Fortyplus Casino

I received this early today.....


Hello,

We have received your player information and balances. We are currently
attempting to locate a copy of the 40 Plus database to confirm those
balances, and we will email you as soon as we have more information to
pass along to you.

Sincerely,

Odds On
 
Odds On certainly do not have very good communication skills - unless they do not want too many claims coming in, of course.

Or could this be a another stall? Look at that key proviso "We are currently
attempting to locate a copy of the 40 Plus database to confirm those"

However, I do not want to be mean-spirited, and if Odds On are actually going to (at last) look after the stiffed Forty Plus players then I will be among the first to applaud that.

But why do they not communicate their intentions in full and openly?
 
Sent to Odds On today:

We have been following the Forty Plus affair and the fate of the stiffed players with some interest over the past two months.

Yesterday a portal claimed that Odds On had agreed to settle the outstanding payouts of the stiffed players by the end of this week.

We want to ensure that all perspectives of this unfortunate issue are represented and therefore would like answers to the following questions, please?

1) Is it true that Odds On is to pay out legit claims by the end of this week (ie Friday 9 January 2004) ?

2) Is Odds On paying these overdues, or have you managed to persuade the absconded owners to meet their obligations?

3) How much money is involved thus far?

4) Can you identify the owners of Forty Plus?

5) Why is Odds On not communicating this laudable breakthrough more widely? Surely it is in your interest to recover some of your reputation by communicating the fact that you have taken this responsible action?

6) Is there a deadline to your request that complainants email you?

7) Has Ron Maginley or one of the officials from the Antiguan jurisdiction been in contact with you regarding this matter?
 
Even if they (Odds On) do refund all the owing money, which they have not done yet, the way in which they have handled this matter has been in extreme distaste. They have dodge any chance to come out in public and give players some insight on the matter, they have avoidied answering any questions regarding this matter and their ownership stakes and I'm sure would have tried to let this matter blow over if it wasn't for the persistence of certain players and webmasters alike. All in all Odds On looks extremlely bad whether they pay the players or not, I for one will never play at nor advertise any Odds On casino after watching the way they have dealt with this matter. I hope other players and webmasters will do the same so that they may realize that running their operations so amatuerishly and unprofessionally will not stand in this industry. Their inability to be accessible to the players in keeping them informed on this matter smells too much like RTG.
 
We at OddsOn would like to thank you for your
patience while we were trying to resolve the
Forty Plus Casino situation. Although we were not
successful in acquiring the database we have
been able to ascertain the legitimacy of your
claim.

English Harbour, our top licensee, has volunteered
its services and will be making your money available
at its casino.

Please respond to this email with a confirmation
and approve the transfer of information to English
Harbour, they will open an account in your name where
you may continue playing or withdraw the funds.

Once again we apologize for the inconvenience and
assure you that we have done everything in our power
to resolve this situation.

Thank you,
OddsOn


I am very pleased to see this positive (if belated) development and cannot understand why Odds On did not take this course right from the start.

The main thing is that the players get paid, hopefully.


1) It's taken them over two months to get this far but it is good to see that they are doing the right thing.

2) Does anyone believe their *missing database* story??? Guess it doesn't matter if the right people get paid.

3) Today is the 8 January - their deadline is 15 January. I would have thought a more generous deadline could have been set to ensure that as many stiffed players as possible are gathered in, especially in view of OO's dilatory approach to this problem.
 
This was in my inbox this morning (plus a number of thanks from affected players - you're welcome!!)

To All Forty Plus Casino Players,

Thank you for your patience in the matter of Forty Plus
Casino. Although we have not been able to acquire the
player database we have been able to confirm some player
information from various sources. We have tried our best
to resolve this matter.

Arrangements are in place for legitimate players to send in
their claims which if confirmed will be resolved.

The final date for submitting unpaid claims for Forty Plus
Casino is January 15th, 2004. All claims must include the
following information, exactly as used at the time of
registration with the casino:

Account Number
Method of payment
Amount Owed
Full Name
Address
Telephone Number
Email

Please email this information to service@oddson.com before
January 15th.

Once again we thank you for your patience,
OddsOn
 
Interesting email from Antigua just in from which it is encouraging to note that following the Forty Plus complaint Ron Maginley and his team had discussions with Odds On yesterday and will be issuing a statement (content unknown at present) Whatever follows, it is nice to see a responsive Antiguan gaming authority when it comes to player issues like this.
 
Although this is a step in the right direction there is a couple of problems with this resolution.
1) If a player has no knowlegde of the use of this site or say casinomeister, how would they know where to send their details. Thus this 10 day deadline to send your details seems a little extreme to me. Why not allow players infinite time to send in their account info? Odds On must verify deposits anyways so no one can really cheat the system. This way players that are unaware of these forums have more time to find out about what to do in order to get back their missing money. To me it seems like Odds On is trying to find a cheap way out, claiming they don't have the database of players so that unknowing players will never see their money back as they will miss the deadline, puts the ownis on the player to contact Odds On instead of vice versa.

