In all fairness to Mike, he does not make affiliate commissions from any of the casinos he advertises. He simply charges each casino a flat fee to put the banner on his site. (I believe the Gamemaster does the same thing on his website). So in that respect, Mike's site is still a step above other portals. However, what Mike did by selling his soul to Playtech was just plain wrong. The very least Mike could have done was to explain to Bryan where the profits went. Also, Mike now admits that his OPA is a for-profit portal. Some people are still fooled into thinking its a non-profit watchdog orginization.
As for Mike's old radio show at Casinogazette, I used to really enjoy it. Sure he was a little nuts at times, but he had a great sense of humor, a great voice for radio, and he did some good interviews with William Hill and other operators, while at the same time helping to expose the crooks. I think, in balance, his shows were very positive for the industry as a whole. Also, I enjoyed hearing Steve Adkins' show every week, and especially his interviews with the top brass at GSS. At the time, my perception was that Steve had done so much to try and clean up the industry. His orginization was the only true industry watchdog. It was because of Steve and the OPA that I had hope for a much brighter future for online gambling.
What a huge letdown it was for me to find out that the guy who had done more to police the industry than anyone else, was, himself a crook.
I am ashamed to admit that Steve had me totally fooled. He used to email me about all the times he used to spend the entire day barbequeing hamburgers for homeless people. He talked a lot about all the good things his food bank had done for his community.
Now I find out Steve will be spending more than 11 years in jail for stealing the donations from all those generous folks and using it to fund his gambling addiction. What a lowlife he is.
It seems, on the internet, people are never who they truly seem to be. You never truly get to know a person until you've be-friended them for several years (IN PERSON!)
As for Mike, I still respect him. He has done a lot of positive things in the past, but I think he got lured away by the same thing he accuses Cindy of being lured away by: MONEY. Unlike Bryan, I will not completely ignore him, since I still believe he has something positive to contribute. However, he has lost much of the credibility he earned with me, and I now take what he says with a large grain of salt.
Remember a long time ago when Mike made Casinogazzette.com a "BANNER FREE ZONE"? So apparently at one time profits were not the priority with him. Times change. People change.