Kahnawake Gaming Commission / Grand Virtual information

thelawnet

Dormant account
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Location
UK
I assumed that Kahanawake basically means that a casino is legit.

Is this a correct assumption?

Secondly, I notice Imperial Casino is licensed there.

Now, I see that their software is signed by Ultra Internet Media SA.

A quick google search elicits the following:

Outdated URL (Invalid)

This links them to Elka, a well known cheating/evil software.

Here it's suggested that Lux, which is the same brand is evil https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/casinolux-resolved-fraudster.5828/?t=5828

And so the sites Casino Lux, Imperial Casino and Casino Treasure are all basically crooked, but Kahanawake licensed.

So two questions remain:

1 Was I naive in thinking that the Kahanawake logo was a guarantee of safety?
2. Why aren't there any warnings about this group on here, when they appear to be the same as Elka, and crooks?
 
Last edited:
This is a difficult one because a few of the domains owned by Elka were old domains for casinos using the Grand Virtual software but I don't think they are actually linked to the software company other than using it for a while for their casinos. These casinos were the following: CyberThrill (had bad press from affiliates but I got paid from there in 1999), AnimeCasino (never gave me the $10 bonus), AvatarCasino, CasinoDesire, CasinoLove plus a few more. You may think that many of these don't seem to belong to Elka now (casinodesire does at least) but the most important one not mentioned so far is cashforclicks.com. Cashforclicks.com was the affiliate program promoting all the above sites back in 1999 and you can see this if you go to the archived pages on web.archive.org.

You will also notice cashforclicks mentioning ecashservices (also used for Elka/Oyster casinos) way back in 1999 if you go to the web.archive.org pages of cashforclicks.com.

That affiliate program was never involved with Imperial or Casino Fantasy and these casinos were even recommended at Casinomeister a few years back(although those are not very reputable any more).
 
I had seen that hackology page a year or two ago and noticed from it that Elka always owned the cashforclicks.com domain so there is little doubt they were involved with CyberThrill and the related casinos.

Here is quote from the cashforclicks site back in 1999 which mentions the CEO:
10/21/99: Adultdex show this year, you will have a chance to meet with our CEO, Leo Kuvayev. We will be sharing a booth with MemberPro, and OLS 2000 Services.

By the way, real targetted clicks are worth much more than cents or so to the casino (cashforclicks were giving 5 to 15 cents or so to webmasters per click). They are worth around $20-$30 on my site to the casino and about $8 for affiliates! They had a problem with CyberThrill and accused webmasters of 'click fraud' but as long as they were getting 1% good clicks they shouldn't really have worried too much but obviously now we know they weren't to be trusted, anyway.
 
casinomeister said:
There is a lot of information concerning Elka/Oyster Gaming Russian spam gangs here:
https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/russian-spammers-oyster-gaming.6635/?t=6635

They don't have much to do with Kahnawake as far as I know.

If you go to casinolux.com, they have a big Kahanawake logo at the bottom. Kahanawake shows they are licensed, along with sister sites.

If you follow the link I posted, it suggests that lux & co are Elka-affiliated

Regarding the information in your post, I get the following:


thelawnet, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
thelawnet said:
If you go to casinolux.com, they have a big Kahanawake logo at the bottom. Kahanawake shows they are licensed, along with sister sites.

If you follow the link I posted, it suggests that lux & co are Elka-affiliated

Regarding the information in your post, I get the following:
This is in the webmaster section. You should only be getting this message if you try to post there (since you are not a member of that group). You should be able to view all postings and threads though. Please let me know if this is the case - then I need to fix something.
 
casinomeister said:
This is in the webmaster section. You should only be getting this message if you try to post there (since you are not a member of that group). You should be able to view all postings and threads though. Please let me know if this is the case - then I need to fix something.

Just clicking on your link gives me that error.
 
I guess you'll all have to become webmasters :D

I'll see if I can mess with this in the morning.
 
Information about Grand Virtual Gaming Platform

I am the VP of Marketing and my team handles all marketing for all the web sites on the Grand Virtual Gaming Platform. I hope that this posting is not violating certain policies. I just see lots of confusion about our company and thought it would help you if I outline it and answer some posted questions.

