Okay...I have no idea where the hell this thread has gone off on a tangent to, but as 'Mojo' wants my explanation, here it is.
Three years ago, I was strictly a poker player.
Sure I've been to plenty of B&M's playing blackjack, roulette, pai gow, etc., but nothing online.
A neighbour of mine used to come over all the time and watch me play online.
He decided to join the craze (I've been playing long before Varkonyi and Moneymaker got their '15 minutes') and bought a computer and had me set him up.
After a little while he got bored and wanted to know about online casinos.
After doing a little research on Google, I found Gamtrak.
(I wish it had been Casinomeister that I found first, but that's in the past and I'm here now)
Gamtrak seemed to have lots of members, and lots of information regarding casinos.
The one set of casinos that they were promoting the most were members of the Virtual Group. (Cirrus, Club Player, Slots Of Vegas, etc)
Gamtrak had nothing but good things to say about these casinos, and because Slots Of Vegas were offering the best new player 'no deposit' bonus, that's the one we went with.
Both of us opened accounts, both of us claimed the standard new player free chip (SLOTS77) and we both started spinning the reels.
Miracle of miracles, we BOTH had great luck and made the WR's with plenty to spare.
We immediately requested cashouts for the maximum amount. ($100)
A few days later we get emails from the casino requesting the fax back form and copies of our identifications.
No problem, we did as was requested.
Another few days go by and we get another email saying that our documents had been approved and now they were requesting that we make, at least, the minimum deposit to the casino as a final verification step.
I wasn't planning on gambling my life away so I used $25 from my click2pay balance to make the deposit but Wayne was a little more flush and purchased a $250cdn Mastercard gift card which he used and successfully deposited.
The very next day Wayne is banging on my door, a little choked.
He had tried to log into SOV after work and had gotten the error 'you are not allowed to log in'
I tried to log into my account and got the exact same message.
Okay, we both send emails to them asking why our accounts have been locked and where our money was.
No response.
A few days later we send another.
After doing this a few more times, we FINALLY get a response from SOV that stated that our accounts had been locked because we violated their terms of service by requesting a free chip that was only available to existing depositing players (a lie, we used the SLOTS77 new player code) therefore our accounts are considered fraudulent and the balance (including our deposits) were forfeited and there would be NO FURTHER DISCUSSION AND NO REPLIES TO ANY SUBSEQUENT EMAILS WOULD BE FORTHCOMING.
So I'm now out $25 of my money but, more importantly, I have lost face in front of my friend and neighbour who is now out $250.
...AND THIS IS ALL THANKS TO A CASINO PORTAL THAT IS STILL PROMOTING THESE CROOKED CASINOS.
When I made my post 4 days ago, Gamtrak were still promoting Club Player and Palace Of Chance.
As of this point I have sent emails to Godaddy (Gamtraks domain registrar), Cogentco (the ISP) and the FBI all detailing the fact that Robin/Gamtrak promote and benefit from these crooked casinos.
I will continue to send as many emails, and file as many complaints as I can until Gamtrak are dead.
UNLESS GAMTRAK ARE WILLING TO REIMBURSE MY NEIGHBOUR AND MYSELF FOR THE MONEY THAT THE VITUAL GROUP WERE ABLE TO STEAL FROM US, THANKS TO GAMTRAK'S LIES AND DECEPTION, I WILL FOLLOW THEM TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH UNTIL THEY NO LONGER EXIST.