Dear Readers,

Well, I'm back. And with this issue, I will be telling all about my escapades in Toronto, Ontario Canada. In case you were unaware, the River City Group hosted the Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo which is probably the most important function that pertains to the dynamic world of online casinos. Why? Well, besides the parties and elbow rubbing, there is a lot of focused and detailed information that can affect you, my dear reader. So read on...

Informatively yours

Bryan

I boarded the flight early Saturday morning in Nürnberg. Nürnberg to Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf to London, London to Toronto. Obviously it took most of the day, but the flights were not that bad. The food on Air Canada's flight was adequate and the service was nice. The movie was "Ocean's 11" which seemed appropriate since I was going to a "casino" convention of sorts. But I thought I was on an Air India flight; more than a third of the passengers were wearing turbans. I thought that going through customs would be no problem since the Customs Agents would be focused more on these nice people who were either immigrating or visiting their Canadian relatives. But I was proved wrong.

Toronto at last. We landed nicely and I debarked the plane. I followed the crowd through the gangways and mazelike corridors at a happy-go-lucky pace until we spilled out into an auditorium sized room, chuck full of several planeloads of people, all standing in line (five lines) with their passports and official papers in hand. I tried to pick a line without so many turbans and sarongs because I knew this would be a slowing factor. No luck.

After about 35 minutes of approaching "the man", I made it to the inspection counter, smiled and handed my passport (American) and customs form to the indifferent customs representative. The conversation went something like this:
"Where are you coming from?"
"Germany."
"How long were you in Germany?"
"I live there. About two-and-a-half years."
"Why do you live there?"
"Uh, I married a German.
"Why are you visiting Toronto?"
"Uh, business."
"What do you do?
"I, uh, operate websites."
"And what is the content of your website?"

Whoop whoop! Alarms went off in my head. The radical teenager of the past Bryan wanted to yell, "Porno! I run PORNO sites!" but I didn't think that would have gotten me anywhere. He had me a little flustered (these guys are good at grilling people. This is what they are trained to do).
So I meekly said, "Information."
"What kind of information?
"Um, news and stuff."

He stamped my customs card, marked it up with a big fat red pen, and directed me to go through a special door. Once inside, I found myself in another room, standing in line with the people in turbans and scared looking Au Pairs. So I began practicing my little speech in my head, I am the operator of Casinomeister.com, an information site concerning online casinos. I am here on business to attend the Global Interactive Gaming Summit and Exposition at the convention center. I am the operator of Casinomeister.com, an information site concerning online casinos... By the time I got to the "inspection" counter (this guy was much more personable), my mind kicked into gear remembering that I had a press pass to the convention. "So, what are you doing in Toronto?" he asked.
"I'm a journalist covering the Global Interactive Gaming Summit."
"Hey, sounds like fun." He stamped my passport. "Have a nice stay." And I was on my bewildered way.

I arrived at my hotel, the Strathacona, comfortably small, but not cramped. I didn't have a sink counter in the bathroom, so my toiletry articles got a little stacked and cluttered. I sat down and organized my agenda:

shop
eat
meet people
see Spiderman
learn something new
shop some more

I found an excellent Tex-Mexican style food place (The Lone Star). Had a groovy Chicken Chimichanga and a Regular Margarita. The thing I like best about Mexican restaurants are the chips that they keep stocked up at your table; a real treat. You don't find this in Germany. And the waitresses were very nice.

After a pleasant night's sleep, (besides the predictable 2 am wakeup) I moved on to shop. It was Sunday, and I was going to celebrate the privilege to shop. On Sunday, you can't even hang up your laundry to dry in my village, much less shop. The weather was a bit surprising: wet, windy, and cold. I purchased an El Cheapo umbrella and set forth. I had found a Wal-mart in the yellow pages and I was determined to pick up certain items that I can't get at home. Duct-tape (an essential item for real men who work around the house), freezer bags, large heavy duty trash bags (people have serious environmental issues over here, sheesh) children's books in English...and other odds and ends. Took a quick subway train, and voila I was there.

