Microgaming casinos leaving UK market

Casino Rewards........... :mad:

I'd like them so much more if they didn't spam the crap out of me! (Or is it an affiliate? I can never tell!)
She doesn't post much, but CR have a bloody good rep on this forum - Renee.
If you contact her privately I am sure she will look into any "spam mail" you are getting to see who is actually sending it.
I've had the same problem myself the last few days (definitely spammers) and she got right on it :thumbsup:


By the way, Crazy Vegas Flash casino now redirects to Casino UK but you can't log in yet.
I have contacted Star Partners (Vegas Partner Lounge) and they have confirmed that ALL their brands are now being re-directed to Casino UK for UK residents.
This is because they are only licencing that brand for the UK.
So they are definitely NOT pulling out of the UK market - they are just obeying the new rules.

For players' reference, their brands are:
Crazy Vegas (including Mobile)
Golden Riviera (including Mobile)
777Dragon
Maple Casino (Canadian focused)
Cinema Casino - closing today (July-17th) - players will be re-directed to another brand, depending on their location.
River Nile
Sun Vegas - closing today (July-17th) - players will be re-directed to another brand, depending on their location.
Casino UK (UK focused)
Casino Mate (Australia Focused)

KK
 
As I posted days ago. The casinos were phoning customers. So only players who have their correct mobile number registered would had received such phone call I guess. Though strange they haven't sent emails out as well.

My VIP rep got back to me. He was away for 2 days, and hasn't managed to get around to telling about 30 UK players. He will try to complete the task today. The real problem is that they have simply left it too late, and unexpected matters have prevented them getting around to informing all UK players. There should have been an email as well as a phone call. It's not just UK players that are affected either. Non UK players of Casino UK are also getting "booted" over to another skin, and a couple are closing altogether.

It sets a bad trend, the lockouts seem to happen first, and then UK players get told why. This is no good because of the multitude of promotions, tournaments, and other events that span multiple days. UK players need to know in good time so that they can avoid registering for anything they can't finish.

The next big lockout is Fortune Lounge, and quite possibly other parts of the Digimedia empire, but UK players still haven't been told, and no dates are available. In their case, there is no redirect to a UK facing skin, the lockout is total.
 
The next big lockout is Fortune Lounge, and quite possibly other parts of the Digimedia empire, but UK players still haven't been told, and no dates are available. In their case, there is no redirect to a UK facing skin, the lockout is total.
I've heard a rumour that all their brands (Palace Group & FL Group (including Red Flush Group)) will be closed off to the UK except for Betway - where all players at the other brands will be sent.
I stress this is a rumour - I do not have any official statement to that effect.

KK
 
Just received a flyer from Golden Riveria casino telling me I have been "promoted" to their Casino UK site due to the new regulations, when I try to access Golden Riveria I will now automatically be transferred to Casino UK
 
I've heard a rumour that all their brands (Palace Group & FL Group (including Red Flush Group)) will be closed off to the UK except for Betway - where all players at the other brands will be sent.
I stress this is a rumour - I do not have any official statement to that effect.

KK

This "rumour" is probably true, as the other "rumour" about Vegas Partner Lounge locking UK players out of all brands bar one has turned out to be completely true, even down to the rumoured date. Clearly, there ARE no "official statements" being given out, so we have to take measures so that if the rumours turn out to be true, we have already settled our affairs with the casino in question by withdrawing or losing any money and comp points, and not having any outstanding positions in play, such as the tournaments.

The rumoured date for Fortune Lounge is "some time in August", and all players will be redirected to Betway in much the same way that Vegas Partner Lounge has moved all it's UK players to Casino UK.

Players will probably be told what has happened after the fact.

The uncertainty will last until 1st October, by which time all casinos serving the UK must have a licence, although some will have continuation licences.
 
Just received a flyer from Golden Riveria casino telling me I have been "promoted" to their Casino UK site due to the new regulations, when I try to access Golden Riveria I will now automatically be transferred to Casino UK


LOL just received this from Crazy Vegas Casino. I wonder why they are doing this in such a strange way? How about all the other accounts. Will I receive one new flyer every day now :what:
 
LOL just received this from Crazy Vegas Casino. I wonder why they are doing this in such a strange way? How about all the other accounts. Will I receive one new flyer every day now :what:

Got mine today too, just a bit late, it's telling me to prepare for something that happened yesterday.

