrieved players when a licensee went down the tubes. Fortunately the industry has changed and matured since then, with companies like Microgaming and RTG measuring up to their responsibilities when casinos such as Tropika, TCO and Goodfellows went bust and they ensured that the players were looked after appropriately. They deservedly earned respect for meeting those obligations.

Regrettably, new kids on the block iChance/Futurebet/World Wide Support seem not to have learned from the mistakes of history and may well be condemned to repeat them, judging by statements that manager Duane Mills and others have made on message boards and to Online Players' Association executives following the very early demise of two of their licencees.

It appears that Futurebet does not feel any obligation to the ultimate user of its products - the player - in the event of licencees going downhill.

They take the position that they are solely a provider of quality software (and hosting to preserve results integrity) to the casino and sportsbook operators. They are not in a position at this time to require reserve funds of operators, or to test them for fitness. They will not assume responsibility for operator's liabilities in event of failure.

Mr Mills rather disingenuously says that: "To demand that we make good on a debt owed by someone who merely licenses our software would be analogous to Infopop, the provider of this message board system, being held liable for the false statements posted by Sting on such board." and "While it remains Worldwide Support's position that any decisions regarding payment of wins, or anything beyond the functionality of the software for that matter, remains squarely with the operator, we do regret the unfortunate circumstances that you have had to endure."

The players' perspective is that the provider has the ultimate yea or nay on the conditions surrounding the licencing of the software, and consequently his or her reputation and business to a great extent depends on the type and probity of licencees that they allow to use their product. They have the clout to structure their "franchise" deal and select their franchisees in such a way as to protect both themselves and the ultimate user, who is the player. That creates obligations as well as rewards for them, and in today's industry a provider is held accountable for his or her licencees' conduct - to the extent that business can suffer as several providers have discovered to their cost.

Futurebet licencees would be in the direct firing line of player insecurity and antipathy at the thought that if anything goes wrong they cannot turn to the provider to either arrest the downhill slide or remedy the shortcomings of the licencee. That doesn't make for good business, and Futurebet would be well advised to reconsider their position.

As we went to press further information was emerging at http://www.7seascasino.com/global/, adding to the hassles Futurebet faces. There is interesting detail there on Jeff Hurley and Duane Mills (previously of Global Interactive which it appears has now morphed into Futurebet)

The owners of 7 Seas and Palomino were at one time Global Interactive/Starnet's top clients, but they have switched software and are still allegedly owed a significant sum of money by GI. They are so distressed about this situation that they have displayed chapter and verse of their experiences with Mills/Hurley/GI on the above site.

If true, it's a sorry tale of questionable business ethics at best.

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More articles like this in our news section.

News courtesy of Infopowa news service.