10 February 2025 - International Casino
Exhibition
~ London Special Edition
Dear Reader,
I am back. And like with any absence, it takes a few days to get one's
feet back on the ground. Well, with feet well emplanted, I want to welcome you to the ICE London special edition where I tell all, well almost all. If reading about the grooviness of London, doing tequilla shots, backpack theives, and online casinos is your thing, then read on...
Telltalingly yours,
Bryan
| MY TRIP TO LONDON 2004 |
Thieves suck.
So where do I begin, well I could begin trying to explain why this London adventure has taken so long to publish (I've been back for ten days), but I won't get into this. I would rather begin with the drive to Nürnberg on January 24th cruising through the early morning snow, wondering if I was going to make it to the airport in time. Or I could begin with chillin' in the Flughafen (airport), listening to my brand new iPod which was making its virgin trip, or I could begin with chillin' in the aircraft, listening to my iPod groovin' to the tunes I had uploaded the night before, or I could begin on the "tube" when I had realized that I had left my backpack on the transfer bus, which included my iPod, my digital recorder, three years worth of hand scribed notes, my digital camera, gloves, scarf, umbrella, and passport.
The bus drove off with my backpack, and it was never turned in. Thieves suck. The worst of the matter was the camera. Everything can be replaced, but the camera had pictures that are now gone forever. I could kick myself in the ass. Before I left I was going to download them, but I ran out of time. There were pictures of my kids posing in front of the Christmas tree, playing in the snow, and I'll never see them again all because of my absentmindedness - and because of a thief.
Lesson learned: never travel with things that are irreplaceable and download your pictures whenever possible.
Getting a new passport was no problem. Since I do a lot of traveling, I carry a photocopy of my passport in my luggage for just this sort of situation. And I was surprised how helpful the personnel at the American consulate were in helping me get a new one. But alas, I had only so much time in London, and Monday was my funday - shot to hellday.
Anyway, so I started off the trip being bummed out. At least I was with friends who helped me feel at ease by bringing me to China Town for some funky Chinese food and then forcing tequila shots down my throat (thanks Greedy Girl). Nevertheless, I made it to the first day of the International Casino Exhibition in one sober piece the next morning.
The exhibition floor was huge, and it took a while to find the online gaming section of the ICE. It was disappointingly small. Only a handful of booths filled two rows and several of the leading suppliers of gaming software were not represented. Why? Because it seems they have no need to rent a space (Microgaming for one) since they are not taking on new clients. Makes sense, but it would have been nice to see a demonstration of what is to come...Microgaming for example is always developing new games. And...sources tell me that some fantastic new slots are due out soon (you think Thunderstruck and Spring Break are groovy, just wait). But anyway, many of these reps were loitering around, they just didn't have booths. No problem with that since I can still get what I want. And what do I want? I want information.
I don't come here to hang out in booths, I come to talk to people, to meet with them get to know them and their operations. My digital recorder, lost in my backpack and belonging to some thief right now, was to assist me in making some unprecedented interviews with figureheads of this industry�so I bought a new one, and put it to good use.
Ed Ware, the operator of 32Red, was my first guest and we met in a rustic pub just down the road from the ICE. Our conversation was very informative. He touched on his policies on how his casino handles problem gamblers (which is a hot topic in the UK), and his casino's relationship with US players. This is an operator truly dedicated to this industry and to his players. This is what operating a casino should be all about, and it's nice seeing this personified. You can listen to this interview here.
Tuesday evening led to an event I'll never forget; dog racing. Fortune Affiliates had invited a number of their affiliates for a night at the races; a buffet table decked out in the best English eats (yum) and a free 5 pound wagering chip. Dogs with names like "half tight" and "Angry Man" (I immediately thought of Warren Cloud, and bet on this one) zipped around the track; I wasn't aware they could run so fast. Spearmaster, Greedy Girl, Peralis, and Mito made the evening into an entertaining one with their rambunctious behavior. Thanks Fortune Affiliates for a memorable evening.
