49ercasino, any views?

[uungy]

They have just changed to RTG, just wondering if they are worth the try?

 

[jetset]

WTF????

This group was part of Peak Entertainment but now seems owned by a name not familiar to me - Red Giant Limited - which is a UK based company.

It is not clear to me whether they have bought the casinos from Peak and are now switching softwares, or whether Peak has morphed into Red Giant and dumped Cryptologic.

We've sent enquiries to the companies involved to explore that.

This advance press release, which mainly deals with the licensing of the cartoon brand Yosemite Sam is available from Red Giant:

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao and London, England, February 15th, 2006
Red Giant Ltd. and Warner Bros. Online have entered into an innovative digital licensing agreement that includes integrating the infamous Yosemite Sam as the primary branding and promotional host for the online gaming site 49erCasinoTM. Yosemite Sam the legendary cartoon character who has been entertaining the world for over 60 years is now kicking up online gold at 49erCasinoTM, which is owned and operated by Red Giant Ltd.

The 49erCasinoTM brand is a popular western themed style online casino based on the gold rush era of the mid 1800s where thousands of people from all over the world came to California in hopes of discovering gold and were called 49ers.

Robert Szmigiel, 49erCasino brand manager states, We felt the Yosemite Sam character was a perfect fit for our 49erCasino brand because of his popular (humorous) western style personality, history and world-wide demographic appeal. Well be using Yosemite Sam as the lead character infusing his likeness, his voice and his unique personality throughout the site and all its offerings. Were pleased that Yosemite Sam will figure prominently in the strategic promotion of our brand worldwide.

Robert added, Red Giant has always been selective in choosing its business partners and we are extremely pleased with the opportunity to work with Warner Bros. Online. We are confident that this collaboration and the Yosemite Sam character brand will facilitate the successful expansion of 49erCasino and capture a significant segment of the explosive growth in online gaming internationally. The web site will also be translated into several languages as the online casino expands marketing into foreign markets.

About Red Giant Ltd.

Red Giant Ltd., is a global leader in online gaming entertainment which manages two of the most recognizable and well respected online casinos, (www.49erCasino.com and www.omnicasino.com), as well as one of the largest poker rooms (www.SunPoker.com) on the Internet today. Red Giants properties have won numerous awards in the online gaming industry since 1997, including Best Payout Percentages, Fastest Payouts, and Best Customer Service just to name a few.

For more information contact:
Robert Szmigiel
Red Giant Ltd.
Email: robert.szmigiel@redgiantltd.com
1 888 525 7325

 

[GrandMaster]

Here is the newsletter I received this morning from peak-entertainment.com:

"Just wait 'till you see what Peak Entertainment's casinos and poker rooms have in store this month!

[snipped]


49er Casino is back ... Come git yer gold!
49er Casino is back with a bang and now features Yosemite Sam! The brand new casino sports totally redesigned look, new software with more games and bigger bonuses than ever before!

Sign up now and receive a 100% bonus on your first deposit (currently accepting deposits via NETeller, Click2Pay, and InstaDebit ... other methods to follow).

Visit the all new website at

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

and download the new software now then make your deposit (use coupon code: FREEGOLD)and receive up to $100 in free cash!"

49ercasino.com claims that Red Giant Ltd own 49er and Omni, but peak-entertainment.com still lists Omni as part of Peak Entertainment. It would be useful to know the relationship, if any, between the two companies.

 

[jetset]

Thanks for that additional information, GM. I guess this could be a case of PE consolidating and moving the retained assets into a new holding company registered in Antigua and Curacao (it would appear).

No responses to our queries yet, but it does appear from your information that this is not a sell-off but a corporate change or perhaps a merger.

It's a nice big account for RTG, and Crypto are probably smarting a bit.

 

[Macgyver]

49er's Live Chat feature also has a Peak Entertainment logo at the top and redirects to Peak Entertainment's support.

 

[uungy]

Only just got back, i gor it from Peak Ent. too! Just wondering they may be changing slowly to RTG! But wondering if thats a good sign to move from crypto to RTG or a bad one!

 

[soflat]

I am giving it a go. I think I have only played one other RTG ever.

Does anyone know how important this is for Crypto?

 

[uungy]

Reports from a different forum cashout is processed within a few hours, however i didn't get to withdraw

 

[jetset]

We have still not received any responses from the various companies we quizzed on this earlier today, so it's hard to speculate.

Regarding Cryptologic, this is undoubtedly painful but that's a very strong company with some heavyweight licensees and very substantial reserves and resources - they are going to be around for some time yet! The share price might take a temporary ding, I suppose but it won't do any lasting damage.

