GPWA Mission?

[arkyt]

Michael suggested I start an ideological thread so I figured I would take him up on his offer.

I truly believe if this industry is to change for the better, that there is no better time than now. As a collective community its our duty to cease this opportunity and to secure our future. If we dont police this work environment and do what ever we can create a more ethical scene - we will have no-one to blame but ourselves when it all comes crumbling down.

With that said, I would like to please start that topic of discussion with a few questions about this particular site/organization.

• Why does GPWA exist?
• How does its existence benefit the entire industry as opposed to those who are directly involved?
• What kind of profit does GPWA generate?
• How is that profit used to benefit the entire industry as opposed to those who are directly involved?

I appreciate the opportunity for open discussion - thank you!

[Caruso]

Where do the players figure in this?

I ask the the question without wanting to be waffled and BSed ("the players are our top priority and always will be, Caruso"), so if that is the answer, or anything like it, please spare me it.

[arkyt]

Caruso, I believe a comprehensive plan for this sector of the industry would without any doubt be beneficial to all players. First things first though - those who are in a position of influence need to be willing to initiate the change.

[MichaelCorfman]

arkyt,

To try to answer your questions requires some clarification of what you mean by the phrase "those who are directly involved."

By this do you mean employees or others who receive compensation for their work involved with the GPWA (I would group those working on the APCW here too)?

Or do you mean webmasters and affiliate programs who are members of the GPWA (and the APCW)?

The answers to your questions are quite different depending on where you are drawing the line around who you consider to be "directly involved."

Michael

[Nandakishore]

• Why does GPWA exist?
• How does its existence benefit the entire industry as opposed to those who are directly involved?
• What kind of profit does GPWA generate?
• How is that profit used to benefit the entire industry as opposed to those who are directly involved?

I can only answer the second question seen from my point of view. As an affiliate I have had and am still having considerable benefit from the GPWA forum, which, I assume, wouldn't exist without the GPWA. Especially the CardSpike affair has shown that we, affiliates, need powerful platforms to be able to get informed about critical issues concerning us and also express our needs, problem and also solidarity with other members of the community when required.

[arkyt]

To try to answer your questions requires some clarification of what you mean by the phrase "those who are directly involved.”

I agree "directly involved" could, and obviously does, comprise many different levels of involvement. From owner(s), employees, sponsors, partners, to members, and heck, for that matter, even lurkers - each has a different level of involvement in GPWAs success and consequential profits.

For now let’s presume “directly involved” is anyone who utilizes a GPWA service in some capacity (website, conference, magazine, newsletter, etc) vs. those who do not. If you wish to break it down into the levels of involvement you might be able to ascertain each level’s ROI.

[arkyt]

<bump>

[MichaelCorfman]

I actually had not forgotten about this post, but had deferred answering it because there are barely enough hours in the day when I am not traveling, and when I do travel like I am this week (I'm out the whole week because I'm in AiG in Macau this Tuesday to Thursday, and there is 1+ day of travel on each end of that), things get out of control the week before and the week after I am gone.

Anyway, I'll do my best to provide feedback on one of your points in this post, and others in subsequent posts

What kind of profit does GPWA generate?

The really short answer to this question is I don't know whether or not it has generated a net profit since we have acquired it, but let me elaborate.

First, I would lump the GPWA and the APCW together.

Second, I would look at a count of the number of folks involved in these activities full-time, their primary responsibilities, and what other involvement there is on the part of other folks.

There are four folks currently involved substantially full-time in the GPWA and APCW:

1. J.Todd - Primarily prepares APCW videos (two per week), and will also be producing videos of conference sessions we have accumulated over the last few months.
2. Anthony - Primarily promotes the videos on the web, is the auditing director for APCW audits, and has lately been doing some work on compiling a list gaming sites that have been rogued by different portal webmasters.
3. Steven - Forum administration tasks and sponsor sales and support.
4. Nancy - Membership and seal application processing.

We have an editorial team headed by Vin with three other employees. They definitely average at least a full-time equivalent between working on the GPWA Times weekly newsletter, the GPWA Times magazine, and Buzzy postings.

Then there are a lot of other folks doing various things that will average better than one full-time person. These include me doing executive director type activities, our development department working on GPWA site features, our web hosting department on web hosting and support related activities, our marketing department that organizes trade show participation, design layout of the GPWA Times magazine, etc.

So I figure in total there is the equivalent of about 6.5 full-time staff members devoted to the GPWA/APCW at the present time.

If I look at the total expenses for our overall business, and divide that by the number of employees we have to obtain an average cost per employee, and multiply that by 6.5 employees, and subtract that from the revenue that the GPWA and the APCW generate, then we actually come out with a loss for that aspect of our business at the moment.

I believe before adding the APCW into the mix we were actually making a little bit, and I expect that we will get back to that point again over the next few months. In terms of where modest profits go, which is what we are talking about here, the first place they have to go is to repay the acquisition and other capital costs associated with the GPWA and the APCW. Profit is not the same thing as cash in the bank. And cash is king, not profits.