It also offers another go at the 3 stage SUB, but there is no sign of that in the Casino UK lobby.
 
Got mine today too, just a bit late, it's telling me to prepare for something that happened yesterday.

It also offers another go at the 3 stage SUB, but there is no sign of that in the Casino UK lobby.


Spoke to the support as i had a few things i wanted clarifying they didn't really provide much information in the email they sent today. The support informed me its not a duplicate account if you already had a casino uk account , she explained it as its the previous casinos account but under the new software (bit confusing) and that i could claim the 3 tier welcome offer on the transferred account also. Screen captured and copied the chat obviously to avoid any issues but this is what the live support have informed me.
 
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I just logged into Casino UK and the pop up appeared offering me 250% bonus. My issue is I already have a Casino UK account so are they going to accuse me of having two accounts?
 
It seems the CS have not been properly briefed.

In practice, players STILL have access to their non Casino UK accounts through the Casino UK skin. My host told me that in effect cross play would be switched off and ONLY my Casino UK account would work, and all of the others wouldn't, including my Crazy Vegas account.

I am sure the intent was that UK players could have the Casino UK welcome offer ONCE, but in practice they might end up getting it more than once, depending on how many accounts are migrated from the other skins into Casino UK.

Very late notification and poorly briefed staff could be a recipe for confusion, with players possibly being wrongly accused of taking offers they have been granted by the flyer, and OK'd by CS.
 
As you prophesized VWM, I was playing the daily £100 tournament at 777dragon yesterday and scored 3rd place, but did not receive my winnings due to this migration - they are not available in any of my accounts when logging into CasinoUK. Infact when contacting their support I am currently at over 50 minutes and they have only just recognized I did infact win 3rd place in the tournament after insisting otherwise repeatedly and asking me to send screenshots etc despite me providing the relevant username at minute 1.

I am not told I must wait for an unspecified amount of time whilst they are migrating before I will receive my winnings.

What a shoddy and disrespectful implementation of a bullshit procedure forced upon these casinos unfortunately by our supposed government ... I am much more upset at the prospect of losing Fortune Lounge though, that really will be a big loss to us UK players, and I pray they might have a change of heart and arrange for a UK license...
 
As you prophesized VWM, I was playing the daily £100 tournament at 777dragon yesterday and scored 3rd place, but did not receive my winnings due to this migration - they are not available in any of my accounts when logging into CasinoUK. Infact when contacting their support I am currently at over 50 minutes and they have only just recognized I did infact win 3rd place in the tournament after insisting otherwise repeatedly and asking me to send screenshots etc despite me providing the relevant username at minute 1.

I am not told I must wait for an unspecified amount of time whilst they are migrating before I will receive my winnings.

What a shoddy and disrespectful implementation of a bullshit procedure forced upon these casinos unfortunately by our supposed government ... I am much more upset at the prospect of losing Fortune Lounge though, that really will be a big loss to us UK players, and I pray they might have a change of heart and arrange for a UK license...

The government didn't insist on a no notice overnight action well before the specified date of implementation. If they had given players advance notice, they could have avoided things like playing a tournament that straddled the migration. They would also have saved themselves the chore of unpicking such screw ups, and the bad publicity from players asking "where's my ****ing money!" when balance data is not properly tracked, as appears to be the case here.

If you can log in to 777dragon through the Casino UK skin, then surely this should not have happened in any case. The group has crossplay, and I have tested this before by logging in to Casino UK through the Crazy Vegas skin, and am able to access my Casino UK balance, and my Casino UK tournament alias. It looks like they fixed something that wasn't broken, and this caused this feature to lose your 3rd place payout.

I fear the same will happen at Fortune Lounge, but here there is NO UK skin proposed, so how on earth will things like tournaments that straddle the date they won't give us be dealt with. Retrieving a prize will be a chore, as it cannot be retrieved through a regular casino withdrawal, and a tournament that closes after the cut off can be started, but not finished, which means that UK players are PAYING INTO an event they cannot properly participate in. Worse, they won't be able to access the scores at the end, so will have no way of assessing what they are due, and whether it has been retrieved and paid correctly.