Back in the late 90s when Grand Virtual was founded, CyberThrill was a licensee. However, the original Grand Virtual owners realized this company was fraudulent and pulled the software license very quickly after launch. We have had no affiliation with that company since the 90s and I doubt they exist anymore. I am not nor is anyone here aware of the brand name or company Elka. It could be that this is one of those early companies too. As of right now, we have no known affiliation.

As you may know, Grand Virtual was sold last year to a publicly-traded Taiwanese company, GigaMedia, which is on the NASDAQ (symbol: GIGM). The software maker was separated from the operator at that time. The operator is Ultra Internet Media and is owned by a separate set of investors.

With this change, we had a full scale change in management and have sought to provide better levels of customer service than ever before. We had a long way to go given the focus of the previous owners and the fact that we were one of the first companies to provide fully translated casino software in multiple languages. Up to the point of sale, the owners had focused on localized software & marketing with a small under-resourced customer service staff. The current management recognizes the absolute importance of serving the player well and has tripled that staff in the last year and a half. However, we are still working to improve our attention to players and appreciate your feedback.

In terms of the validity of the Grand Virtual Gaming Platform software, we are licensed by Kahnawake and in very good standing. We have all our casino and poker software audited annually by Technical Testing Systems (TST), which is a third party company that audits RNG and lotteries (including several US state and Canadian lotteries). You can learn more about them at www.tstglobal.com. For the casinos we publish quarterly payout ratios. In addition to all of this, we have a robust fraud control team and processes to identify and prevent people trying to defraud our properties. This information is shared across all brands using the Grand Virtual Gaming Platform.

The casinos and poker room that are managed by Ultra Internet Media directly include:

Everest Poker (www.everestpoker.com)
Everest Casino (www.everestcasino.com)
Casino Lux (www.casinolux.com)
Casino Elegance (www.casinoelegance.com)
Casino Fantasy (www.casinofantasy.com)
Casino Treasure (www.casinotreasure.com)
Casino Glamour (www.casinoglamour.com)

In our affiliate program, there is an option to create your own custom-brand name casino. That means there are thousands of brand names out there that could be using our software. You will know once you launch the software whether it is on the GV Platform or not. The Online Gaming Alliance (www.gamingalliance.org) was created to monitor these affiliates for SPAM, fraudulent marketing, and other player complaints. We are currently re-writing that site which was created by the original owners to make it clear that this entity was created by Ultra Internet Media to monitor all the Grand Virtual Gaming Platform licensees. The current positioning is a bit misleading.

I hope that answers some of your questions. I would be happy to discuss any specific customer service complaints with you if you are not receiving a timely reply from the customer service staff. You can either post it here or email me directly.

Jennifer Miller Joyce
VP of Marketing
Affiliated Web Attractions
 
AffiliatedWeb said:
The casinos and poker room that are managed by Ultra Internet Media directly include:

Everest Poker (www.everestpoker.com)
Everest Casino (www.everestcasino.com)
Casino Lux (www.casinolux.com)
Casino Elegance (www.casinoelegance.com)
Casino Fantasy (www.casinofantasy.com)
Casino Treasure (www.casinotreasure.com)
Casino Glamour (www.casinoglamour.com)

Jennifer Miller Joyce
VP of Marketing
Affiliated Web Attractions
Goodie. Does this mean you're going to pay me the $102 I was stiffed of in 2001? Grand Virtual remains to date the only casino to successfully rob me. Back then there was little backup, and I was shakey on the scene, anyway, so I just gave up after a few unanswered emails.

I won on one of those 1-for-30 sticky freebies they used to run at Casino Elegance. Subtracting the $30 left $102.

Cashed out.

"Sorry, you played from a barred partner (I later learnt this meant a "bad affiliate". I have, and had, absolutely no idea whose site I signed up through, if any), so your winnings are revoked".

Nice.

A cheque will do nicely, Jenny. Or Neteller.

Thanks.
 
Last warning

caruso said:
Goodie. Does this mean you're going to pay me the $102 I was stiffed of in 2001? ...

