vinylweatherman
You type well loads
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2004
- Location
- United Kingdom
I have had trouble getting a proper email service from many casinos, most notably Jackpot Factory, yet I DON'T use any of these free services, I use an email address from my ISP, and it is on THEIR domain, for example, mine are xxxxxxxxx@ntlworld.com
Some ISP's do not provide such a service, and if your ISP IS AOL, you will STILL get a troublesome AOL email address.
THIS is what I mean about email no longer being fit for purpose, and the main cause is SPAM. Just as casinos get ever tighter because of fraud and bonus hunters, email handlers get ever tighter because of the volume of spam. There is an arms race, and spammers go to ever greater lengths, meaning spam filters also go to ever greater lengths. Unfortunately, the inability of this industry has created a situation where online gambling is considered as one of those industries that are "core" spammers, which means that the mere mention of anything online gambling related is enough to trigger some filters, as is the mere mention of a "Canadian Pharmacy", or one of their more popular products.
I have also noticed that when casinos send email to players, their "email hygene" can be appalling! They often include images and advertising beneath their replies, and sometimes these are clickable and lead to blacklisted domains, such as c-f-1.com thus that reply from CS goes straight to spam, irrespective of the content of the actual email reply. I find that MANY of my promotional emails go to spam, and these are the ones that are image rich, and include links out to questionable third party domains. Promotional emails that are kept simple seem NEVER to get dumped to spam.
Some ISPs will offer a split class service to cope with high volumes of emails, delaying those seen as "probably spam", and letting through straight away those that seem OK. This can lead to some emails taking hours, if not days, to get through, whereas a simpler one shoots through in minutes.
Players can help by choosing less troublesome email providers for their casino related emails, preferrably ones that allow spam filters to be overridden by the user, even switched off altogether.
Casinos can help by looking at the hygene of their outbound emails, such as ensuring only "first party" click through links and images are included where possible, and ensuring that they DON'T contract with providers who also serve the spamming industry, and have had their domains blacklisted in some spam filters. Communicator Corporation is one example of a contractor who has, by their behaviour in serving the spamming industry, as well as the legitimate one, managed to get their domain c-f-1.com blacklisted by a number of software security companies' spam filtering products.
For InetBet, getting it right 100% is all the more important, since they ONLY have email, and there is NO WAY for a player to alert the casino in the event of a failure in the email service, other than to make it public, and hope someone who CAN make contact notices, and tells them.
This problem is only going to get worse, and the only way the online casino industry can get itself out of the firing line is to REALLY crack down on their spammy affiliates to the extent that the industry as a whole falls off the radar of the software security industry's "hit parade" or "top 10 chart", or whatever other way they promote the most spammy industry sectors.
