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Casinomeister

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In case you don't read the news, this was posted today in Casinomeister's News section:
https://www.casinomeister.com/static/news/april2005.html

ROUGH STUFF IN COSTA RICA
15 April 2005

Police intervene in Royal Sports incident

Royal Sports.com has been the subject of caution flags at several watchdog sites this year after reports of payout difficulties, but this week the issue escalated to alarming proportions with allegations of attempted intimidation of a well known and respected watchdog site owner, John Walker and three of his Sports Book Review.com (SBR) staffers.

Bill Dozer and colleagues at Sportsbook Review.com (SBR) had earlier downgraded his rating for Royal Sports to a dismal D+ and has been monitoring complaints about the payment and promo activities of Royal Sports for some months.

Among issues SBR has studied is a restructuring project in an attempt to fix business weaknesses, and a case in a Dutch court in which an American player is alleging misconduct over a $50 000 claim which could now be heard in Costa Rica, where Royal Sports recently relocated from Curacao. Another case involving over $16 000 owed to an affiliate was also reported.

The intimidation took place in Costa Rica, where Dozer was visiting his staff and went unannounced to the offices of Royal Sports on the same floor of the Oficentro Building as Virtual Casino.

The VC owner is alleged to be the owner of Royal Sports, according to Roberto Castiglioni, a senior executive who was previously the CEO of the site and who now runs a watchdog operation. This has been confirmed by Royal's current management.

Apparently he has denied ownership and asked for the chance to make a statement to this effect but then did not do so. Royal has not denied that the guy is involved and current Royal management has not made a statement, but it is known that he is the majority, if not sole, owner from information supplied by the former CEO..

Dozer was denied access to the Royal office, and the fireworks started when he and his companions went to a local restaurant and found their car blocked in by a large vehicle and some scary, gun-toting heavies.

Fortunately, someone sounded the alarm and these thugs were arrested without further incident by heavily armed Costa Rican police. The SBR report says, "SBR appreciates the remarkable response time and overwhelming force employed by Costa Rican police."

Royal Sports has apparently now declined to issue a *corrective* statement as promised, leaving little doubt that the original report by SBR was correct and Virtual Casino is involved in Royal Sports.

The SBR report goes on to say that, "Tactics of intimidation threaten the industry and give critics of gaming in Costa Rica fuel for their argument that gaming attracts thugs, organized crime and other undesirables."

When InfoPowa went to press it was not clear what had happened to the thugs arrested in this incident, and Dozer declined to comment any further than the information he had posted on his site saying, "SBR has made the decision not to speak about the incident in detail. We still have employees in Costa Rica and must consider their safety. This is a matter we are now leaving to the authorities."


This is total bullshit. Bullshit implicating not a false statement, but a totally unacceptable situation.

I'm bringing this to the forefront of issues this week because this is exactly why caution needs to exercised when dealing with these types of businesses. If this incident is true (which I believe it is - I've spoken with some of these people myself), then Virtual Casino needs to step up to the plate and explain what their exact relationship is with Betroyal.

Are they related by ownership? Operations and management? Some or all?

In the meantime, I will be making my own assessment dealing with the information that I have at hand.

VirtualTed, this is not a personal jibe - you are a member of this forum - but you are now in the hot seat to answer a few questions. You are also free to invite any Betroyal reps to join in the conversation as well.

Bill Dozer is also a member of this forum, but I am not going to ask him to jump into this thread for the same reasons given in the infopowa report. It's strictly up to him.

I should also note that I am aware of similar incidences - it's not like current or ex-employees don't give me the heads up sometimes on what's going on behind closed doors - but I take everything I hear with a grain of salt.

I would like to keep this thread as civil as possible - I know there are a number of "Virtual" haters out there - ready to grab the pitchforks and torches. This is not your opportunity to start a slam fest. This thread's purpose is to produce information that may or may not have a serious effect on Costa Rican operations. And I expect it to be done in responsible manner.

Beside Vteds interjection here, I'm hoping that some of our Costa Rican forum members can produce any police reports that might be published in the CR press. This will provide a bit of insight at well.
 
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VirtualTed, this is not a personal jibe - you are a member of this forum - but you are now in the hot seat to answer a few questions.

I just can't wait, as I'm sure MANY others are to read his response to this incident.

I would like to keep this thread as civil as possible - I know there are a number of "Virtual" haters out there - ready to grab the pitchforks and torches. This is not your opportunity to start a slam fest.This thread's purpose is to produce information that may or may not have a serious effect on Costa Rican operations. And I expect it to be done in responsible manner.

I know that I may be right up on TOP as a "Virtual hater" and I will respect your wishes.
So, no "pitchforks and torches". I'm taking a sit back and wait until Virtual Ted replies.
But, just keep in the back of your mind that we I have been warning players, for months, that The Virtual Group is not what Virtual Ted makes them out to be.

Also, any sceptics that were unsure that Virtual deleted Insomniacs Lounge ... think about it again.
 
