Carusos and SM's debate cont'd here

Slotmachine

Dormant account
Joined
Oct 15, 2004
Location
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(I moved this from the Complaints section because I was derailing the original Reef Club complaint thread)

...continuing from Caruso's list of his personally approved casinos (Ritz, Inetbet, Bet365, Acropolis, Trident, Harrods, see the other thread for details) and his response to my question as to why 32Red was not on it:

caruso said:
Number one: no default comps. Of course, the roulette article malarky didn't help either. Also, the constant affiliate pushing of this casino, coupled with their partnership in the redoubtable Simmo's "CasinoMeister Slot Competition" does them no favours in my eyes. At the end of the day, it tastes wrong to me. And before anyone jumps on me for my sacreligious remarks: these are my tastebuds we're talking about.

Trident offers the same service, no slot BS and a default comp rate of 0.1%. So does Spin Palace et al. Patronise casinos that give you better bang for your buck, not those that do good PR.

Told you, it's not easy to make Caruso's list! :thumbsup:

I'm sure your points are valid from your perspective, and possibly in a wider sense, too. I agree that the lack of default comps is a shortcoming and may understandably deter potential customers. I'm not familiar with the affiliate business at all, so I wouldn't know what constitutes for "pushing" - thus no comment on that. I utterly fail to see the wrongness in Simmo's tournaments or his collaboration with 32Red. Just good PR, I would have thought. As for the roulette article - well, it was a small matter, and nobody's perfect, and even then 32Red's CEO was concerned and courteous enough to post an explanation here in the forum - all the while the reps for most other casinos embrace more substantial complaints with silence. I mean, if the roulette article was considered deceptive marketing by some, well, just look at your average TV commercials and the promises and images they convey of the advertised products. Ain't nobody apologizing for those..

In my opinion, your arguments notwithstanding, 32Red is a very "Caruso" casino - meaning: no BS. The bonuses have reasonable WR and clear T&C's, the casino T&C's are short and understandable, without any escape clause, withdrawals are flushed upon request, never questioned or stalled, surprise bonuses never have any WR attached, the CS is extremely helpful (although the casino operates in a manner which makes CS almost redundant), everything works smoothly and there is no funny business going on. In short: What you see is what you get.

That's what I appreciate about 32Red. The other (equally important) thing is: I trust them with my money. That I tend to lose it on slots is my fault, not theirs.

Personally I don't know that I'd get a better deal anywhere else. As a CR member, I get the 0.1% comps, along with the occasional freebie, plus Xmas presents and the like.

To conclude I agree with you that the lack of 0.1% default comps is a shortcoming, otherwise 32Red gets full marks from me.

FWIW, here's the list of SM accredited casinos:thumbsup:

-32Red
-Lasseters/AusVegas
-Cherry Casino

That's it!

A couple of candidates for the list (not enough experiences yet, just signed up):

Sands of the Caribbean
Inetbet

Under Observation: (Some minor probs in the past - I've recently started playing at these a little bit to see if they've improved since the last time around):

-Intercasino (unresponsive CS, deceptive launch of new deflated VP table)

-Geisha Lounge (slow and intermittently dumb CS, some technical/software problems - a big plus is that their rep, Greg is a member here, he's very helpful and keeps an eye on things, and can easily be contacted via PM).

SM's Rogue Casinos List:

-Prism Casino (stalled payment, did not respond to queries, required resending of documents which BTW were scanned at high DPM, in color....never got my money)

-Belle Rock (Consistently unresponsive CS. Took a week to recover money that vanished into a wormhole of the Universe between them and Neteller. Kept sending junk mail to home adddress despite repeated promises not to. To be fair, the Belle Rock Rep here promised to rectify this, we'll see what happens)

Well, that's just my take on things, based purely on personal experience. Then again, I'm just a dumb slots player - I'm in it for the escapist kicks after 12h of work each day...if it ain't got those free spins, I ain't playing it:D

Cheers,
SM

PS. Lasseters BTW is the only casino I know of who require ID within a certain time from registration, withdrawals or not, and will not accept further DEPOSITS if you don't provide the docs. Also they post the individual payout% of the slot machines.
 