 

[GrandMaster]

Thanks for that additional information, GM. I guess this could be a case of PE consolidating and moving the retained assets into a new holding company registered in Antigua and Curacao (it would appear).

The registered office of Red Giant is in Newcastle (England).

 

[tencardcharlie]

I deposited there, played and withdrawed a small profit. Money in neteller in < 2h. Pretty good. I'll probably play there again.

 

[umberto]

From their CS :

*) neteller withdrawals 1-3 days
*) new casino means new players - registered players to previous 49er should register again
*) ALL players receive sign up bonus
*) NO id confirmation at least for now

 

[Macgyver]

I had the same pleasant experience with a NETeller withdrawal. Though they emailed me and said "usually we ask for 24 to 48 hours with a withdrawal," they had it back into my NETeller within 10 minutes.

They get a from me.

 

[jetset]

Just received a brief response from Cryptologic which does not answer the questions posed and takes us no further forward - we're continuing to push them for some real answers on this.

No response from Red Giant or Peak yet - this is supposed to be a dynamic industry and it is disappointing that some straight shooting answers have not been received yet.

 

[jetset]

We are clearly getting the runaround here with non-committal responses from Cryptologic, an outright refusal to comment at this time from Red Giant and nothing at all from Peak or RTG.

Bearing in mind that they are marketing these casinos and the changes to the players, this is in my opinion very disappointing and unbusinesslike coming from large and well established companies.

I cannot see what can possibly warrant secrecy when the sites and the evidence are out there in plain sight of all.

Looks as if it's just 49er that has switched to RTG at present.

I doubt we are going to get much further with this today, but we'll keep pressing.

 

[dickens1298]

If you go to the Peak Entertainment web site, it still mentions Crypto prominently, and 49er Casino is no longer listed as part of that group.

 

[jetset]

Yet Peak Entertainment are sending out 49er promo material (see above)

Here's the current situation:

CRYPTOLOGIC CONUNDRUM

Who is the mysterious Red Giant, does it own Omni and who's changing to RTG software?

InfoPowa has been trying to unravel some pretty mysterious corporate manoeuvring that seems to be in progress this week, involving turnkey provider Cryptologic-Wagerlogic, their longtime licensee Peak Entertainment and two of its casinos, the software provider Real Time Gaming and a hitherto unknown UK company called Red Giant Limited.

Here's a summary to date:

Peak Entertainment, one of Cryptologic-Wagerlogic's long established licensees had the following online casinos and poker rooms in their stable:

Sands of the Caribbean

1on1

Omni

Caribbean Sun Poker Room

3 Diamonds

49er

Several of these claimed to be powered by Omni, but this was clearly Wagerlogic software, presumably under license.

Last month 49er was "unavailable" for a brief period and this was noticed in passing, however an alert player this week noticed that it had changed to RTG software. On inspection, the site referred to a hitherto unknown UK company called Red Giant Limited, which claimed that it owned Omni and 49er and had negotiated a deal with Time Warner to use the cartoon character Yosemite Sam in it's promotional work.

Note that the players had no intimation of change up to then.

Coinciding with this, 49er players started receiving promo emails from Peak Entertainment - pushing the new software at 49er.

This begged the questions - what is the relationship between Red Giant and Peak Entertainment? What is happening regarding player accounts? Who owns Omni? Why has only one casino (49er) switched to RTG and are there future plans for other casinos in the Peak group to follow suit? What happens to the poker operation? Who is Red Giant, and what other online gambling interests does it hold? Why have these moves not been made known to the players and the online gambling community at large?

Despite persistent attempts to obtain answers to these questions from RTG, Cryptologic, Red Giant and Peak Entertainment very little further is known.

Red Giant refused to comment. Peak ignored repeated emails, as did senior execs at RTG and Cryptologic made a guarded comment along the following lines:

1) They too are puzzled and will seek clarification from Wagerlogic, which has an exclusive licensing deal with Peak for both casino and poker which covers Sands, Sun Poker and Omni. As far as is known there are no plans to change this.

2) Last year the smaller Peak brands like 49er, 1on1 and 3 Diamonds were the subject of closedown discussions in pursuit of the corporate objective of focusing on the more successful and profitable operations.

3) They are not familiar with the Peak - Red Giant relationship.

We are still digging on this, but it certainly looks as if Peak is putting together some sort of deal with Red Giant on these smaller properties - but then why is Omni involved? And without Cryptologic's knowledge?

 

[jetset]

Link Removed (Old/Invalid)

Antiguan licence for Red Giant, issued 1 January this year to operate online casinos.