Who knows what goes on in that area, which as far as online casino gambling is concerned certainly has acquired an awful reputation for hosting way too many rogues and villains.

I, too was surprised to learn from my contacts that this shocking incident had not received local press coverage - I would be particularly interested to find out what happened to these thugs who hit on the SBR crew.
 
As of 4 days ago, the SBR staff did not want to talk.
I'm waiting to hear more on this.
 
jetset said:
I, too was surprised to learn from my contacts that this shocking incident had not received local press coverage - I would be particularly interested to find out what happened to these thugs who hit on the SBR crew.

I find this very odd also. When I was in Costa Rica last year, one thing that struck me about the country is that all police actions were reported prominently and repeatedly on television. Arrests, interrogations even, were shown over and over.

Since most of the residences have tall wrought iron fences surrounding their properties to discourage break ins, I assumed this was a policy to warn would be criminals off. A way to "take a bite out of crime". Many stores had heavily armed private guards at their front doors. Crime is definitely a main focus in San Jose, Costa Rica, and television is very eager to show reports of arrests, especially with people being handcuffed and treated roughly.

The fact that such a serious arrest was not covered by the media is very odd indeed.
 
I'm not surprised if it isn't covered.

Burglers don't contirbute to the local economy. Sportsbooks do.

When a casino roughs up a card counter in Vegas, that doesn't make the news.

Costa Rica is already in conflict with US legal authorities over hosting so many sportsbooks and extracting money from the US economy. It's in the interest of their powers that be to have such matters taken care of quietly.
 
Glad to see Bryan and jetset dragging this out into the spotlight....Good job gentlemen let's see what they have to say. As an afterthough will you be placing virtual back on the rouge list if this issue is proven to be fact?
 
I received a promo email from Bet Royal and am sure they are linked, I have never seen a Plytech promo limiting the cashout, the terms were deposit $25 and receive a 300% bonus, 20x playthrough, 30x any variation of BJ or VP, 10x deposit max cashout. Sound familiar??? :lolup:
 
One of my contacts in CR says that this is not so surprising....if the complainants (SBR) did not press charges. I've queried this with SBR.
 
Ted was in contact with me on Friday - stating he needed to get some clarification before making any statements. The General Manager of Virtual tried calling me during the weekend and left a message for me to contact him as well.

So far, no one has offered an explanation about this situation. No one is admitting anything, but no one is denying anything either. I'd have to agree with Mary's statement that if this did happen, it would probably not be reported in the CR papers. And if no has filed any charges, then in a legal sense - no crime was committed.

None of this ever happened....
 
Renamed the thread to remove "Thuglike" activity. Spoke with the general manager of Virtual to clear some things up. Again, like most cases like this - there is a lot of background activity going on to include a screw-up or two. I'm anticipating a statement on Betroyal as well.

In a nutshell, I couldn't care less if Betroyal and Virtual share are owned by the same people; this is not the issue. What I find alarming is the use of intimidation to win friends and influence people. But I am not convinced that we have heard the full story yet. Again, there is a bit more than meets the eye.
 
Just read this - great news for me, Bet Royal Casino have owed me $16K for over a month now and have stopped responding to my emails :eek2:
 
SBR has responded to our queries and says that the local police were definitely called in and took the thugs away. SBR was simply glad to escape this frightening incident unmolested and did not hang around to press charges.
 
Dirk my friend... Not only you are waiting for a bigger payment... :oops:

I will not go into details at this point though as I am hoping to have this resolved soon.
 
They appear to be suffering from...ahem..."deposit anxiety".

FTR, in my considered opinion depositing $20,000 here might not be too good an idea right now, LOL.
 
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caruso said:
They appear to be suffering from...ahem..."deposit anxiety".

FTR, in my considered opinion depositing $20,000 here might not be too good an idea right now, LOL.
I received this from another casino some days ago:

Make a $5000 deposit or more and get a 50% match deposit bonus up to $100,000.
Redeem Coupon Code: XXXXXXXXXX
to get your bonus instantly credited to your account + 100% Insurance Bonus

That's what I would call "deposit anxiety"...
 
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casinomeister said:
Ted was in contact with me on Friday - stating he needed to get some clarification before making any statements. The General Manager of Virtual tried calling me during the weekend and left a message for me to contact him as well.

Has any further contact been made?
 
casinomeister said:
In a nutshell, I couldn't care less if Betroyal and Virtual share are owned by the same people; this is not the issue.

I disagree Bryan, and I entirely support what you said at the start of the thread about Virtual in the "hot seat" to come clean.

If Betroyal are running around Costa Rica wielding baseball bats at the kneecaps of gambling journalists, and if those SAME people may be behind a casino which is currently on your "probabtion" list after years in the shit-pit, then I think it is CRUCIAL to establish the facts of the association one way or another. That the "Virtual" casino happens to be a separate software entity to the sportsbook is neither here nor there. If I buy apples from a greengrocer who wields a knife in face, I'm hardly going to go back to his establishment on the basis that I want to buy oranges.
 

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