The only safe way to deal with this is for UK players to quit playing NOW at all Digimedia casinos, as we know this is coming, and since they won't make any announcement, it could be on any night between now and Sept 30th, although with a strong bias to being sooner rather than later.

So far, UK players seem safe at 32Red, Betway, Casino UK (after a bit of technical unpicking), and the entire Casino Rewards portfolio. There is some talk of Palace group possibly getting a UK licence, and part of Digimedia also splitting off and getting a UK licence, but until there is an announcement, they could be cut off en masse along with the other skins in the group.

Other than this, there are all the sites that already have their UK licence, and have some Microgaming games as part of their portfolio.
 
The only safe way to deal with this is for UK players to quit playing NOW at all Digimedia casinos, as we know this is coming, and since they won't make any announcement, it could be on any night between now and Sept 30th, although with a strong bias to being sooner rather than later.

So far, UK players seem safe at 32Red, Betway, Casino UK (after a bit of technical unpicking), and the entire Casino Rewards portfolio. There is some talk of Palace group possibly getting a UK licence, and part of Digimedia also splitting off and getting a UK licence, but until there is an announcement, they could be cut off en masse along with the other skins in the group.

Other than this, there are all the sites that already have their UK licence, and have some Microgaming games as part of their portfolio.

The confusion and poor customer service involved in this is pretty bad. Its not like it should be hard to manage a transition if a site decides not to licence in the UK, there is still over 2 months to do it too.

My concern about the dislocation and upset was not really for UK players at sites pulling out of the UK, I had assumed they would manage it to keep the players on the networks and so get some affiliate cash from whoever they are passed on to. The next round of dislocation comes to a different set of players. The grey market players using sites that opt in to UK licencing.

Places that are in grey markets (we know the list but it includes for many sites Aus, SA and of course most of Asia some ring fenced EU countries and more) are likely to lose access to UK licenced sites. To get a licence they have to have a legal justification for each market they target (and list any with over 3% of their revenues).

Sites pulling out of the UK are likely to annoy UK players but sites staying in the UK market are about to annoy players in grey markets. The UK players will still have the choice of many reputable sites in what is a very very competitive market. Those in grey markets are likely to be left with a choice of more rogue like sites including the US facing sites.

There is about to be a polarisation of the whole online remote gambling industry - the more reputable that target the white markets will take a UK Licence and withdraw from grey markets. The rogues will get a temporary boost. Strangely though even some rogue sites, including US facing sites, are likely to pull out of the UK market.

You may wonder why rogue sites would refuse UK customers. Well the trouble for them is that the UK law is clear and unambiguous. It includes and advertising ban making it hard to compete but crucially it makes serving UK customers an explicit criminal offence (51 week gaol maximum) plus likely would also involve money laundering and other offences that carry a term of over a year - that maximum is important as anything over a year can get them issued with a European Arrest Warrant.

US facing rogues already need to avoid travelling to the US, if they operate in the UK post 1st October then their arrest risk extends to the UK straight away but could include the whole of the EU too. For those US facing rogue sites is it really worth it when the UK customers are served by licenced reputable firms able to advertise freely?

The US facing sites don't have many UK custoners today, there is little likelihood they will crack the market up against the likes of Bet365, Red32, BetWay and the UK bookie brands. The upside in revenue of serving the UK market for US facing sites does not seem worth the grief to me.
 
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OK so, it looks to me from the list of licencees that the UKGC licence the COMPANY rather than the BRAND. On that basis, if an operator has a licence, ALL their brands would by default.

So 1) why ARE Vegas Partners (Go North) sending all their players to one casino and 2) surely this means Digimedia would licence through their company and thus all their brands would be licenced AS long as they are owned by the same company, which THEY will be as they are setting up a new company to put all the Palace Group and Forward Slash brands into so I AM told.

As we can only SPECULATE right now, here's my GUESS: Casino UK is, or will be, owned by a different company to the other VPL brands. The new company that owns Digimedia and Palace Group properties will have a licence for all OF them.
 
OK so, it looks to me from the list of licencees that the UKGC licence the "company" rather than the "brand". On that basis, if an operator has a licence, all their brands would by default.

