World Casino News
GVC Holdings okayed to proceed with Ladbrokes Coral Group purchase
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
GVC Holdings okayed to proceed with Ladbrokes Coral Group purchase
Black Oak Casino introduces concert series
Casino City Times
Black Oak Casino introduces concert series
Beginning 25 May and running through October, the concert series will help bolster the casino's image as a premier entertainment destination.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Bulgarian Slot Machine Hackers Arrested after Pulling Off Sophisticated Scam
Casino News Daily
Bulgarian Slot Machine Hackers Arrested after Pulling Off Sophisticated Scam
The operation was carried out by GDCOC’s cybercrime unit. The four arrested individuals were found out to have devised a particularly sophisticated scheme for obtaining remote access to gaming machines at casinos and halls. They were thus able to manipulate the outcome of slot machine games and generate large profits in the process.
Each of the four individuals was assigned to a particular role. One of them had to simulate playing on slot machines, while the others accessed the machines remotely to meddle with the games’ outcome. Another member of the organized crime group had to secure the remote access and thus control the gaming devices.
There was also a person among the arrested individuals who was responsible for crafting the electronic devices that manipulated remotely the gaming machines’ software.
The four individuals were arrested shortly after they had hacked the slot machines at yet another casino and had collected their winnings from it. GDCOC also seized a large amount of money and different devices used by the organized crime group to meddle with the slot machines.
The detained individuals are set to be forwarded to judicial institutions and charged under Bulgarian law.
Other Major Casino Scams
In 2012, a New York crime ring that comprised between 50-70 individuals was found to have devised a roulette scam and to have successfully ripped off multiple casinos across the United States before eventually being caught in Ohio.
In the scam, players (members of the gang) entered a roulette game with extremely low bets. Some of the players pocketed chips of one color or another while another player was tasked with distracting the dealer. A player at the roulette table then excused themselves to hand the chips stolen to another gang member. That another member then used the stolen chips to play at tables where their value was significantly higher. The player was thus able to cash out at the new and higher rate.
The group reportedly acted for years. Its activities were eventually uncovered in Ohio. The Ohio Casino Control Commission said back then that members of the group were able to collect between $1,000 and $2,000 per scam at the state’s casinos. However, it was hard to determine how much exactly the gang managed to rip off casinos across the country over the course of its activities.
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888 Holdings reports 4 group revenue growth in FY2017
Gambling Insider
888 Holdings reports 4 group revenue growth in FY2017
Gaming and online casino operator 888 Holdings has revealed a 4% year-on-year rise in its group revenues for the full-year 2017
Comedian Adam Ray to perform at Cherokee West Siloam Springs
Casino City Times
Comedian Adam Ray to perform at Cherokee West Siloam Springs
Known for his sketch comedy, Ray will bring the best of his acts to the Qualla Ballroom on 31 March.
Degree 53 launches a sportsbook platform for Goldchip
Gambling Insider
Degree 53 launches a sportsbook platform for Goldchip
Degree 53, a specialist iGaming UX Design and bespoke development agency, has recently announced a successful launch of a new end-to-end sports betting platform created for a premium bookmaker, Goldchip
Monday, March 19, 2018
Affiliate Union Plan Surfaces to Help Affiliates against Predatory Gambling Operators
Casino News Daily
Affiliate Union Plan Surfaces to Help Affiliates against Predatory Gambling Operators
Resourcefulness is an important ingredient for the growth strategy of any business, particularly when it is part of a highly competitive industry. The online gambling industry, with its rapid growth and highly demanding consumer base, needs resourcefulness and innovation more than anything.
However, it has been on too many occasions that resourcefulness has been deployed by gambling operators at the expense of their affiliate partners. The introduction of retroactive term changes in contracts between affiliate programs and affiliates, payments delayed for months and years, and the sudden termination of contracts and disregard of life-time revenue sharing agreements are few of the instances of operators showing that they can be very hostile to their affiliate partners.
These and many other instances have shown that the iGaming affiliate sector is extremely vulnerable to attacks of any sort and is almost incapable of defending itself. The recent court battle between the Online Casino Reviewer affiliate website and Affiliate Edge was yet another manifestation of the affiliate sector’s lack of proper defense tools.
In brief, Online Casino Reviewer sued against the affiliate program’s decision to retroactively apply a minimum activity quota, and lost the case due to an arbitration clause in the contract between the two parties, which many within the space would agree was a rather questionable clause.
It has recently come to the Casino News Daily team’s attention that another iGaming affiliate has proposed the creation of a union of affiliates, a body that would aim to protect the interests of those involved in the sector. As a news outlet and a representative of the online gambling industry, we would like to spread the word about an idea that, if realized, could help the iGaming affiliate space become less hostile to its active participants.
The Union
– Each member would be assigned one vote.
– At no point will the union dictate which programs any member can work with.
– Any member can approach the union to request a review of an issue. The union would then prepare an overview of the key facts of the case, including what the affiliate feels is the problem and in which jurisdictions legal action could potentially be pursued. The overview would be distributed to all members. There are then multiple options, but each would require a vote. Before action would be taken, a majority of 55% of the membership would have to be in favour of it.
Each of the members of the affiliate union would be able to ask for help from its other members when it feels that an affiliate program may not be acting properly. All members would be informed about the issue and they would be required to vote on what further action, if any, should be taken. Each member of the union would be assigned one vote. A majority of 55% of all members would have to vote in favor of a proposed action in order for it to be taken.
Bad Publicity
Those in favour of action would be asked to publish a statement on their respective sites. If managed correctly there is the potential to create a ‘link wheel’ like structure between the published articles to ensure that the articles rank well and even give some SEO benefits to the participating members.
It can be said that a negative story about an operator and its affiliate program circulating around the Internet and being distributed by a greater number of affiliates could affect that same operator much worse than a lawsuit against it. The reason is that while operators and affiliate programs may have been making sure to add clauses in their affiliate contracts that might spare them from negative court rulings, they cannot escape bad publicity from members of the industry.
ThePOGG also proposed that a “link wheel” structure between the published statements is created so that they rank better and provide webmasters with certain SEO benefits.
Collective Will
And if approved, each member of the union would be required to contribute a certain amount of money to cover the legal costs. The costs for any legal action would be shared equally. To ensure this, ThePOGG proposed that each participating affiliate signs a legally binding contract on behalf of their business upon joining the union that they agree to fund any lawsuits that might be filed against erring affiliate programs.
If the majority (55%) are in favour of taking legal advice the union then looks to engage a legal firm in the relevant jurisdiction and undertake a review of the case. The cost for this would be split equally amongst all members. This means ALL members, not just those in favour.
While the idea for the formation of the affiliate unit is still in its early stages of development and it certainly needs a certain amount of refinement, we personally believe that it could be a right step toward putting pressure on affiliate programs against predatory terms and conditions and other practices that harm the affiliate space.
Casino News Daily encourages interested parties to read the whole plan and voice their opinion and ideas to help the affiliate sector finally take long-overdue actions to defend those involved in it.
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