Thanks for the complement caruso...no-one's ever referred to me as redoubtable before - lol. Just out of interest though, do you hate Christmas? ;-)
 
Cherry, yes: quiet and efficient. Never heard a complaint, never heard a word of hype. If there were a Caruso Casino, this would be one. Caveat: they have no decent games beyond normal blackjack and JOB full pay, so they aren't quite a Caruso Casino.

Sands: Caruso's rogue list, because they tried to screw him and never even bothered to try to account for their actions, leaving it to the affiliate manager to pick up the pieces as best he could.

Riverbelle group: One will not forget in a hurry the stunt Gaming Club tried to pull a few years back. No Statute Of Limitations is this business, so they'll carry that black mark as long as I remain free of Alzheimer's.

Lasseters: Yup, clean enough. I dislike that pointless trumpeting of "regulated by the Australian government" as if it actually means anything in relation to game fairness, but they're hardly the only casino to claim RNG verification by an "independent party", lol, so that one shall pass.

Intercasino: bang on with the VP bullshit. That was very unfortunate, as they were pretty much clean up to that point. The BS hype they tried on with the launch of that ridiculous downgrade won't be forgotten in a hurry, nor will the fact of that "100%" stamp being up fully a week into the downgrade. Still, they pay efficiently, have a responsive (if now slightly copybook-blotted) manager, run a couple of high quality games (big Caruso Casino selling point) and are one of the few remaining places to offer a great monthly bonus to all players, irrespective of absolutely everything. There are compensations.

Pity about the VP incident...

As to slot tourneys: I disagree with you, but don't want to get into that matter here 'cos I know the kind of trouble it'd cause :). Suffice it to say it's a hefty disagreement.

You said:

I mean, if the roulette article was considered deceptive marketing by some, well, just look at your average TV commercials and the promises and images they convey of the advertised products. Ain't nobody apologizing for those..
Quite, but I'm not policing the world of TV advertising, just casinos. Gotta limit yourself somewhere. :)

As to my generic use of the word "affiliate": yuh, I know the difference between commission structure and media buys. I suppose "advertiser" is a better all round word, but "affiliate" is so much more casino-directional, and in essence is really identical - at the end of the day, remuneration level depends on volume of players clicking through, depositing etc etc - although the mechanics of the deal are different. Hence, usage of the word to cover all foms of advertiser, though strictly speaking inexact.
 
I personally prefer the Cryptologic bunch - William Hill, Intercasino, Omni, Sands (although the latter two are part of the same group). I prefer them for the following reasons:

(1) Respectable monthly bonus. WH and Intercasino provide bonuses upfront, and thus have a WR, whereas the Omni/Sands provide a bonus once a certain amount of wagering has been attained.

(2) Respectable loyalty comps. Not much on a monthly basis, but certainly adds up.

(3) Decent customer service. I know, WH is unresponsive at best, and some here may have had various issues with the others, but I haven't experienced anything untoward. All have fairly quick payouts (WH is generally same day to Neteller, the others within 2-3 business days to my bank account), and both Intercasino and Omni have given me credits gratis.

(4) Customer familiarity. Ok, this is my personal taste. I have a better "feel" for the Crypto blackjack, and I appreciate how you can play multiple hands (last time I checked - MG multihand 21 was basically a European variant).

Just my $.02.
 
Slotjunkies

I cannot see Simmo being able to run this at all without the full cooperation of the casinos involved. The one gripe I have with this is the fact that the casino website automatically loads each time I enter a sponsored competition. As I already have the casino, this is an unnecessary irritation. It would be best to leave the link prominent and invite the entrant to click here to get the relevant casino painlessly. I don't see any casinos that have SERIOUS problems in the sponsor lists. (granted that Challenge, Music Hall and Phoenician are the subject of much ill feeling for matters unrelated to SlotJunkies).
 