So 1) why are Vegas Partners (Go North) sending all their players to one casino and 2) surely this means Digimedia would licence through their company and thus all their brands would be licenced as long as they are owned by the same company, which they will be as they are setting up a new company to put all the Palace Group and Forward Slash brands into so I am told.

As we can only speculate right now, here's my guess: Casino UK is or will be owned by a different company to the other VPL brands. The new company that owns Digimedia and Palace Group properties will have a licence for all of them.

This is what I was wondering. If Vegas partner lounge didn't have to move all their UK players into a single skin, no one here would have noticed a thing on Thursday last. As it is, the transition has not gone smoothly for everyone. We have the vanishing prize for 3rd place in the daily MPV, and of course the issue of what happens with other MPV events that straddled this migration. The major issue is the Reels De Janeiro. UK players who placed on another skin no longer have access (or do they?) to that skin in order to view the scoreboard nor collect their prize by submitting a casino withdrawal. Those foolish enough to compete against me in the €20,000 tournament that straddled the migration would have lost access to their run mid way through, perhaps having bought a number of expensive continues with no prospect of fighting on for a paid position.

Now, I said "or do they" because despite being told to the contrary, I have access to BOTH my Crazy Vegas and Casino UK accounts through the Casino UK skin, meaning cross play has NOT been switched off as my host said it would be (for UK players at least).

I would not take a chance though, as this may change as they tidy up after the main migration. I will be playing the €20,000 through my Casino UK account, and it's up to my foes to figure out which alias is now me, because it isn't the infamous "Crazyweather" any longer ;) A certain German forum will know how to spot me, they have a thread devoted to the tournament scene, and Crazyweather became infamous there for unseating the repeating winner SashaK45 a while back.
 
This confusion and speculation is what happens when companies do not think through their actions before taking them - clear communications always go a long way to making transitions like this smoother and less frustrating for players.
 
This confusion and speculation is what happens when companies do not think through their actions before taking them - clear communications always go a long way to making transitions like this smoother and less frustrating for players.

I am playing safe. I have ditched Fortune Lounge as of my last withdrawal this week, rather than have them ditch me overnight whilst I am part way through one of their tournaments. I have received the usual weekend offer though, so UK players would not suspect something major is imminent.

If they want me to play, I need a concrete date after which UK players are to be locked out, and details of any migration to UK licenced skins.

Even the migration to Casino UK hasn't gone to plan. An email follow up to the flyer offers me a three stage bonus for moving, the usual welcome bonus, but there has been no popup upon logging in, the usual manner in which players opt in. Comp points too have not been migrated, it shows as "N/A", and clicking on the image shows that they are set to zero, appearing to have no history.
 
Tropezia Palace sent out a newsletter stating they are pulling out of the UK market.

Tropezia Palace Closing UK Market

Due to the regulation changes in the UK market Tropezia Palace is no longer taking new players from the United Kingdom. We are looking into the licensing option at the moment, and will follow up if anything changes in the future.
 
I never got the email

Went to log in today and got a big message saying they no longer accept uk players:confused:

The email was wrong anyway. It's not just new players, but existing players too have been given the boot.

It seems the norm is to boot UK players without notice, which allows me to say "I told you so" to all those who reprimanded me for "scaremongering" earlier. UK players should only continue playing at casinos that have made it clear that they are staying in the UK, and only join new casinos that are clearly staying.

Next to boot UK players is likely to be Digimedia, yet so far they have said nothing about this, and are continuing to send UK players invites to the next long running event which we are not going to be able to finish. UK players are set to be redirected to Betway.

The Vegas Partner Lounge migration is complete, but they totally screwed up the migration of tournaments, and they STILL don't work properly for migrated accounts.
 
The email was wrong anyway. It's not just new players, but existing players too have been given the boot.

It seems the norm is to boot UK players without notice, which allows me to say "I told you so" to all those who reprimanded me for "scaremongering" earlier. UK players should only continue playing at casinos that have made it clear that they are staying in the UK, and only join new casinos that are clearly staying.

Next to boot UK players is likely to be Digimedia, yet so far they have said nothing about this, and are continuing to send UK players invites to the next long running event which we are not going to be able to finish. UK players are set to be redirected to Betway.

The Vegas Partner Lounge migration is complete, but they totally screwed up the migration of tournaments, and they STILL don't work properly for migrated accounts.