The next day was spent mostly meandering around the exhibition center. One of the most interesting segments was my lunch with the CEO of the Virtual Casino group. Now most of you are aware of my dealings with this casino group. There have been some serious problems in the past, and I have been quite outspoken about all of this. The CEO wanted to meet me for lunch, and I was a bit leery at first thinking I'd be picked up and taken "for a ride." But it was cool. He met me in a cab along with his CFO, an elderly English gentleman. No goon squad here.
We sat down at a nearby restaurant and talked. He was aware of my past dealings with his casinos, and some incidents I reminded him of, and to his CFO who was mainly in the financial loop of things - not the casino side. I spoke of my concern over the issues of manipulative spam campaigns, about some serious breaches of player privacy, and of player complaint issues.
The CEO of the Virtual Casino group has assured me that the Virtual Casino group has turned over a new leaf, they have a new managerial staff that is dedicated to the industry and they have been cleaning up their act. This is a good thing, I thought since this is what we all want-a change for the better. I know, I know, many of us are skeptical about what people say - since actions are what count. Well, the proof will be in the pudding as he said. I have a special section at Casinomeister set up to handle any outstanding complaints concerning this group of casinos.
We also cleared up some misunderstandings about Prism Casino and Cirrus casinos. These casinos had many related identifiers when they were either launched, or under operation. I had pointed this out clearly months ago, and stand by my findings. But it was good to finally hear an explanations as to why. One of the reasons was that the Virtual group was acting as a consulting group to get these guys started. They were sharing server space, email accounts, stats, etc. but as the initial weeks went by they separated into their own identities and business entities. I was not wrong what I have said in the past; I've said that there were identifiers that connected theses casinos to one another. But now I feel it's safe to say that they are separate businesses.
So I'm considering some of the past casino screwups to be water under the bridge; the manipulative spam, the dissing of me by their support, the accidental exposure of player identities and credit card info on the internet. Water under the bridge, but I'll be watching them - closely.
For the remainder of the day, I met a number of good friends and acquaintances. Brian Cullingworth and I filled each other in on some interesting gossip. No we were talking about you my dear reader, but we could have been. You never know.
I met with Paul Templeton, Neteller's VP of operations for the UK. This proved most interesting because it seems that even though the online casino industry is for the most part unregulated, it's the ecash providers that may be the crux of protection for players. He set me up for an interview with the CEO of Neteller Gord Herman, which you can listen to here, and this proved to be very reassuring for any players who are having difficulties with online casinos.
When players have problems, and they approach me, the first thing I do is contact the operator, or at least make an attempt to do so. If I don't have a point of contact, I take it to their support. If there is no response after three attempts, I contact the software provider, then the licensing agency. Now one entity I have left out of the loop is the ecash provider, but now no longer. If you are a rogue casino operator and you are reading this, be advised that Neteller takes their customers seriously. It will take merely two or three complaints to prompt Neteller to review your merchant account. I know of one casino/sportsbook that had their Neteller account yanked just a few weeks ago. Something to dwell on.
And players, if you do not have a Neteller account, why not? They are growing rapidly and will soon will be making transactions in Euros and British Pounds.
That evening was the Fire and Ice party which turned out to be a very interesting engagement. I even ran into Brian Woods again, one of the operators for Black Widow casino. You may recall it was our chance meeting last year - or was it by chance - that gave impetus or the momentum to award Black Widow the worst casino of 2003 award. We chit chatted for a while, about how things were going, the usual banter. And then I asked him if he was pissed at me. He said "No, do I look pissed?" and I said no - he didn't. So we spoke for a while longer, about the industry, about Europe, and about a number of trivial things. He then handed me a White Russian, and we lost ourselves in the crowd. In essence, I'm glad no one is pissed.
That evening I also hooked up with Time Whyles of Wagershare, and we discussed a number of things that affiliates may find interesting while hanging out in a quieter spot (in front if the women's bathroom). You can hear about it on my webcast as well.
The last day of the ICE was spent mostly with RTG and going over a number of player issues. One biggie is the issue about a player who has won over a million dollars at Hampton Casino playing Caribbean 21. In fact this player has been paid out about $60,000 dollars from several other RTG casinos and at press time he has about $70,000 sitting at Delano casino, but his account is locked.
In a nutshell, he has won a lot of money.
