GreedyGirl
Pickled Onion
Dear ,
This month celebrates quite a milestone for me—I’m celebrating 15 years, working in the online gaming industry! It all began right here at GoneGambling and I could never have imagined the directions my life would take, being a part of this ever-changing industry.
In those early, embryonic days, the i-gaming world was our oyster. The possibilities seemed endless and the only worries were rogue, fly-by-night operators. Free chips, enormous bonuses were handed out without second thoughts. Playthrough requirements were minimal. Direct credit card deposits and withdrawals were the norm and players from all countries were welcome. Remember those days?
Sadly, they’re now a fond, but distant memory.
So much of what has changed is a result of the U.S. market. The so-called ‘bottom’ dropped out on countless occasions in the U.S. through the years. Arrests of key players in the online gaming industry…seizures by the Department of Justice of domains used by casinos…the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA)…the DOJ’s forced closures of the top online poker rooms…the list goes on and on.
We all thought that when the Department of Justice reversed its stance on internet gaming (stating all is legal except sports betting), better times would be ahead. As it stands now, each state determines whether it will go forward with legalized, regulated (and taxed) online gambling. In this, an individual state will opt for state-run online lottery games, or brick and mortar-operated online poker and/or casino gaming. While many states are keen to go forward with online gaming, it’s been very slow going and truly not the return of an online gambling heyday we all were hoping for.
All of what has occurred in the U.S. has had such a major impact on the overall online gambling landscape. We already know that the U.S. lost some of the greatest gaming software platforms: Microgaming, Playtech, Cryptologic, etc. Not only was this difficult on the players, imagine things on the software side of this. Suddenly major casino groups, so dependent on the U.S. market had to suddenly (and swiftly) revise their marketing strategies and essentially, lost their U.S. cash cows. Many casinos simply could not survive.
As time went on, we’ve seen consolidation amongst casino groups and software providers. The industry has become intensely serious…those fun, free-for-all days, long gone. Now everything is about the bottom-line, with players, profits and loss, scrutinized…and then scrutinized even more.
It’s tough for everyone.
SO HOW IS GONEGAMBLING IMPACTED?
Our long-time members will happily reminisce about how ‘back in the day’ they could win plenty of bonuses. There were SO many casinos participating on the site. So many casinos that between 2003 – 2005, we literally had a list of casinos we had to hold off on bringing aboard, simply because we did not have room for them. We had an endless flow of traffic to the site and things were really, really good.
When things began changing in the U.S., along with the introduction of social media (and the games found on social media), GoneGambling found itself losing ground. Many members grew frustrated with the changes in the industry, particularly when depositing and withdrawing became more complicated. Others found themselves hooked on the games social media sites were promoting. Really, things just changed and our traffic slowed down.
Add to this, we’ve always had a membership made up predominantly of U.S. players. Those casinos catering to U.S. players went from hundreds to dozens, following the legal issues in the U.S. Of those dozens of casinos, perhaps only a third are worthy of GoneGambling’s tough standards. GoneGambling has always had a commitment to ensuring our members can feel safe, knowing the casinos we bring on to the site will be fair, give superior customer service, great games and of course, will take care of our players on the money side.
In a nutshell, our casino pool to draw from is not the massive pool we used to have. Now it has reduced itself into something more of a wading pool. At least it’s a really great wading pool!
Continued below…
CASINO OF THE WEEK - iNetBet ROCKS!!!
Week in and week out, iNetBet continues to go the extra mile for GoneGambling members and the coming weeks are no exceptions! We already know that iNetBet not only sponsors many of the GG games, Conversions and High Rollers bonuses, but recently, they also became the sponsor of our Tournament Triathlon.
iNetBet is not stopping there, though! Nope. They’ve got even more great stuff up their sleeves, exclusively for our members!
For this weekend and week ahead, iNetBet has two really tasty deals that you won’t want to miss out on:
• Offer #1: 100% slots match with 20 Free spins on our new slot Lucha Libre!
• Offer#2: 10 Free spins on Lucha Libre!
But wait! It doesn’t stop there!
If we can get 20 members to take up Offer #1 (the 100% slots match with 20 Free spins), iNetBet will host a special, FREE tournament (with plenty of iNetBet cash prizes!) to take place the weekend of May 8th! To me, this is a no-brainer and getting 20 members seems like a piece of cake!
Of course, it should be even easier getting plenty of members involved, because as the Casino of the Week, members will get an even sweeter deal by using our Auction room! You’ll receive TRIPLE Auction GetLucky’s (that means NINE of those gems, which can garner you up to 150,000 GG’s!) if you’re opening a NEW account and depositing with iNetBet! If you already have your iNetBet account and want to make a repeat deposit, take part in the Repeat Deposit Auction, where you’ll receive 21 Feature GetLucky vouchers! Sweet deal, all the way around!