I hope you don't include me as someone accusing you of scaremongering. My points have only ever been that the sites have plenty of time to deal with this well for players, there is no need to boot without notice, no need to leave players disadvantaged in any way. Sorting or shifting players to UK registered partners of each of the major networks should be easy, if anything the transfer should be an event triggering some incentive....if the firm is any good or is competent. The blame for any disadvantage or sudden change is with the site.

I would also like to do a bit of scaremongering of my own:

So far we have tales of UK players being inconvenienced as sites choose to pull out of the UK market but there is the reverse of this - the sites that opt for UK operation but who then pull out of some grey or black markets to let them have a UK licence.

It will not be just UK players being bounced between sites, facing lock outs or transfers, for those that stay in the UK they may be annoying some non UK players any day now and those are likely to be the larger more established brands/sites.

Again there is no need for the sites to mess this up, no need to disadvantage or inconvenience players, it is a simple migration, all that is needed is good communication/customer service for a long warned of change.

For UK players the 16th September deadline for applications for a UK continuation licence gives us the crunch date. By then all sites will know which way they have jumped on this. Any site that is keeping players in the dark after this date is being very dubious. Any milking players without notice that they are pulling out between 16th Sept and the go live of the new regime on 1st October is frankly rogueish,
 
I hope you don't include me as someone accusing you of scaremongering. My points have only ever been that the sites have plenty of time to deal with this well for players, there is no need to boot without notice, no need to leave players disadvantaged in any way. Sorting or shifting players to UK registered partners of each of the major networks should be easy, if anything the transfer should be an event triggering some incentive....if the firm is any good or is competent. The blame for any disadvantage or sudden change is with the site.

I would also like to do a bit of scaremongering of my own:

So far we have tales of UK players being inconvenienced as sites choose to pull out of the UK market but there is the reverse of this - the sites that opt for UK operation but who then pull out of some grey or black markets to let them have a UK licence.

It will not be just UK players being bounced between sites, facing lock outs or transfers, for those that stay in the UK they may be annoying some non UK players any day now and those are likely to be the larger more established brands/sites.

Again there is no need for the sites to mess this up, no need to disadvantage or inconvenience players, it is a simple migration, all that is needed is good communication/customer service for a long warned of change.

For UK players the 16th September deadline for applications for a UK continuation licence gives us the crunch date. By then all sites will know which way they have jumped on this. Any site that is keeping players in the dark after this date is being very dubious. Any milking players without notice that they are pulling out between 16th Sept and the go live of the new regime on 1st October is frankly rogueish,

Certainly not, if anything, your take on this makes this far more than merely "A UK issue". With Vegas Partner Lounge, it's Canadian and Australian players that are also experiencing a migration to a single country specific brand. Their screwup is not so much with the casino side, but with the multi player side, which is down to Microgaming not having properly prepared and tested what they should have expected to be a common process for many of it's licensees for the changes in the regulatory approach we are now seeing in many countries, not just the UK. In fact, France and Spain went through this process before the UK, yet no lessons were learned, UK players are mostly seeing the same overnight booting and messed up transfers that French and Spanish players were complaining about.

Whilst they can justify not being able to give a month or two of advance warning, they must surely have several days lead time between making the decision to boot UK players on a given date, and actually implementing the software changes that boot the players from a country no longer being accepted.

Now we UK players know how this is being implemented by the industry, we have to assume that the most likely "notice" we will get is finding our accounts blocked the first time we log in after such a change has been implemented. This can happen at any time this summer. Even sites that haven't booted us by 16th September cannot be assumed to be staying in the UK, they could hang on till the bitter end, and a few could be planning to flout the UK rules knowing there is little the UK can do to stop them.

The only sure way UK players can know where they stand is seeing the compulsory logo for the UKGC licence on the casino's website, and being able to click it to check the validity of the claim. Currently, this type of information has not been made available to the public as we are still in the transition period.

Royal Vegas are still sending me promotional emails as though nothing has changed, yet we know that on the last cruise, they were telling their VIP players from the UK that this would be their last cruise as the UK would be "booted" before the next one.

Those that accused me of scaremongering were doing so because they believed that things would be different for the UK changes, and that UK players would be dealt with "professionally", and would not suffer changes or lock outs with no notice, nor have their money "disappear" in the process. There is already a report that the change at VPL caused money to "disappear" due to the messed up migration of the MPV tournaments, this being a payout for a daily tournament on the last day that UK players were allowed on the skin.