Caruso - and you chose to take this opportunity to wave your flag once more? Sorry guy, but the tone is not one that is conductive to any sort of welcoming of a new casino representative who came in here on her own to clarify her company's history and policies. Your tone begs for the casino rep to go into a defensive mode - this could have easily been handled as a PM and probably would have been much more effective.

Change your posting style, or I'll be giving you a break from this forum - period.
 
Sorry Bryan, but getting stiffed in the first few months of your playing career kind of leaves its mark.

You must do as you see fit, which is a shame, since we have every reason to get along, but dealing with these kinds of casinos, I just can't do "nice". It'd be the same if Emily Hanson told us she'd just taken over from Tony Friedmann, lol.

Anyway, we'll see if a PM can return my casino record to a clean 100%.
 
Admin note: changed title from "/ rouge sites" to "/ Grand Virtual information". The title was a bit misleading and misinformative.
 
Reviewing the Caruso account

Caruso,

Please provide me with as much as information as possible. You can send me a private message through this forum, correct?

Ideally, I would like your
USERNAME or customer id if you know it. Username should be fine.
Email that you used at that time
Approximate date of problem

This is on Casino Elegance, only right?

You should not have been denied winnings by coming through a barred partner. I don't know if that was their policy back then, but you cannot help which partner you came through (unless it was yourself).

I can follow up and look at your account. It might be difficult given it was 4 years ago to figure out what happened, but I will definitely look into it personally.

Please send me this information via a private email and I will be happy to follow up.

Best Regards,
Jennifer Miller Joyce
VP of Marketing
Affiliated Web Attractions
 
Good on you for taking this up, Jennifer - that's a smart CRM move even after this length of time.

I hope there is a successful outcome to your investigation and that the broad sense of this will be published here to ensure it is reflected on the record.
 
As for the Kahnawake gaming commission, I'm going to throw cold water on the confidence level.

The Kahnawake licensed Golden Palace even though GP's owner and head of security (Jack Stroll and Mark Francis) have convictions for telemarketing fraud in Canada. They ran the scam of calling elderly Canadians at home, telling them they won a prize, and charging shipping fees worth more than the prize to collect.

The Kahnawake have never to my knowledge judged a dispute in favor of a casino player. Heck, I've never heard of them answering a player's email. I've tried several times to get clarification of their regulations, and like Antigua, have never received a response.

The Kahnwake as a nation is on the border of Canada and the US and as such as long been a locus for smuggling, including the smuggling of humans. In the tribe's defense, they've long been impoverished and their land used as a dumping ground for toxic waste; online gambling is a large employer and brings in a lot of money.

The dispute between Sunny Group and Microgaming over the hosting of Sunny's servers on the Kahnawake reserve also bears examination. I heard a representative of Sunny Group speak in public on this issue, and they sincerely seemed to believe that their servers were in Canada under Canadian law. If so, they were conned: Indian reservations in Canada, just as they are in the US, are sovereign nations with their own legal systems. Those servers were not legally "in" Canada.

I welcome any credible information to the contrary of what I've stated.
 
Sorry to continue with the derailment of this thread - Mary's post is much more pertinent.

I'm pasting in here the fullest correspondence I can find on this Glamour / Elegance matter - it reads from the bottom up.

I heard no more from them until I was informed I was playing from a "barred partner". The "yes, it has been done!" comment relates to the money being transferred into the other clone. By "processed", I meant "paid" (third email from the top).

It never was.

If anyone can understand the request to open a SECOND account, which I initially didn't, then gave up and did, please explain, lol.

Thank you.

I've just found the money in the new account, which I've now cashed out ($115 total). Thought an Email notification might be useful, since it's being lying dormant in that new account for a few weeks.

Regards,

XXXXXXXXX (me)

------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Casino Elegance <partner_eng@casinoelegance.com>
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (me)
Date: 03 August 2001 17:01
Subject: Re: Cashout


Hi

Yes it is done - sorry about the delay!

please enjoy

CS

------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: XXXXXXXXX (me)
To: partner_eng@casinoelegance.com
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: Cashout


Hello,

I repeat, have you processed my cash out yet? Please inform.

