Best CM-accredited casino (for me): Royal Panda, closely followed by
Rizk. NB. I don't have an account at Trada or Videoslots.
Best non CM-accredited casino: Sky Vegas.
Best new casino: I can't vote for one, as I did not create a new account at any casino this year.
Best rep (for me): Melvin @ Royal Panda, closely followed by Captain Rizk. I have to say though...Dan @ VS is a freak of nature who is just off the charts.
Mark @ 32Red and Rachel @ Trada deserve their fair share of praise too.
Best casino group: GIG. GUTS (by their former Casino of the Year standards) have had a poor year if the threads are anything to go by, but I personally have had an issue-free year at GUTS, so I can't really fault them. Rizk however, were every bit as good as they were last year.
Best slot provider of the year:
Big Time Gaming. They have come in and shaken things up a bit. Stop resting on your laurels and living on past glories, MG and Netent.
Best slot of 2017: Danger High Voltage.
Worst slot of 2017: Twin Spin Deluxe. Seriously Netent, go out and buy a fucking dictionary and look up the definition of "Deluxe". REFLUX would have been more accurate, you bellends...
Best thread: Trancemonkey's "ask me anything about slots". Fantastic stuff. Well, most of it (see below)
Honourable mentions go to Harry's VS thread and Jennifer's (Bebo) medical fund thread.
Worst threads: The Donald Trump thread, all the "oh the slots are rigged" threads and Trancemonkey's ask me anything about slots threads (he does not deserve to be verbally abused by tinfoilers just because he won't/can't satisfy their pathetic and sometimes infantile agenda).
CM member of the year*: Trancemonkey (see above). Honourable mentions go to....
Harry (a class act and a great contributor, especially with helping the newbies)
Jennifer (for keeping her humour, her sanity and her fighting spirit intact under incredibly difficult circumstances)
sattty (I don't even know the guy, as I've never even conversed in a thread with him...ever - but he too has fought to overcome his own adversity)
Jasminebed (for being Jasminebed - unbiased, friendly, caring, helpful and just general all-round niceness)
Best winner video contributor: Sorry Mr. D, you know I'm a big fan of you, but I'm going to give this to suomikala. This guy celebrates a win like a boss. Apart from that, a wonderful turn of phrase and excellent use of profane language in a broad Finnish accent absolutely warrants high praise. I mean to say, who else could so matter of factly utter the words "dog faced c*nt" out of the blue for no apparent reason and make it as funny as fuck? Suomikala can, that's who.
Best contributor to CM: This one does go to the almost irreplaceable Mr. D. He still does winner videos like a boss. But his sheer dedication to doing all those new slot review videos (which MUST be such a bloody chore even at the best of times) deserves to be applauded. Throw in all the affiliate related stuff and it's clear to see. I would call him dunoverpedia, but I fear that name is just WAY TOO RIDDLED with innuendo and could be BADLY misinterpreted...and the poor grumpy fucker would end up with a reputation that nobody wants. Mr. D is much safer. Moving on swiftly....
Screenshot of the year: Brickharbor's more than 19,000x hit on Queen of Riches. Jaw dropping.
Winner "vidshot" of the year: Bigwinpictures 16,000x win on DHV. Just as jaw dropping.
Head in the sand, now titled "Biggest waster of his collective luck on the slots this year": ME!! Find the fucking button godammit, you fucking gambling degenerate idiot-boy!!
Biggest bugbears: Casumo affiliate spamming, governments deciding whether we can gamble (I feel bad for our Aussie friends especially), inconsistencies in player account verification (some can verify you in 2 minutes without you even needing to send a single doc in, while others want several docs AND stool, urine and blood samples), the fact that Curacao exists as a licensor, the fact that clip joint casinos still exist, HTML5 makeovers that totally ruined games (I'm looking at you WMS with your Raging NINES...OH slot. Way to fuck up something that was once great, douchebags)
Fall from grace: ClubWorld. A head-scratchingly sad episode.
Biggest scumbags: Affiliate Edge/Affpower
Unsung hero: Max, a guy whose assistance I hope I never need. Thankfully, I haven't needed to (so far).
CM Lifetime Achievement/Hall Of Fame-type award thingy: Jasminebed and KasinoKing
* There are plenty of members here who I didn't give an honourable mention, but I do have a great deal of respect for them (and their opinions).
They should already know who they are.