Since we now know that this is going to be an issue with MPV during a migration, it could hit other players who begin a tournament and then find they are booted from that particular skin before the tournament ends and prizes are credited. This is why I am steering clear of the Royal Vegas MPV, even though they keep sending me promotions about them.
 
Yes, ultimately it's that simple. Any site should just add the UKGC logo on their front page at the appropriate time to give the player a one-glance opportunity as to the acceptance of UK players, either for the one brand they own that has been designated for UK licensing or the whole group if appropriate.
We had the reverse for years on many sites with 'no USA' after all.
 
Yes, ultimately it's that simple. Any site should just add the UKGC logo on their front page at the appropriate time to give the player a one-glance opportunity as to the acceptance of UK players, either for the one brand they own that has been designated for UK licensing or the whole group if appropriate.
We had the reverse for years on many sites with 'no USA' after all.

Come 1st October all UK facing sites will need the UKGC logo on their homepage along with a link.

The UKGC also publish a list of issued licences and even some applications (you can apply in confidence so not all) here:

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.


Applications for a transitional licence might start showing up soon (must be in by 16th Sept) or might not go live in this list until the 1st October.

There are 863 Remote licences listed on the basic online search today - the download of the register extract shows it broken down by applicant name, trading name, domain name.

The domain name list once sorted alphabetically is probably the easiest way to track change over this transition period. 417 show today with some inactive in that total, there are 1986 trading names many of them individual premises.
 
There are 863 Remote licences listed on the basic online search today[17/8/2014] - the download of the register extract shows it broken down by applicant name, trading name, domain name.

The domain name list once sorted alphabetically is probably the easiest way to track change over this transition period. 417 show today with some inactive in that total, there are 1986 trading names many of them individual premises.

With 2 weeks to go for transitional licence applications we are up to 880 (+17) remote licences listed by UKGC. I looked at the websites not the firms to see what has been added (and taken away).

Added:
aztecriches.co.uk
blackjackballroom.co.uk
captaincookcasino.co.uk
casino-action.co.uk
casino-kingdom.co.uk
casinoclassic.co.uk
casinoshare.co.uk
challengecasino.co.uk
colosseum-casino.co.uk
fantasyfootballexchange.co.uk
goldenreefcasino.co.uk
goldentigercasino.co.uk
grandhotelcasino.co.uk
grandmondial.co.uk
You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

musichallcasino.co.uk
phoeniciancasino.co.uk
playerspalacecasino.co.uk
Playnbrag.com
quatrocasino.co.uk
richreels.co.uk
strikeitluckycasino.co.uk
ukcasino-club.co.uk
vegascountrycasino.co.uk
vegasslotcasino.co.uk
villentocasino.co.uk
virtualcitycasino.co.uk
www.pushgaming.com
www.raffle-entry.co.uk/royaloperahouse
www.selectyourteam.co.uk
www.selectyourteam.com
yukongoldcasino.co.uk
zodiac-casino.co.uk

Taken off - those removed are mostly betbutler sites plus pokercent who have both had their licences suspended but there were a couple more:

betclearer.com
rpfantasy.com
seagullslotto.co.uk

--------------------------------- suspended
pokercent.com

bambara.betbutler.co.uk
bb12388.com
betbutler.co.uk
brownbear.betbutler.co.uk
canterburyrfc.betbutler.co.uk
cardinalhouse.betbutler.co.uk
cougars.betbutler.co.uk
dulwichhamletfc.betbutler.co.uk
forgesiderfc.betbutler.co.uk
glassonrangers.betbutler.co.uk
gloucesterrfc.betbutler.co.uk
mcb.betbutler.co.uk
rlwc.betbutler.co.uk
shorehamfc.betbutler.co.uk
shrfc.betbutler.co.uk
southampton-spitfires.betbutler.co.uk
staffordcc.betbutler.co.uk
wearside.betbutler.co.uk
whyteleafe.betbutler.co.uk

It seems that many casinos will be taking the UK licence.

Nb others may well have applied already and not be listed yet either as it is "confidential" or because it has not been processed.
 

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