Michael

[arkyt]

Thank you Michael, I appreciate the information. It will certainly assist me in preparing my dissertation that we discussed.

Best regards,

Brian

[arkyt]

I'm currently drafting my piece and would like to give you another opportunity to comment on the following ...

Why does GPWA exist?

How does its existence benefit the entire industry as a whole?

[TheGamblingGuru]

I'm currently drafting my piece and would like to give you another opportunity to comment on the following ...

Why does GPWA exist?

How does its existence benefit the entire industry as a whole?

Those two questions there would have been two great ones to have asked CAP before it's recent implosion and even more interesting to have heard their BS answers to them...

[MichaelCorfman]

I'm currently drafting my piece and would like to give you another opportunity to comment on the following ...

Why does GPWA exist?

How does its existence benefit the entire industry as a whole?

Well, in some sense you would have to ask Cindy that question because she is the original founder. If you go back to when Casino City acquired the GPWA, I did issue a statement at the time, and it can be found in the thread www.gpwa.org/forum/gpwa-casino-city-public-announcement-167504.html.

The statement at the end of that post where I talk about public gardens and weeds is an important part of my personal thinking on the matter.

Michael

[Daera]

The statement at the end of that post where I talk about public gardens and weeds is an important part of my personal thinking on the matter.

I just read the press release and your statement about weeds. Your description of the industry and what places like GPWA can do for it, was very nicely put. I like your thinking.

[bb1web]

Jinx! You owe me a coke

I think of the gaming industry as a public garden," he said. "If we want people to visit so we can be successful, we have to get rid of the weeds.

Actually I don't know if said at same time .. perhaps I had you beaten.

If you check my posts over the last near 10 years at CAP .. you'd see that about every 6 months of my time spent there I would inevitably make another post about how we as affs need to keep our gardens weeded because otherwise we may unwillingly be sending traffic = money .... to undeserving programs which in turn funds them to be able to stay in business long enough for the next round of suckers (newbs) to stumble upon them.

[bb1web]

Ark I'm curious: given that there are really only two ways of going in terms of which sponsors are allowed a speaking voice: to which way would you have it?

1) only the aff-friendly programs would be given voice (their own forum) in which case you protect newbs and those not knowing ... from the bad places.

2) allow everybody with it in mind that we accomplish more by having them where we can communicate with them as opposed to exiling them where we have no chance of communication.


I've heard you critic many approaches. What is in your mind the perfect solution?


* if you chose #1 or #2 ... On what criteria would these programs be decided if they fit into the "approved status" group? ... or the "bad guy" group?

[arkyt]

Ark I'm curious: given that there are really only two ways of going in terms of which sponsors are allowed a speaking voice: to which way would you have it?

It might not be a perfect solution, no such thing as perfect, but I would think it should be an open community giving all a voice - if a program strays they would be put on probation by the community - if they make things right in a timely matter then they could once again have full member rights.

Most importantly IMO, programs should not be paying anyone to list them! Sites like CAP & GPWA took/take in a lot of money and at the end of the day the sites only benefit a select few. That money could be used much more wisely to benefit the entire industry.

I would love to see CAP/GPWA once again open their doors and stop accepting funding from the programs in exchange for "paid-in-full" seals!

GPWA was originally founded as a social networking / member help site - it didn't originally accept paid ads from anyone under the sun. The day they started doing that I was the first to speak out against it - It didn't then and it doesn't today equate to fairness and equality for all. Unfortunately its become big business - and as recently witnessed it really has no place in this industry - least not IMHO.

[Nandakishore]

GPWA was originally founded as a social networking / member help site - it didn't originally accept paid ads from anyone under the sun. The day they started doing that I was the first to speak out against it - It didn't then and it doesn't today equate to fairness and equality for all. Unfortunately its become big business - and as recently witnessed it really has no place in this industry - least not IMHO.

Sweet dreams! I don't think it is possible to run such a big forum without any sponsoring. Even if only casinocity would finance it, it would still be sponsoring. The only other alternative would be to ask the forum users to pay a subscription fee.

[arkyt]

Sweet dreams! I don't think it is possible to run such a big forum without any sponsoring. Even if only casinocity would finance it, it would still be sponsoring. The only other alternative would be to ask the forum users to pay a subscription fee.

Of course its possible; and it can be done for a lot less than you might expect. I operate forums 10x this size - I'm not taking in 10s of thousands in sponsorship funds...

[raphnix]

I think the best way to answer that question is through reading the About Us Section of the gpwa site. I always do that with every site I want to review.

[Nandakishore]

I assess the value of GPWA using the following criteria:
1. Does it offer me a platform where I can communicate with a large number of gambling webmasters?
2. Does it offer me some useful information about our industry regularly?
3. Does it offer me help I need in my relation with affiliate programs and other relevant organizations?
4. Does it act in any way unethically?
5. Does it try some unsolicitated promotion of any programs or organizations to influence me?

My answer to 1,2 and 3 is YES and to 4 and 5 is NO.
As long as these criteria are satisfied, I have no problem with GPWA getting itself financed through sponsorship.