All very well, but you simply have not given players anything remotely approaching sufficient notice given the severe consequenses involved in NOT being able to access the former casino. You admit the email was sent "last Friday", and to AFFILIATES. This was just before a weekend, so it wouldn't have been til Monday that any substantive action, such as beginning to inform players, would have taken place. Affiliates that keep their players informed tend to do so via WEEKLY (not instant) newsletters, so by the time this was written up and sent out, it would already have been too late for players to act. This is assuming players did not go on holiday that week, in which case nothing could have been done to inform them prior to the closure.
The damage has now been done, and it remains to be seen how many players have known nothing about it until they have found themselves unable to log in.
This is STILL a "corporate speak" reply, rather than an actual effort to address the most pressing questions. WHY are players balances, bonuses, and comps being arbitrarily confiscated via a scheme that seems deliberately designed to ensure that significant numbers of players have no proper opportunity to take the necessary action to prevent it.
WHY were players logging in to the casino not only told nothing about this via the lobby, but were mislead by being offered promotions that extended past the closure data, ensuring that they wouldn't even be suspicious that there was even an issue to query CS about.
A new software and continuation of good support is never going to compensate for the arbitrary confiscation of cash balances and benefits already accrued. It has taken till NOW to even tell affiliates that the players they recruited will remain tagged to their account, yet marketing materials are not yet available for them to use in updating their website, yet the change has already happened.
The one week vacuum between the old and the new is one week for those players taken by surprise to speculate on what has happened, why they have heard nothing, and where their money has gone. These players will find their new accounts, log in, but find EVERYTHING has simply vanished without due process nor explanation. This initial bad experience is going to cause them to prejudge the trustworthiness of the new software and management team before they place a single bet, or make a deposit.
Even those players who found out beforehand what happened, and managed to save their own funds in time, will think that there will be a "next time", and that they are at risk of not being so lucky then. The new casino will end up having to pay out more in promotional "bribes" than it would have cost to simply transfer balances and accrued benefits over to the new software, something that is normally done when such changes occur.
The mere fact that there is something "very strange" about this whole affair will be enough to put many players off, and they will want to know more details and "the truth" else they will think that there is a "dirty secret" being airbrushed out of existence that could resurface again, and at any time.
We have been here before with Casino Action. A group with a similarly stellar reputation, accredited here, and suddenly having their eCogra seals "suspended". Their rep came on here to assure us all was well, and that it was "business as usual" for players, and that the suspension was merely an "administrative matter" that would quickly be cleared up, and the seals restored. The following Wedneday it was "business as usual" at Breakfast, and BUSTO by lunchtime, with Poker players in particular losing $MILLIONS, and casino players facing a period of uncertainty till a rescue deal was struck with Casino Rewards, who incidentally not only restored balances, but the COMPS and STATUS too!
It then happended AGAIN the following year with another group, and this time casino players lost everything as well. As a result of a series of incidents like this, the LAST thing any successful group wants to be doing is acting like they are in distress by doing things like this at virtually no notice, and saying "we don't know" a mere 3 days away from the deadline to such questions as "what is the new software" and "who are the new operators".
Rather than taking a week off, the new operators need to crank up the PR machine to limit the damage being done, and ensure that the players do NOT lose out over this change. I suspect that this cavalier attitude is down to the fact that the primary market is the US, and they have such limited choice that they will "suck it up" because their other option is to not play at all. Non US players exercising their much wider choices are not numerous enough to cause much damage to the "bottom line", and their possible migration has been considered to be "of limited impact" to the future viabilty of both groups.
The new software needed some exposure and some players in order to get a foothold in the market, and the poor Lucky Club players were the UNlucky ones selected to be sacrificed at the altar for the greater good of giving the new software an instant player base from which to develop and expand further.
This was a VERY high risk move, and could easily backfire and finish off BOTH operations.
Not to discount the issues that others here have with this transition.
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