To get in on either iNetBet offer, you’ll need to go to the GoneGambling forum. You’ll find inside the iNetBet section of the forum a thread, giving you the link to a private section of the forum. It is in that private section that you’ll be able to get the coupon codes you’ll need to take part in one or both of the deals. You’ll also find all the fine print on playthrough, eligibility, etc., in that thread.
Thanks again, iNetBet! You guys really do rock!
STATE OF GONEGAMBLING, PART II
In our early days when everything was champagne and caviar at GoneGambling, bonuses were free-flowing. This was partly due to massive traffic, a greater pool of casinos to divide the bonuses amongst and a very naïve industry. Back then, the casinos were not exactly dissecting their bottom lines, which has much to do with why so many casinos failed.
Now, that naivety is gone and bonuses are smaller and playthrough requirements are much, much higher. Sadly, our members have fewer casino options, and these fewer casinos are having to absorb those bonuses which other casinos used to provide.
In those earlier days, GoneGambling was able to pretty much dictate what the casinos would have to do for our members. Now, things have taken a complete 180, with the casinos laying down the law as to what their parameters are and how many bonuses they will issue.
While our sponsoring casinos would love nothing more than to issue bonus after bonus to each and every member of GG, it’s just not possible in today’s online gaming world. Casinos need to be profitable. The more bonuses a casino gives out, the less profitable they become.
Before going further, I know you’re saying to yourself, “but I always lose! That casino has made a fortune on me!” Well, not really, and I’ll explain why…
A casino has to look at its total player-base. Remember—although you may have been losing, there will still be winners. Not only will there be winners, there will be bonus abusers, getting over on the casinos. There will be players who decide ‘the casino cheated’ them (this is called sour grapes and not playing responsibly). Those players will defraud the casinos AND their banks by charging back, costing the casinos far and beyond whatever the actual deposit costs were. (Important to note: ANY member caught charging back to one of our sponsoring casinos will be permanently banned, persona non grata!)
Add to this, royalties and software leasing fees paid to the software companies…hosting costs…operations and marketing costs…technical support…fraud prevention…contributions to progressive pools…office overhead…outbound payment processing…the list goes on and on.
At the end of the day, the average online casino is lucky to squeeze 30 cents on the dollar. In other words, while you’re thinking the casino has just cleaned up on your $50 deposit, they’ve really only raked in $15.
Cutting to the chase, most of our sponsoring casinos can no longer justify honoring every bonus won by each of our members. I’ll give you a great example:
A couple weeks ago, a member contacted me stating she was missing 9 bonuses from one of our casinos. I contacted the casino regarding this and the casino explained that this member had only deposited $50 in the past 30 days. Even though this was a clean deposit, it was the first deposit this member had made in nearly a year. The total amount in bonuses was $110…and remember, the member had only had a $50 deposit. There was no way the casino could fulfill so many bonuses totaling such a high amount—that was more than a 200% bonus. In this instance, the casino honored the conversion and two more bonuses. And our member was not at all happy about this.
There have been other members surprised by having bonuses denied—some of whom are angry not only with the casino, but GoneGambling and me, as well. I’m guessing those members neglected to read the following which is included in each of our prize confirmation emails:
GoneGambling and the sponsoring casinos reserve the right to refuse to honor any win or to alter the terms of any promotion at their discretion. Only play the games on the GoneGambling site if you accept these terms.
Look—neither GoneGambling or I can force a casino to do something that will negatively impact that casino. Further, I have to look after the best interests of GoneGambling as a whole. This means while a few members may be disappointed by a bonus denial, countless others are quite happy and free of issues with bonuses at that same casino.
If I believed or had real evidence that ANY of our casinos were acting in an unfair, unreasonable or unethical way towards our members, they’d be gone. But with this particular issue, when a casino is still issuing bonuses, yet are reviewing the number of bonuses on a player-by-player basis, I cannot say the casino is in the wrong. You may disagree, but this is where my feet are firmly planted.
There’s also the flip side of the coin: If a member is depositing on a regular basis into a certain casino, say maybe a few times a month, there is a greater likelihood that the casino will be willing to honor more bonuses. Basically, the casino wants a real player—not someone who is just trying to squeeze every last ounce of blood out of that casino. Make sense?
Continued below…
TOURNAMENT NEWS
Hey boys and girls! It's the last Tourneys of the month before our MONSTER May Tournament Triathlon! You know, the one carrying a whopping 6.5 MILLION GG's bounty and a crazy $650 in iNetBet casino cash?!?!?