2) Why did this take so long to do and why did Odds On never make any public statements instead of keeping players in the dark, even this announcement was sent through webmasters. Why did Odds On continually dodge questions from players and webmasters?

3) This sort of solidifies the fact that Odds Onn and English Harbour are connected in ownership. Why doesnt Odds On simply cut a bunch of checks to the players? Instead, they transfer the money to EH so that the player can lose a bunch of it and also hopefully induce more deposits into EH.

This whole situation is just too bizare, the way Odds On has handled it has totally been unprofessional and disrespectful to players. I hope players that have their balances transferred to EH will just withdraw and go play at a casino that treats players with more respect.
 
Thanks Jetset, I appreciate all the time and effort you have been putting into this matter. Its good to see that at least some of the players will get paid at the end of the day.
Cheers
 
The Forty Plus saga is finally drawing to a close with the players hopefully being paid in an issue that has done little to enhance the reputations of the software provider and operators involved.

But the full story can now be told - with information on the identities that players have had to work so hard for in the absence of any cooperation from Odds On...and red herrings drawn across the trail by some of those involved in Costa Rica.

This Odds On powered online casino came on line last year and was very active on the message boards (including that at WOL) through spokesman Alan Roberts, who went to some pains to assure the players that the management and backers were highly professional, very well funded and in the industry for the long haul.

Then their payouts started slowing down - a classic indicator of a casino in trouble.

That was followed by an unannounced and abrupt closure of Forty Plus, leaving players unpaid. Roberts and the staff vanished without explanation (it later turned out that whilst reassuring the players they were actually paying off the staff and selling the assets)

Toronto-based Odds On and its boss Pierre Gagnon made no public announcement following the closure, and only after some time and persistent complaints did he make a 1 on 1 call to a portalmaster to say that Odds On had no obligation to the players and that he had no control or knowledge of what was going on at the casino, or where its database had gone. This despite his company earning royalties from the operation, which has not been denied.

He did not offer any assistance to stiffed players trying to find the owners. He did not respond to emails asking questions from ourselves.

Meantime English Harbour, as Odds On's sole remaining licensee (there is widespread and unanswered speculation that there are closer than usual ownership relationships) appeared on the WOL message board to distance itself from Forty Plus and astonishingly express confidence in Odds On as a software provider.

The players were thrown upon their own resources, and thankfully message boards are a good way of keeping a story alive and communicating with other players.

Investigations to find the owners commenced and early information revealed the fact that Forty Plus had been registered in Costa Rica by a company called Greenoak Ranch SA. Names like Orlando Guerrero ( a CR lawyer) came up, were investigated and claimed all but the most superficial connections.

Odds On remained silent. The issue was kept alive on the message boards whilst more enquiries continued, and eventually a new name surfaced - Jorge Barahona. This Costa Rican individual was also known as George Finley, and he had previously worked for the notorious Main Street Vegas online casino group owned by Marty Jensen.

Using a Yahoo email, Barahona responded to our questions by claiming that he had only been the CEO at Forty Plus, carrying out the orders of an *investor* whom he could not name. He strung us along with this line, pretending to be sincere in wanting to look after the stiffed players and protect his reputation. He asked us to be patient whilst he tried to negotiate payment of the stiffed players through a holding deposit that had been paid to Neteller. He clearly had details of the Forty Plus players to check any claims.

He turned out to be the worst liar of them all. He was the president of the company and knew exactly what was going on and who was involved. Lawyer Guerrero also enjoyed a more important position in the company than he had us believe.

By now Canadian and Costa Rican journalists were working the story. Odds On remained uncooperative. The breakthrough finally came - Greenoaks was registered as follows:

Cedula (id number) of the company: 3101343444


The firm is located in the Thrifty Building in San Jos at Avenida 13
and Calle 3.

The firm was founded March 30 of 2003.

Jorge Eduardo Barahona Ramrez, president

Roberto Fabricio Calerdn Yong, secretary

Jorge Alberto Guerrero Vargas, treasurer

Monserrat Melissa Dias Araya, fiscal

Gustavo Alvarez Mora, resident agent


A power of attorney without limitation is in the hands of Orlando
Guerrero Vargas, a lawyer from the nearby community of Escaz. The
lawyer would seem to be related, perhaps as a brother, to the treasurer
of the company.

The postscript to this story is the belated public announcements from Odds On last week saying that players would finally be paid through credits to accounts in English Harbour casino. This over two months after the closure and major stress for the unpaid and uninformed players. They gave players a 12 day deadline to get complaints in.