But there are troubles in these waters which I am still trying to decipher. The player has been accused of robot play, which is strictly forbidden by Hampton's. And the worst thing is that this player has admitted it via a taped phone conversation. The casino has posted this phone conversation where the player admits this. Yet the player is recanting his confession, stating that he was entrapped to confess. The casino considers the phone conversation as evidence enough - taking the confession face value, stating that the recorded conversation (which both parties recorded by the way) is good enough. They haven't produced techno-evidence of robot play to the outspoken mass of angry players. Oh, what a mess. If you want to read about it, you can check it out here. But brew yourself a pot of java before hand, it's a long read.
But anyway, my trip to London was much more informative than eventful, except of course there are several events that are still lingering with me. Movies for one; as tradition has it, I've caught the "Lord of the Rings" films, all three, at the Odeon in Leicester Square. What a fantastic experience! It's a shame that this film was the last one of the bunch.
Another thing that is lingering within is knowing that I have a lot of friends in this industry. My job can be a "loners" job. I sit here up in my studio, staring at the monitor all day, pounding out emails and working on the site; Vortran and I don't speak for hours at a time at times. Sometimes I'll get the occasional phone call, but that's about it. It's quiet in my studio (except for the music which you can listen to here), but I am in contact with hundreds (if not thousands) of people all over the world. Weird ain't it.
And this has got to be one of the weirdest jobs in the world; running Casinomeister - but I like it. I find it satisfying when I'm able to help some poor wayward player receive their winnings that they considered lost. I enjoy helping businesses stand out amongst their peers when they do good. And I am intrigued on how some "businesses" assume we are gullible sheep waiting to be herded into some sheppard's soup.
And I have learned that one must always keep their guard up, be it on a London bus, or at home investigating some errant online casino. There are snakes in the grass; I hope I can continue to cut a clear path.
|
|
|
Complaints? Kudos? Please let me know.
Peace
Bryan Bailey
Webmeister
Casinomeister
Top of page |
Home |
News |
Forum |
Webcast |
Vortran |
Accredited Casinos |
Evil Ones |
Pitch a Bitch |
Online Gambling Resources |
Poker
|
|
Previous ICE LAC CAP London Reviews:
My First trip to London - gotta read these:
ICE 2001 Review Part 1
ICE 2001 Review Part 2
ICE 2001 Review Part 3
ICE 2001 Review Part 4
Meeting Julie Sidwell and Vahe Baloulian for the first time.
ICE Review 2002
Casino-on-net banner ads on the London Underground. It's party time with Peralis, Greeygirl and more! Fire and Ice party is a hit!
ICE Review 2003
Thieves suck! Small online casino presence - no Microgaming. 32Red interview.
ICE Review 2004
Awesome show! Partnerlogic donates $111,000 to tsunami victims via CM, meeting with Virtual Casinos, MGS party on the Isle of Man
ICE Review 2005
Webzcas eats Sushi for the first time. Meeting many operators, Chartwell Technologies is rogue.
ICE Review 2005
RTG's duck-and-cover exercise. Tila Tequila. First year that CAP was in London.
ICE & CAP Review 2007
Meeting Max Drayman for the first time, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider launches, first Meister Meeting at the Atlas Pub! I win an award at CAP.
ICE & CAP Review 2008
Sue Scheider's roasting, Montel Williams comes to the Meister Meeting, meeting Rushmores operator, CAP Awards.
ICE & CAP Review 2009
Casinomeister members donate $25K to Oxfam. CM player panel discussion. Stryke casino - rogue.
ICE & CAP Awards Review 2010
A talk with MGS, 32Red's trademark victory, CEC's "student clause" issue, iGB Affiliate Awards
ICE London iGB Affiliate Awards 2011 | Casinomeister Review
Last time at Earls Court. Discussing the Virtual Casino Group. "Inside the Player's Mind" player discussion.
ICE & LAC 2012
First time at the Excel - meh. Finsoft/Spielo Games issue. "Inside the Players' Minds II".
ICE & LAC 2013 | Casinomeister Review
The beard tour.
ICE & LAC 2014 | Casinomeister Review
Nifty29 vs Vinylweatherman at the Meister Meeting. Equating advantage players with fraud.
ICE & LAC 2015 | Casinomeister Review
|
|