Well, get your last bit of spinning practice in this weekend with these two fine Tournaments:
Each Tournament runs three days.
MEMBER OF THE WEEK
Twelve years! That’s a very long time and that’s how long janb, our newest Member of the Week has been a loyal GoneGambling member! janb has recently been spending more time in our new forum, hanging with the GG gang and we’re all happy to be seeing more of him! Enjoy your bling, janb!
SOUPER ONION’S GAME OF THE WEEK
Souper Onion has come out with a GREAT pick for the Game of the Week: Jackpot Dice!
As the featured game, Souper Onion has discounted the cost per play from 10 GG's to only 5 GG's! Lower prices mean lower Jackpots, but MORE chances to WIN!
STATE OF GONEGAMBLING, PART III
There’s still more to go on about—everything from Gifting, to forum participation to non-depositing members and more. As it is, I’m sure I’ve already given you plenty to digest, so this is going to be a two-parter, cliff-hanger newsletter.
Next week, I’m going to discuss those bits I’ve yet to speak on. And before you start thinking things are all doom and gloom, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Hopefully after you and other members wrap your head around things, you’ll have a better appreciation for what this industry and GoneGambling has endured and how things are looking heading down the road in the future!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
I’m taking a break this weekend (hallelujah!). In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Phoenix where Joe and I have gone to take part in his sister’s wedding, this Saturday.
This means GoneGambling will be in the very capable hands of Deedeemoe, should you need anything (feel free to send her a PM, via our lovely new forum!). If you have any Auction wins needing to be credited, Deeds can also handle that—just drop her an email at deedeemoe @ gonegambling.com (be smart...delete the spaces between the name, @ sign and gonegambling.com!).
Have a wonderful weekend, an amazing week ahead and as always, win BIG!!!
Greedygirl
This month celebrates quite a milestone for me—I’m celebrating 15 years, working in the online gaming industry! It all began right here at GoneGambling and I could never have imagined the directions my life would take, being a part of this ever-changing industry.
In those early, embryonic days, the i-gaming world was our oyster. The possibilities seemed endless and the only worries were rogue, fly-by-night operators. Free chips, enormous bonuses were handed out without second thoughts. Playthrough requirements were minimal. Direct credit card deposits and withdrawals were the norm and players from all countries were welcome. Remember those days?
Sadly, they’re now a fond, but distant memory.
So much of what has changed is a result of the U.S. market. The so-called ‘bottom’ dropped out on countless occasions in the U.S. through the years. Arrests of key players in the online gaming industry…seizures by the Department of Justice of domains used by casinos…the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA)…the DOJ’s forced closures of the top online poker rooms…the list goes on and on.
We all thought that when the Department of Justice reversed its stance on internet gaming (stating all is legal except sports betting), better times would be ahead. As it stands now, each state determines whether it will go forward with legalized, regulated (and taxed) online gambling. In this, an individual state will opt for state-run online lottery games, or brick and mortar-operated online poker and/or casino gaming. While many states are keen to go forward with online gaming, it’s been very slow going and truly not the return of an online gambling heyday we all were hoping for.
All of what has occurred in the U.S. has had such a major impact on the overall online gambling landscape. We already know that the U.S. lost some of the greatest gaming software platforms: Microgaming, Playtech, Cryptologic, etc. Not only was this difficult on the players, imagine things on the software side of this. Suddenly major casino groups, so dependent on the U.S. market had to suddenly (and swiftly) revise their marketing strategies and essentially, lost their U.S. cash cows. Many casinos simply could not survive.
As time went on, we’ve seen consolidation amongst casino groups and software providers. The industry has become intensely serious…those fun, free-for-all days, long gone. Now everything is about the bottom-line, with players, profits and loss, scrutinized…and then scrutinized even more.
It’s tough for everyone.
SO HOW IS GONEGAMBLING IMPACTED?
Our long-time members will happily reminisce about how ‘back in the day’ they could win plenty of bonuses. There were SO many casinos participating on the site. So many casinos that between 2003 – 2005, we literally had a list of casinos we had to hold off on bringing aboard, simply because we did not have room for them. We had an endless flow of traffic to the site and things were really, really good.
When things began changing in the U.S., along with the introduction of social media (and the games found on social media), GoneGambling found itself losing ground. Many members grew frustrated with the changes in the industry, particularly when depositing and withdrawing became more complicated. Others found themselves hooked on the games social media sites were promoting. Really, things just changed and our traffic slowed down.