Wal-mart. What joy. For those of you who are "tsk tsking" me, thinking that I'm being shallow and simple-minded, please don't get me wrong. I used to think like you, that Wal-marts were evil mom-and-pop killers. That was my vision when I lived in San Diego. But now I rely on mom-and-pop, and it sucks. I can't buy duct-tape! And you can forget about flour tortillas and (real)salsa.

By 1 pm, I hit my second mall...it was incredible, immense. It was an overwhelming four story credit card bender. I hit a few stores but mainly browsed since my backpack was weighted down by the aforementioned plastic items, some canned salmon, kids' books, and other articles of interest. I was not returning to my hotel room quite yet. "Spiderman" was playing at a local theater, and man was that a treat.

And speaking of treats, that evening I met up with the infamous Mike Craig and advisors of the Online Players Association executive committee. We sat down and had a very nice meal at, you guessed it, the Lone Star. This was very productive since it was the first time that some of us met face to face. We ate and drank and returned to our respective hotels.

Monday, the first day of the convention. Well, this is what I was there for and before it was to start, I was to meet with the venerable Julie Sidwell from Gambling Grumbles. We had lunch, along with her distinguished husband, in the hotel restaurant. It was very pleasant ordering everything in English. I was really enjoying the freedom that language gives you when you are completely and utterly fluent in the language. No butchering of grammar here. I digress.

As many of you know, I do somewhat what Julie does, helping players out when they have problems with online casinos. But of course, Julie does it on a much larger scale. So it is good for us to discuss current player attitudes, share informative tidbits concerning certain casinos and other aspects of watch dogging this unregulated industry. And we always like to gossip about the mundane American stuff that I have no connection to from Germany.

We parted, promising to see each other again, which we did several times, and made our way to the first of many informative presentations.

When I registered and received my highspeed little press badge, I was surprised when the nice lady handed over a small briefcase, courtesy of the River City Group, chock full of incredibly useful information. It contained not only schedules and listings of presenters, but their bios and outlines of their presentations as well. There was even a pen included. Kudos for The River City Group!

The first presentation that I was able to catch was Melody Wigdahl's Payment Solutions. Ms Wigdahl is an independent e-commerce consultant with over 20 years of experience. Anyone who is considering running their own online casino should have been there. And this is why these functions are so important. Most people receive their information via the Internet albeit email searching through websites. Here, the information was concise, to the point and questions could be raised and answered. She covered choosing the right "payment solution" and discussed each option in detail. She also outlined how to choose a payment processor, security, chargebacks, and what to expect when setting up a merchant account for an online casino.

Looking around the room, I could see many people taking notes, and I was hopeful that these were good notes since this is where so many casinos have failed...getting people paid.

There was a short break and Iglobalmedia sponsored the munchies and refreshments. Way to go Iglobalmedia and Mario Wells!

The next presentation was on Online Casino Marketing by Nancy Krause from The River City Group. She covered the basics of online marketing which was very informative, and she presented some surprising statistics. According to the River City Gambler Monitor, about 87% of Europeans own cell phones (in Germany we call them Handys) compared to 70% of North Americans (excluding Mexicans). 13% of these Europeans connect to the Internet via their cellphones compared to about 7% of the American/Canadians. Some brain candy there for you marketing people. Also she mentioned that to successfully market a casino, you need to start with a minimum of $40,000 per month for the first six months for advertising. A quarter of this should be allocated to Casinomeister (this was in my notes, hmm).

That evening, there was a marvelous reception in the Royal York Hotel hosted by The River City Group. Incredible food. A nice mixture of salmon hors d'oeuvres and free beer and wine. There was even a jazz band with an upright bass cello. Very groovy...but our time was cut short since the Online Players Association was having their first executive conference meeting within the half hour.

Don't touch that dial. The next edition of our newsletter will include:
Part II: My Observances and Departure And Star Wars Was Really Awesome
A must read for anyone with any interest of what is happening in this industry or intrigued with my take on the new Star Wars flick.

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