-------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (me)
To: Casino Elegance <partner_eng@casinoelegance.com>
Date: 27 July 2001 03:17
Subject: Re: Cashout


Hello,

Since one of your sister casinos (Treasure) has paid me at last, I've decided to have one last shot at receiving my winnings from you. To this end, I have followed your instructions to the letter (see below), and created a new account. The details are:-

Username:- XXXXX

casino Email:- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Please transfer my winnings to the new account, as you have assured me below, and forward the cheque to me.

I should point out that the $104 winnings are located at casino Glamour (username XXXXX), not Elegance, but since you required me to redownload Elegance, this is what I have done.

Thank you.

XXXXXXXXX (me)

---------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Casino Elegance <partner_eng@casinoelegance.com>
To: XXXXXXXXXXXX (me)
Date: 13 July 2001 11:03
Subject: Re: Cashout


Hello again-

I have discovered the (small) problem.

Here is what I shall ask you to do.

Delete the software from your Computer, go to
www.casinoelegance.com and redownload.

Create a new player account (you will have to purchase at least one chip to do this)

Tell me your new player login and I shall credit your account with the amount you tried to cash out
with XXXXX.(plus a littlegift for all this trouble!) You can then cash it out .

Sorry for the inconvenience!

CS

-------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: XXXXXXXXX (me)
To: Customer Service
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: Cashout


Thanks.

--------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Customer Service <casino@casinorequest.com>
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (me)
Date: 10 July 2001 16:44
Subject: Re: Cashout


No Problems!

I will look into this for you now.

CS

-----------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: XXXXXXXXXX (me)
To: Customer Service
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 6:35 AM
Subject: Re: Cashout


Hello,

I do apologise, I made a mistake. My username is XXXXXX, not XXXXX; the "X" is in uppercase, the rest in lowercase (I just checked). My casino Email I managed to write correctly, so to clarify:-

Username:- XXXXX

Casino email:- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thanks for your prompt response; let me know if the transaction's gone through OK when you have a moment. Sorry again about the time wasting mistake.

Best regards,

XXXXXXXXX (me)

-----------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Customer Service <casino@casinorequest.com>
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (me)
Date: 10 July 2001 03:11
Subject: Re: Cashout


Hello

I searched under XXXXX and XXXXX but found no recoreds.

Is this your user name?

regards

CS

------------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: XXXXXXXXXXX (me)
To: casino@casinorequest.com
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2001 6:14 AM
Subject: Cashout


Hello,

I cashed out $104 two weeks ago, but I've heard nothing yet. I also sent an Email some days ago - you say you will reply in "two business days" - and I've heard nothing. Has my transaction been processed? - it's recorded on the software OK. Thank you.

Username:- XXXXX

Casino Email:- XXXXXXXX@XXXXX.com
 
mary said:
As for the Kahnawake gaming commission, I'm going to throw cold water on the confidence level.

Yes I agree with that now. It seems that is meaningless.

The cost of getting licensed is a piffling $5,000, and their claims about vetting their licensees are clearly a load of rubbish - I posted some selected quotes from their regulations at WinnerOnline
You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.
, and it's quite obvious from the fact that the Crystal Palace group (Doleplex) does not have a 'good business reputation', regardless of whether they have turned over a new leaf or not, it would be hard to find a more notorious group for their past actions.

I was probably led to be believe that the Kahnawake label was meaningful by the fact that many upstanding and highly reputable casinos are licensed there.

The Kahnawake have never to my knowledge judged a dispute in favor of a casino player. Heck, I've never heard of them answering a player's email. I've tried several times to get clarification of their regulations, and like Antigua, have never received a response.

I welcome any credible information to the contrary of what I've stated.

Seems about right. I think this topic bears discussion. Both Kahnawake and Antigua seem little better at Costa Rica.

Frankly I have zero sympathy for Antigua's dispute with the US over online gambling and as far as I am concerned they should be shut down.

You cannot have rights without responsibility and there is little evidence that they display any of that.

The best thing that the USA could do would be to recognise that online gambling is not going away, and regulate it and stop these joints running out of unaccountable nations that don't care.
 

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