Is this a professional and consumer-sensitive way to shut down an online casino? The answer to that is obvious.

There's a lesson to be learned here by any ethics challenged software providers and operators out there. It is that determined online players will not tolerate being unceremoniously abandoned in the event of a casino closure... and they are prepared to hunt down the responsible parties and hold them to account.
 
There's a lesson to be learned here by any ethics challenged software providers and operators out there. It is that determined online players will not tolerate being unceremoniously abandoned in the event of a casino closure... and they are prepared to hunt down the responsible parties and hold them to account.[/QUOTE]

That is so true. Some GREAT investigative work, JETSET! It sure helps to have people like you and Byran doing what you can to keep these people honest- and to at least print the information of those who aren't!
 
A couple of things to keep in mind, first, being president of a business/company don't mean you was/are the owner, and secondly, having these names will be helpful in finding the rest of the information to put this jig-saw together, completely!!

These names will be searched for any additional information.

There are questions still left unanswered!!
 
Something that players often forget is that the power rests with them.

No matter what anyone might tell you to the contrary, when enough players get riled and start posting across the Internet...it constitutes formidable and unstoppable pressure for good. That has been proved over and over in large disputes like this one.

The *Board of Directors* at Forty Plus have/had full control of both company and events at the casino as it went into decline and are accountable even at Costa Rican law regardless of what hidden investment money might lie behind the scenes. They have not behaved professionally or honourably in this matter in my opinion, and prior to the sudden developments this past week neither has Odds On.

That will long be remembered, as it should be.
 
jetset said:
Something that players often forget is that the power rests with them.
(and out of context:)
" regardless of what hidden investment money might lie behind the scenes. "

Agreed, players hold the true power here. Always.

That is why it is so important that proper research is done when accusations are launched. I want to congratulate the researchers in this case for such thorough and successful work.

The hidden investment money still tickles me....
 
Finally!

Good news! I can confirm that my closing balance at 40+ has now been transferred to my English Harbor account. THANK YOU all for the many hours of sleuth work and dedication to policing this oft crooked industry.
 
Thanks, Pioneer - this was a team effort with several smart players and journalists involved.

It is an illustration of what players who refuse to be screwed with impunity can do when they want to and I hope the providers and operators who have shady tendencies take note.

InfoPowa will give credit for these payments to Odds On despite the fact that they had to be dragged to the party, but investigations continue.
 
There are some glaring problems with Odds On's resolution to the 40+ fiasco. Players don't be fooled by this gesture of good faith by Odds On,
1) They had to be dragged into this situation by players and webmasters and the general public.
2) The deadline they set for players to get their money back is a method of only having to pay back some of the players and not all of them.
3) Odds On consistently dodged questions as to their ownership relations with English Harbour.
4) Odds On transfers money to EH accounts in hope that players will gamble away most of the money they recovered instead of sending out checks. Really makes you wonder about EH having a stake in the ownership of Odds On.

All in all a very dispicable and unprofessional showing by Odds On. I'm sure players are smart enough to see through this illusion of good faith although I am happy to see that at least a few ripped off players will be compensated.
 
I have been reading from another forum that some of the claims are still unsettled by Odds On. I was wondering , has anyone actually recieved there payment yet? I have heard of only 2 people getting paid and many others have recently recieved a bulk email about trying to recover the 40+ database again. Please post if you have been paid so we can see the extent to which Odds On has actually tried to fix this matter. With all their unprofessionalism through out this incident I doubt that Odds On has adequately put an end to this issue yet.
 
Several people have been trying to monitor this Odds On settlement after being involved in successful moves to find the Forty Plus manager Jorge Barahona and make sure that Odds On did something to look after the stiffed players' interests.

Unfortunately one of the things that has bedevilled our efforts has been the lack of posts from significant numbers of Forty Plus players outlining what has happened to the claims they submitted to Odds On since that company assured the public at large that they were settling with the players via English Harbour credits.

It is beginning to sound as if Odds On are stalling again on this, and we need those posts before taking the fight to them again, so if anyone knows any players who fall into this category please urge them to post here.
 
A number of them have contacted me stating that they've been paid. So I'm assuming that most everything was taken care of. I know of two problems that occured, but I haven't had the chance to follow up on these to see if they were taken care of.
 
There are some worrying posts at WOL from posters who have been told by Odds On that they still have to find the database to verify the claims, which would not seem to gel with the experiences of your players here.

By now one would have hoped that all the complaints would have been checked and paid.
 
Alfred Hitchcock! that's your avatar, jetset.. damn took me a while to remember that.
lol

As for 40+ i knew somthing was fishy so I thankfully stopped playing there shortly before they went bust, and thus wasn't burnt by their dashing off into the sunset..
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Meister Ratings

Back
Top