General casino industry related articles that may well be of interest. These articles vary from general casino news, to regulation and well, just pretty much anything I want to write about to be honest. If you want information specific to individual casinos, then the Online Casinos section is where you should probably be heading.
Now I am not a fan of prohibition when regulation can be so much more effective, plus I work in the online gaming industry, so bear in mind I am biased here. But the introduction of the UIGEA in the USA in October 2006 made me shake my head at just how stupid some politicians can be. Well - I say stupid, but anything that guarantees campaign funding and votes perhaps isn’t so stupid, even if it does shout in the face of the Constitution. Land of the Free, right?
But it seems finally there is someone prepared to stand up and say “woah - hold up. that’s not right“. And this person thankfully has some clout. How much clout we will have to wait and see.
It’s being reported by a number of online gambling companies that PRWeb, the popular press release service, has adopted a policy of “no online gambling press releases” which reflects the fact that they are based out of Washington State, one of the strictest States in the USA when it comes to online gambling.
PRWeb has long been used by gaming companies to announce new products or initiatives, but it’s being reported that the current move could see PRWeb lose up to 5% of it’s revenues as a result. Washington State’s no tolerance policy to online gambling has come under fire before with detractors calling it a Nanny State and that it should allow it’s reseidents to make up their own minds on the moral issue of gambling.
Following on from my article last year about the Governor of Kentucky, Sen. Beshear, trying to confiscate a bunch of casino domains, I’m happy to report that sense has prevailed and it got overruled in court. Although it should be noted that it was only a 2-1 majority ruling, with one of those presiding presumably still short on campaign funding ;)
Update 19th Feb: The offending clause discussed in this article is being removed from all Grand Prive casinos with immediate effect, although the affiliate issue referred to remains unresolved.
Update 16th Feb. This term applies to “outstanding balances” at all casinos operated by Grand Privé, including Big Dollar, Bella Vegas, Casino Grand Bay, Fortune Junction and Villa Fortuna.
Some of you may have spotted that Grand Prive have had some bad press recently for the way they treated their affiliates. In fact I blogged about it here and suggested caution as it might be a sign of things to come. Well, it looks like those times have come over at Villa Fortuna casino…
According to a post on the popular Casinomeister forum recently Grand Prive-run casino Villa Fortuna has implemented a new condition. A player in Hamburg who posts under the pseudonym “poser” discovered what is commonly referred to as a “F.U. clause” in the Villa Fortuna Terms & Conditions. I quote:
An interesting report/video (see below) from KLAS this week that suggests that the casinos of Vegas are preparing to look again at online gambling. Of course, we had one false start a few years back, but with the credit crunch taking it’s toll on gambling in Nevada according to a recent report, it’s not really a surprise. What is more surprising is that they didn’t follow this through years ago…the online casino industry has been booming and many see it as recession proof, which from the figures I’ve seen recently, I’d have to go along with.
A number of online casino players will be familiar with the online casinos Bella Vegas, Casino Grand Bay, Lake Palace, Jupiter Club & Roadhouse Rules, but not many will be aware of the latest shenanigans involving the group. Things are not looking good here!
As if it wasn’t bad enough with the US government pushing all the good casinos out of the US market leaving the path open for all the dodgy rogues and fly-by-nights to take full advantage, now we have a previously respected group pull a stunt that has got them relegated into the rogue pit at the legendary Casinomeister casino watchdog site.
So what did they do to deserve this? Well for some years now
From the 10th November 2008, all online casinos that use Microgaming software - and that’s most of them - will no longer be taking USA casino players. However, players with accounts opened before Sunday 9th November 2008 will be able to continue playing.
Click here for more information and casinos that this affects
Not good :(
In a move that follows on from the ongoing Internet censorship case being bought by the Governor of Kentucky to limit Internet access to Kentucky residents, online gaming software giant Microgaming becomes the latest company to “play it safe” and has implemented a system-wide block on all Kentucky domiciles.
As of this week, no resident of Kentucky is able to play at any gaming company that uses Microgaming software which accounts for a large proportion of the properly regulated online casinos and poker rooms previously available in the State. Additionally, one major licencee
Check out this Wagerworks (IGT) page from their website. Now I love Wagerworks games, don’t get me wrong but honestly this is their “Plan For Success” (Sales pitch!):
An interesting development in my inbox this morning. It appears WIlliam Hill casino is ditching the Cryptologic casino platform and moving to Playtech, while at the same time merging with the infamous CPays brand and the lesser known offshoot Webroute Services.
Interesting and probably good too. For those that don’t know, CPays are a very aggressive and generally unpopular online casino operator who manage a few brands. I’ve never liked them myself - they are happy to have spamming affiliates and do whatever it takes to get players and keep them, and complaints are numerous. Whenever I came across a website with their brands on I intuitively knew the affiliate cared more about their commissions than about the players they were trying to inform. They are very closely linked to Playtech and recently, Webroute Services appeared