The Best and Worst of Gambling for 2004

Vegas Partner Lounge earns the coveted Casinomeister's Best Casino Group of 2004. This is probably one of the larger Microgaming casino groups, and the least problematic.

It's an exceptionally well run organization that upholds everything expected out of a tight knit group of people. Player issues or complaints are seldom heard stemming from the Vegas Partner Lounge casinos, and when they do appear, they are taken care of swiftly, fairly, and professionally.

They are active on the message boards, answering player issues and pre-empting possible problems by seeking opinions from players and webmasters. The Vegas Partner also makes generous donations to the Nebraska AIDS Project as well.

Kudos to the Vegas Partner Lounge Group. Thank you for bringing credence and respectability to this industry.
777 Dragon Casino
Arthurian Casino
Casino UK
CasinoUS
Cinema Casino
Crazy Vegas Casino
Crazy Vegas Poker
Maple Casino
Sun Vegas Casino
Vegas Partner Affiliate Program

Bets Group 2003 - Fortune Lounge Group
2002 - Trident Entertainment Group
2001 - Sunny Group

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Popular Casino Group is popular with me in this regard. They really tried to be good, but I'm afraid they are proving to be bad.

From their website: "'Popular Casino Group' (Gibraltar) Ltd. operates under the Laws of Gibraltar, and works under the provisions of the Gambling Ordinance for the purposes of operating Internet Casinos (online casinos)." Is it me that is reading too much into things, or does this imply that they are licensed in Gibraltar? Well whatever the case, anyone with a few functioning brain cells can click this link here and see for themselves which casinos are licensed on the "Big Rock". Popular Casino Group is not listed there.

And it's a shame too, since they had so much promise. Lest we forget, they were the recipient of 2003's Biggest Casino Scam which I thought would motivate the operators to try and do some good, like clean up their act. And in May of 2003, I met the operator who explained away the scam. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and removed his casinos from the Rogue Section...and our pleasant lives went on.

Until early November when one of their "affiliates" began an spam campaign using the reputable King Neptune's Casino as the senders email. And then it happened again in December, and again in January. Was this the work of a renegade affiliate, or the work of misguided casino operators? I have no idea, but it was the same affiliate link being used for each mailing even though the operator confirmed that the affiliate's account was shut down.

Is the Worst Casino Group too great an award for such a small infraction? I don't believe so. There is definitely something wrong here. And like I have mentioned before, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck - it is a duck.

2003 - Wager21 Group
2002 - Virtual Casino Group
2001 - Vegas Strip Group

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Maple Casino stands out from its peers as the Best New Casino of 2004.

Realizing the need for the millions of Canadians that wanted desperately to play in their homespun currency, the Vegas Lounge folks met this demand with this smartly run outfit. Launched in September 2004, it received praise from not only Canadian players, but international players as well. Maple casino set the precedence for more casinos accepting bets in Canadian dollars.

And like its sister sites, Maple Casino seldom generates player issues - what is generated from them is player praise and loyalty. Good going Maple Casino. Good going Vegas Partner Lounge.

2002 - Spin Palace

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This was a bit hard to pinpoint since there were a few good wins this past year, many progressive jackpots, many big hits, but one experience that stands out is UKCroupier's string of good luck at 32Red Casino here in our forum where he recants his holiday session that bagged him £70,000.

And what made this win so wonderful is that there was no question whether he would be paid or not. Says UKCroupier: "I won a nice sum on DDB VP at 32red on Friday/Sat. I went to the bank on Monday afternoon (today) and I was £70k richer. I've been a player at 32red for 1 1/2 years and have always had top class service and fast withdrawals but this one beats everything - I think they must have been waiting for the bank to open on Monday morning so they could rush the funds to me."

Good going UKCroupier - good going 32Red.

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Who can forget the scandalous "Hamptons Casino vs the Pirate"? What a story! A player wins $1.3 million, boasts publicly about his wins, and then the casino operator tricks the player into confessing over the phone that he used a "robot" which clearly broke the casino's terms and conditions. The phone call was taped (by both sides by the way), and the operator produces this taped call to all the inquiring minds who wanted to know. But wait, it doesn't stop here.

