Vegas Affiliates, Grand Prive, & Affiliate Lounge: APCW Perspectives Weekly

[Anthony]

Last week we promised a butt kicking, and this week we deliver! We call out the Affiliate Lounge and Vegas Affiliates groups for their actions. Plus, we have serious doubts about the new eCogra "investigation" of the Grand Prive Affiliates theft of commissions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyf8Z5rPOzY

[Chalkie]

OK, who did not crack the ice sufficiently to give J Todd a dip?

[Dominique]

Is that your dog or a spectator waiting to see you take a dip in the pond?

[Integrity]

That's my dog.

The same dog that I shaved in that video a year and a half ago.


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[Dominique]

Hard to tell in that clip - what is it, a pekinese/Lhasa/shitzu mix?

[Integrity]

He's a Shitzu. Just too much hair to tell from that distance. With the cold it's hard to clip him too short until March or April.


I need to buy him some food, but Chipleader bounced a commissions check to me which overdrew my account and accumulated another $84 in fees.

Merry Christmas to me.


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[casinojack]

The most important thing for me was of course the blues brothers quote.

Great show as always.

[Anthony]

We are on a mission...

[Caruso]

Ha, I enjoyed the latter bit particularly. Mocking cynicism in abundance.

You will of course also have noted that eCOGRA has now "sealed" the Absolute Poker group, of the notorious hole card-viewing cheating scandal?

As to "Mr. S": I may have come across him in Budapest. There was a session whose purpose, apart from affiliate-orientated, escapes me right now, but a largish fellow grabbed the mike at the end and would not let it go for a good six or so minutes, complaining about the problem of affiliates not updating content. Was this this person, does anyone remember? I'm almost sure it was, as it was a Microgaming group, and I'm 98% sure it was VA. He was a largish, belligerent and rather obnoxious individual who I took a total dislike to.

Is there a link to where he was issuing threats?

[Integrity]

I am not sure if there is a thread about the threats. All of the details surrounding these have come via PM, email, or directly from the persons mouth at conferences... and they are people I have known for several years and are respected members here. Perhaps there is a thread, and if so I hope someone links to it from here.

As far as Absolute Poker getting a seal, I am somewhat torn on the issue. I do believe they are ultimately responsible for what goes on at their room. But I also genuinely believe that the people who built and sold them the software shoulder even more of the burden and blame for not disclosing the feature and/or disabling it.

Absolute Poker did admit what went on and re-paid the players, although it was unfortunate that the cheat was caught by outsiders and not their security team. The whole incident was an ugly reminder of how far we still have to go in this industry.

Let me pose a question, tho, since it's been brought up: Let's say that AP admitted fault, re-paid players, and solved the issues. Shouldn't there be a time we start to trust them again? If so, how long does it take? What do they need to do besides run a tight ship? Or do we take the stand that if they burn us once it's over?

Just curious to hear what people think.

[thepokerkeep]

Regarding Absolute Poker getting the eCogra seal and/or whether they should be forgiven for their past crimes...

Without rehashing the complete scandal in this thread - AP got caught red-handed with their fingers in the cookie jar. The culprits were the owners of the company! Months later UB got caught doing the exact same thing! Again, the ownership was responsible.

Scott Tom and his friends along with Russ Hamilton were the owners of AP and UB... where are they now? These guys owned the companies! They were not employees or consultants. Some time during the scandals, there was apparently a change of ownership - suddenly Joe Norton claimed he owned the company. Tom, Hamilton, et al are still free and very possibly still in control of both these rooms. My belief is that Norton and his company are nothing more than a front for the true owners - Tom, Hamilton and associates.

Things are too murky for me to ever trust either room again. If there is any possibility that the thieves are still controlling and profiting from play there I can't, in good conscience, promote them.

Connecting all the dots is nearly impossible considering the locations and number of off shore shell companies involved but the bottom line is - the owners were aware of the hole card feature and took advantage of it to bilk their players out of millions of dollars.

[mojo]

Let me pose a question, tho, since it's been brought up: Let's say that AP admitted fault, re-paid players, and solved the issues. Shouldn't there be a time we start to trust them again? If so, how long does it take? What do they need to do besides run a tight ship? Or do we take the stand that if they burn us once it's over?

Just curious to hear what people think.

I think that's like asking Tiger Woods wife when if/she will forgive that cheatin' hound dog lol. It's hard to say and an individual thing. I don't feel it's up to us to approve them. If I were them, I'd take it a step further than 'run a tight ship'. What that is, I don't know. But like Tiger, it's a long road to re-establish trust, if ever after such an enormous disappointment. Constant effort is required. JMO

On another note, your efforts get results jtodd. Keep up the great work!

ps.. that is the cutest darn dog!

[Integrity]

Thanks for the feedback, my friends.

I had taken the AP statements at face value... that the "bug" was something put in by the software designers during beta phase... and that it was never properly removed or reported to the purchasers at Absolute. Sounds to me like there are still far more questions and a lot of smoke & mirror bullcrap.

As for the dog... he's free to a good home! But I gotta warn you, he lives up to the name SHITzu... You don't want him around if you just got new carpeting.

[joeyl]

Give an American a football, and he throws it in a pond.

[Chalkie]

Totally ROFL and PMSL as well as LMAO

Brilliant, finished my day off with a great big grin!

[Integrity]

Give an American a football, and he throws it in a pond.

Technically, I threw it ON a pond.


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[Nodepositworld]

um did you notice that at the same time Jtodd said (de-turd) that the dog dropped ( a - turd) on the lawn at 3:15 of the video? Was that planned? If not its classic !

[bestuscasino]

Whats the affiliate lounge deal? I ran a search for them in GPWA and can't seem to find it. Link if possible would be great.

Thx

[Chalkie]

http://www.gpwa.org/forum/affiliate-...tc-184044.html

[bestuscasino]

Thanks