so it looks like the situation has finally closed without resolution in favour of the players but the deserved rouging of joyland.
i think those that played at joyland purely for the comp points and have recieved their deposits back should take the attitude of nothing ventured, nothing gained, ce se ra.
however my sympathy does goto those who either lost deposits or made big wins which have not been honoured, for it is through either of these 2 situations that joyland have made a profit from this whole episode.
plus also it must not be forgotten that there was extra deposits ellicited by joyland, which were subsequently lost by those who tried to take advantage of the comp points but lost and also those of players who played well beyond the WR for the sign up in pursuit of the comp points.
as joyland has kept deposits without honouring large wins, i believe joyland has been rightly rouged as they have turned this whole fiasco into a money spinning episode themselves.
maybe joyland can redeem themselves slightly if they are willing to donate the money they have made from this to the hurricane katrina appeal and CM responds by moving joyland to either the "not recommended" or "past issues" list as i believe joyland should not be allowed to profit from this whole episode as it will set dangerous precedent which i'm sure some casinos will be tempted to pursue themselves.
myself have not been affected through this debacle due to the fact i would not engage in any business with any playtech till they clean up their questionable business practices.
the things i find questionable are,
the choice of juristicition, choice of software, long reversible pending payment times which defeats the whole point of playing on the internet in the first place although we know this is done in the hope that you are weak willed and will lose your money back to them.
then we come to the payout itself, simple fact is that i rarely get ID and next time i am asked for it i will have to scan my documents again as they hopelessly out of date, yet these casinos will ALWAYS ask for ID in the vain hope that they might be able to refuse your cashout. this suggests to me that they are bad losers and given the opportunity would decline a cashout if problem occured without judging your case with reasonable fairness.
also we have the payout tricks, such as sending an email giving you the impression that your payout has been approved, yet when checking your neteller or whatever you find you havnt been paid. when the casino is then pressed on why you havnt been paid, they claim an email asking for ID was sent and you have failed to send in the ID. this is email is never sent by them!
we now have the whole process of sending in your ID where you are further stalled with a succession of excuses, such as we havnt recived it, you sent it to the wrong address, you need to rescan it as its not clear, the file is to large for them to recieve it (you then compress the file, which then allows them to go back to the scan isn't clear excuse).
eventually after a succession of phonecalls, emails and period of time they realise you are not going to forget or give up on your cashout they then begrudgingly give you your money.
although these casinos do keep to the their rules and will honour all cashouts (except this joyland case), the fact is they are run by crooks this should be self evident just from the choice of software and jurisdiction.
i think empire online should be asking themselves do they really want to be doing business with this group, afterall if they are willing to welch on a $1000 payout then what are the chances of them acting honourably in a deal worth $40 million ?
especially in light of the player stealing tactics they have employed which i have highlighted above, the possible massaging of their casino turnover figures through this joyland situation and the undeniable fact that are they are willing to change history (i.e. the deletion of transaction logs), so what are the odds of crown solutions handing over an honest set of books to allow empire online make an informed decision on wether to buy this set of casinos or not? it should be noted that all of this happened in the week after the 1st aug, i.e. when the deal was annouced, just another coincidence ?
i would like to let those who it concerns know, that if this deal is completed and the deal with sportingbet is then completed then i will be looking elsewhere to be placing my sportsbook wagers (i dont use the casino there). i do about 80% of my sportsbook betting with SB and the amout i gamble on sports makes what i spend on online casinos pale in to significance, but the simple fact is that the size of my sportswagers means that i need to conduct business with those who i can trust and i cannot trust those who are willing to have any involvement with this set up of casinos.