Then the player recants his story demanding to be paid - "There was no robot - pay me my $1.3 million!!" The operator comes back stating he has proof of the "robot", and spews some gobbly-gook that they were able to track the mouse movement of his game play. Enter RTG (the software provider), who (more or less) stated that the operator was full of crap - RTG software does not track mouse movements. Besides this unfolding publicly in Casinomeister's Forum, which incidently is one of the longest threads with over fifty pages and 36,000 viewings, it hit the mainstream press with MSNBC news.

The result? The clip-joint operator (who never had the money to pay this player in full), was relieved of his command, and the player was paid an undisclosed sum (which wasn't anywhere near the $1.3 million). The casino was absorbed by the "Hampton Portofino Group", and RTG was moved to create their Montana Disputes System.

This was clearly the worst online casino experience of the year, perhaps of all time. I think all of us who were involved in this brief interlude, walked away from this as a better informed and careful person. And it was absolutely the most entertaining online casino spectacle yet. If you want to read some of the nitty gritty, check out Casinomeister's March 4th's Newsletter here.

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Let's blow a posthumous kiss to Kiss Casino, which is the runner up for generating the "Worst Player Experience if 2004." That kiss is merely dust on the lips; Kiss Casino is no more, but a posthumous award is as valid and appropriate as any other. But what ailed this casino before it dried up and blew away? This is what:

Beginning in August of 2004, a thread popped up in our forum that detailed problems of being paid by this casino. The affiliate manager jumped in and tried to give some bona fide explanations, but one glaring problem was never answered. One of the players was told by the casino that they were waiting for a wire transfer to come in, and this was needed in order to pay him. I asked about this "wire" and was never given an answer. These sort of money issues bother me because it's a sure sign of a cash flow problem.

Not too much later another thread appeared in our forum which covered the dilemma of a 19-year-old player who was considered not of the "age of majority". Supposedly he wasn't old enough to play. And this was brought by the casino only after the player had won money. It didn't make a difference to the casino when he made his few first purchases and lost them. This selective application of the rules landed them in Casinomeister's Rogue Section.

The operator contacted me stating his concern that he had been "rogued" at Casinomeister. He had met me before, and felt that I was a reasonable person and he was hoping to better understand my motivation. He went on to explain their position on not paying this 19-year-old from Indiana. They thought that what they were doing was fair, and that it was the right thing.

But it wasn't, as far as I could tell, there was no clear cut law that governs what the "age of majority" is for online gaming in Indiana. When this player initially signed up, he was under the assertion that he was of age. The casino accepted his deposit, and when the player lost his deposit - this was a non-issue for the casino. When he returned to the casino and made a deposit and won, it became clear that it was now an issue. This "selectivity" on the application of casino rules is a no no. If a casino is going to apply these standards to one player, then they need to be applied to all players across the board. If these rules are not applied even-handedly, then it can be perceived as an unfair and potentially abusive policy.

We also need to remind ourselves that this policy was the casino's, and not a policy dictated by Costa Rica, RTG, or whomever/whatever. The casino could have made any call on this. They could have sent the player on his merry way with his winnings and then ban him from future play, letting him know that he would be welcome back on his 21st birthday. Since there was no clear-cut law broken, the confiscation of this player's winnings was severe. No one would have gone after them if they paid a 19 year old player. There are many casinos catering to the above 18 player - I have yet to hear of any operation being in jeopardy by a 19-year-old player collecting his winnings.

And what about all of the 18-20 year olds that come from this state - what about their deposits that went into this casino?

I explained how I felt to the operator, but never heard back. And then three weeks later - they notified players that they were closing. answer to this one. I don't know how this closing affected their sister casinos "Giant Vegas" and "Giant Slots", but most of us can agree that we're happy to have no more sloppy kisses from this casino.

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If claims of cheating software, connections to Russian spam gangs, unanswered complaints, are the ingredients for a bad, bad software provider. Well Oyster Gaming is the rancid result.

Have you ever wondered why you get some much spam that concerns fake Rolexs, pirated software, pharmaceuticals, and other irritating crap, you can thank the dweebs behind Oyster Gaming for this. Their casino domains are tied in with a group of Russian spam gangs, most of it is documented here. At press time they are reportedly under investigation by the FTC, FBI, RCMP, Business Software Alliance, Russian law enforcement, Macromedia, Rolex, and several other companies and agencies. Good going Oyster! You have brought this industry down a few notches because of your marketing techniques.

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Best and Worst in Gambling for 2004