Off to Costa Rica

neilw

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I'm of to Costa Rica at the end of April to visit some of the live casino providers and studios that are located in San Jose.

So far I'm meeting with Ezugi, Visionary iGaming and Vivo. I'll then be following that up with a holiday :).

Let me know if there is anything you'd like me to ask or get photos of (depending on security) and I'll see what I can do.

Neil
 
I'm of to Costa Rica at the end of April to visit some of the live casino providers and studios that are located in San Jose.

So far I'm meeting with Ezugi, Visionary iGaming and Vivo. I'll then be following that up with a holiday :).

Let me know if there is anything you'd like me to ask or get photos of (depending on security) and I'll see what I can do.

Neil

Can you bring back a multipack of Costa Rica 'licenses' for me to flog on eBay?
 
Can you bring back a multipack of Costa Rica 'licenses' for me to flog on eBay?

I'll find those with the hens teeth.

Seriously though, some of the operators that are based there but do have licenses for some of the countries they provide their games into. So while there may be no licensing regime in Costa Rica some of the solutions are regulated by other jurisdictions.

I'm interested in getting a feel for the environment and why it's such a popular destination for Live Casino Studio's.
 
Back from Costa Rica

Well, I'm back from Costa Rica - what a place! if you ever get the chance it's a fantastic holiday destination.

It's not the cheapest of places, in fact branded clothes etc are just as expensive there are there are in the UK and food in restaurants is priced slightly cheaper, but not much. Starbucks coffee is about the same price.

I found the people to be super friendly and willing to help when asked. Uber is great for getting around San Jose, which is where I met with a number of Live Casino providers including GGL who were involved in the dealer cheating scandal that hit a month or so ago. I'll be revealing what I found out over the next few weeks.

What I will say is that I had a preconception of Costa Rica before I visited. I imagined an uncontrolled business environment where anything goes. Borne I must say from reading or listening to others that have had bad experiences in the past. What I found was totally the opposite. The business areas are flourishing in San Jose. Large international corporations have offices bringing 1000's of jobs to the city. The new areas are modern and wouldn't look out of place in London or New York.

The guys running the Live Casino companies are serious business people with years of experience of running live casino operations. I saw professionalism and pride in the products that they were producing with the desire to expand and build on what they have.

I had a great trip, the holiday was fantastic and I look forward to sharing my experiences soon.
 
...

I had a great trip, the holiday was fantastic and I look forward to sharing my experiences soon.

Looking forward to your reports. Sounds like you had a great time - glad you didn't end up in a ditch somewhere. :D

I was there with the family a couple of years ago - we had a great time as well.
 
I had a great trip, the holiday was fantastic and I look forward to sharing my experiences soon.

It's taken me longer than I anticipated to write up my notes from my trip.

My first article explains what I discovered when I met with the owner of Global Gaming Labs, the operator who provided the live casino that BetOnine were using when the video of the dealer caught cheating was recorded.

In summary, it looks like the dealer was working alone or in collusion with someone else.

As far as can be determined no-one made any direct money from the incident. The Dealer refused to say anything about what happened and was sacked. The guy who posted the video on his new youtube channel got over a million hits. Betonline who announced the same day that the video was released that they had moved live casino providers, were already planning to move. They just bought forward the migration because of the bad press that was about to hit. GGL had decided 12 months previously to close their business down and transfer their clients to Visionary iGaming. A timing issue made to look like something else.

There is a fuller description
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.

My second article is an
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.

I was impressed with what I saw, the people I spoke to and I had my pre-conceived ideas about Costa Rica kicked into touch.

I like to check facts, which is why I visited Costa Rica in the first place. I've been uncomfortable repeating the words others have used for labelling anything to do with online gaming in Costa Rica as dodgy or even corrupt.

True they don't have a licensing regime, but most of the companies I met supply their games into jurisdictions that do require licenses and they comply with those. The one operator that doesn't has a good reputation and you won't find anything negative ever written about them.

I've got some nice video footage (that I haven't published yet) of myself being taught how to deal live blackjack. I must admit I have a new found respect for the live dealers.

Bryan was particularly keen for me to get a picture of armed guards, but alas there were none.

However here's pic of me in the Ezugi live casino studio.

me-in-ezugi-studio.jpg

I'm happy to answer any specific questions as it's difficult to get everything into an article, so please fire away.
 

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