OK it seems that Sands of the Caribbean has made it to my ROGUE casinos list. I questioned their policy of excluding me from loyalty bonuses because of my nationality. Especially as that nation is Finland which happens to be my country and I haven't seen it listed in any other casino's exclusion list. Finland only has about 5 million people and the percentage the plays online is pretty small. So the Casino sees one or two bonus "abusers" and figures: Well it's not much of a source of income anyway so let's ban the whole country. It's not like the UK or US has less % of bonus "abusers" -just a bigger market so they tolerate it.

So, I cordially requested that they make an exception to this rule, introduced myself, and told them about why and how I gamble. They refused. I submitted a further query, and now the CS has completely refused to reply to my queries, it's been a week now, and not a word. Maybe they think I'm having them on? Anyway, not worth the effort for me.

Updated list of Slotmachine Approved Casinos
Approved
-32Red
-Lasseters
-Cherry

Candidates
-Inetbet
-Bodog (Very good 1st impression. CS responded in about 2 minutes)

Observation:
-Intercasino
-Geisha Lounge

Rogue (NB this is subjective and based purely on personal experience)
-Prism Casino
-Belle Rock Group
-Sands of the Caribbean

Cheers,
SM
 
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vinylweatherman said:
I cannot see Simmo being able to run this at all without the full cooperation of the casinos involved. The one gripe I have with this is the fact that the casino website automatically loads each time I enter a sponsored competition.

Ah yeah i'd forgotten that. Removed as of now VWM :)
 
Slotmachine said:
OK it seems that Sands of the Caribbean has made it to my ROGUE casinos list. I questioned their policy of excluding me from loyalty bonuses because of my nationality. Especially as that nation is Finland which happens to be my country and I haven't seen it listed in any other casino's exclusion list.

Finland seems an odd one to exclude?!

I've not come across Cherry casino incidentally. What makes this one of your faves SM?

Cheers

Simmo!
 
I've never played at Cherry either. What kind of software do they utilize?
 
Simmo! said:
Finland seems an odd one to exclude?!

Yeah.. I don't know, maybe they're confusing it with Russia...

"Finland?...Hang on, I've heard about it...it's in Canada, right? No, wait, it's that remote part of Russia, over by Siberia or something. Yeah, let's exclude it..Gotta be bad news...":rolleyes:

I find it hard to believe this little country of simple people would constitute a major bonus abuse problem for an online casino...

I've not come across Cherry casino incidentally. What makes this one of your faves SM?

It's Net Entertainment software, which is not very appealing, but they do have a couple of good games. It's a no-hassle Casino in my experience. Meister approved, and I haven't seen any complaints anywhere, ever. You win, they pay, you have questions, they answer. No funny business going on. That always appeals to me. One gripe though: There's a monthly automatic 30% bonus which attaches a WR to your deposit. Gotta remember to e-mail them first if you don't want it.

Cheers,
SM
 
Slotmachine said:
One gripe though: There's a monthly automatic 30% bonus which attaches a WR to your deposit. Gotta remember to e-mail them first if you don't want it.
Somewhat fundemental difference in outlook here...
 
caruso said:
Somewhat fundemental difference in outlook here...

Sure. I don't like automatic bonuses, which glue wagering requirements onto my deposits. I like bonuses as much as the next guy, but I prefer not to get them automatically. Especially the meager 30% ones..I'll take my chances with my eur 50 deposit thank you very much...no WR to worry about.

I only have an hour here, an hour there for gambling...Rather lose $100 on T'struck than win $20 on JoB *yawn* only to have to complete the bonus requirements:D

Having said that, the way my luck's been going lately, I'm going to have to become a bonus-huntin' VP player lest this becomes too expensive an pastime...I've played maybe 2000 hands of JoB in my life, one of those was a Royal so maybe there's something to it:)

Cheers,
SM
 
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