 

[soflat]

They changed the bonus terms. Blackjack is now excluded.

When I signed up, Blackjack was allowed.

I noticed my 'Playthrough' meter was no longer counting down this morning as I played.

What a dirty trick.

 

[Simmo!]

It was back around October when i received an email from FocalClick saying that 49er and 1on1 were merging into Omni. That must be the point they stopped being Peak.

 

[GrandMaster]

There is still a connection, I got an e-mail from Peak Entertainment advertising the signup bonus at 49er. Both Peak and Reg Giant claim to own Omni.

 

[paul1]

They changed the bonus terms. Blackjack is now excluded.

When I signed up, Blackjack was allowed.

I noticed my 'Playthrough' meter was no longer counting down this morning as I played.

What a dirty trick.

lol I see they did. I just looked. Well, I have a screen shot of their old Terms, as of yesterday. I signed up yesterday, and I am not playing blackjack anyway. I do like the RTG software, but I had sworn to myself recently that I was going to give up on casino play and just play poker. But alas, just like my New Years resolution to eat more vegetables, that was short-lived. I am a sick gambling puppy. lol

Anyway, if anyone needs a screenshot of their old Terms, dated Feb. 8th, I've got one.

 

[jetset]

I'm concerned at the continued silence of Red Giant, Peak and RTG. Why the secrecy over this deal? And for that matter Cyptologic has not come back to us as promised.

Something is going on here and this sort of uncommunicative behaviour invites suspicion.

Simmo, was that "merger" email sent to affiliates or was it a general press release? I can't recall seeing that one.

 

[The Dude]

It was back around October when i received an email from FocalClick saying that 49er and 1on1 were merging into Omni. That must be the point they stopped being Peak.

I received the same thing, and that was about it. 49casino was listed here since their launch a few years ago. But with the merger, it went to someone else's hands who I don't have contact with so - *poof* they are of the site. If they want to get a hold of me, they know where I am.

Which brings up another question, what about the players that affiliates sent to the 49er site? Shouldn't the new affiliate manager have contacted the active affiliates to let them know their status? What's up with that? Were you given any notification Simmo!? (assuming you were an affiliate)

 

[Dogpound]

They changed the bonus terms. Blackjack is now excluded.

When I signed up, Blackjack was allowed.

I noticed my 'Playthrough' meter was no longer counting down this morning as I played.

What a dirty trick.

I signed up yesterday when Blackjack was ok to play. I heard about an hour after I signed up they changed the T&C to exclude Blackjack. I still had $700 more to wager to meet the WR for the bonus. So I contacted CS through Live Chat and they told me since I had signed up before the change that I could continue to play Blackjack for the bonus. But future bonus wr's would exclude Blackjack. So I finished with playing Blackjack. It did take them 24 hours to release my bonus from bonus to withdrawable. But they emailed me and told me it would take that long. I did however once I finished my wr contact CS again through live support and let them know my wr was complete. They sent it to the casino manager and the rest was just waiting the 24 hours for them to make it withdrawable. I had a great time here and am very happy with the casino, their CS, and what I made in bonus. This might just be my favorite casino ever.

I got this email recently from them. At the bottom it should answer the questions about who 49er is affiliated with.

Hello Mr. Whore,

Thank you first of for registering an account with 49er Casino and I must apologize that
you went through an unpleasant experience with your first time play in regards to the
wagering requirements.

The full launch of 49erCasino was not 100% ready and you came in at a time when we
were finalizing the last bits of details.

However Mr. Whore, 49erCasino is a casino of its word and we will never back down on a
promotion that you initially registered under, that would just not be right at all and this is
not who we are. We are a legit casino and a casino of honor, I want you to trust us and
trust that we will and have done right by you.

With that said Mr. Whore, you are more than welcomed to check your balance at the moment,
you will notice that the full $301.00 is available to you. All holds on the promotion were
removed and all your wagers made on BlackJack were taken into consideration.

You are more than welcomed to enjoy the games with out the worry of any funds on hold.

Don't let the fact that BlackJack doesn't count towards wagering hold you back, we will
be offering many other promotions and even special ones for BlackJack players. In fact
I have already set up a $100 Happy Hour for players like you, every day a random drawing
from BlackJack players will held and a luck player will receive $100.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

I look forward to seeing you on our tables. Please let me know if there is anything else I can
assist you with further.

Have a great Day

Abi
Casino Manager
49er Casino Online
www.49ercasino.com
abi@49ercasino.com
1-888-477-2239

"The Rootenist, Tootenist,Casino this Side of the Pecos!"

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49er Casino is a PEAK ENTERTAINMENT property.