Add to this, we’ve always had a membership made up predominantly of U.S. players. Those casinos catering to U.S. players went from hundreds to dozens, following the legal issues in the U.S. Of those dozens of casinos, perhaps only a third are worthy of GoneGambling’s tough standards. GoneGambling has always had a commitment to ensuring our members can feel safe, knowing the casinos we bring on to the site will be fair, give superior customer service, great games and of course, will take care of our players on the money side.
In a nutshell, our casino pool to draw from is not the massive pool we used to have. Now it has reduced itself into something more of a wading pool. At least it’s a really great wading pool!
Continued below…
CASINO OF THE WEEK - iNetBet ROCKS!!!
Week in and week out, iNetBet continues to go the extra mile for GoneGambling members and the coming weeks are no exceptions! We already know that iNetBet not only sponsors many of the GG games, Conversions and High Rollers bonuses, but recently, they also became the sponsor of our Tournament Triathlon.
iNetBet is not stopping there, though! Nope. They’ve got even more great stuff up their sleeves, exclusively for our members!
For this weekend and week ahead, iNetBet has two really tasty deals that you won’t want to miss out on:
• Offer #1: 100% slots match with 20 Free spins on our new slot Lucha Libre!
• Offer#2: 10 Free spins on Lucha Libre!
But wait! It doesn’t stop there!
If we can get 20 members to take up Offer #1 (the 100% slots match with 20 Free spins), iNetBet will host a special, FREE tournament (with plenty of iNetBet cash prizes!) to take place the weekend of May 8th! To me, this is a no-brainer and getting 20 members seems like a piece of cake!
Of course, it should be even easier getting plenty of members involved, because as the Casino of the Week, members will get an even sweeter deal by using our Auction room! You’ll receive TRIPLE Auction GetLucky’s (that means NINE of those gems, which can garner you up to 150,000 GG’s!) if you’re opening a NEW account and depositing with iNetBet! If you already have your iNetBet account and want to make a repeat deposit, take part in the Repeat Deposit Auction, where you’ll receive 21 Feature GetLucky vouchers! Sweet deal, all the way around!
To get in on either iNetBet offer, you’ll need to go to the GoneGambling forum. You’ll find inside the iNetBet section of the forum a thread, giving you the link to a private section of the forum. It is in that private section that you’ll be able to get the coupon codes you’ll need to take part in one or both of the deals. You’ll also find all the fine print on playthrough, eligibility, etc., in that thread.
Thanks again, iNetBet! You guys really do rock!
STATE OF GONEGAMBLING, PART II
In our early days when everything was champagne and caviar at GoneGambling, bonuses were free-flowing. This was partly due to massive traffic, a greater pool of casinos to divide the bonuses amongst and a very naïve industry. Back then, the casinos were not exactly dissecting their bottom lines, which has much to do with why so many casinos failed.
Now, that naivety is gone and bonuses are smaller and playthrough requirements are much, much higher. Sadly, our members have fewer casino options, and these fewer casinos are having to absorb those bonuses which other casinos used to provide.
In those earlier days, GoneGambling was able to pretty much dictate what the casinos would have to do for our members. Now, things have taken a complete 180, with the casinos laying down the law as to what their parameters are and how many bonuses they will issue.
While our sponsoring casinos would love nothing more than to issue bonus after bonus to each and every member of GG, it’s just not possible in today’s online gaming world. Casinos need to be profitable. The more bonuses a casino gives out, the less profitable they become.
Before going further, I know you’re saying to yourself, “but I always lose! That casino has made a fortune on me!” Well, not really, and I’ll explain why…
A casino has to look at its total player-base. Remember—although you may have been losing, there will still be winners. Not only will there be winners, there will be bonus abusers, getting over on the casinos. There will be players who decide ‘the casino cheated’ them (this is called sour grapes and not playing responsibly). Those players will defraud the casinos AND their banks by charging back, costing the casinos far and beyond whatever the actual deposit costs were. (Important to note: ANY member caught charging back to one of our sponsoring casinos will be permanently banned, persona non grata!)
Add to this, royalties and software leasing fees paid to the software companies…hosting costs…operations and marketing costs…technical support…fraud prevention…contributions to progressive pools…office overhead…outbound payment processing…the list goes on and on.
At the end of the day, the average online casino is lucky to squeeze 30 cents on the dollar. In other words, while you’re thinking the casino has just cleaned up on your $50 deposit, they’ve really only raked in $15.
Cutting to the chase, most of our sponsoring casinos can no longer justify honoring every bonus won by each of our members. I’ll give you a great example:
A couple weeks ago, a member contacted me stating she was missing 9 bonuses from one of our casinos. I contacted the casino regarding this and the casino explained that this member had only deposited $50 in the past 30 days. Even though this was a clean deposit, it was the first deposit this member had made in nearly a year. The total amount in bonuses was $110…and remember, the member had only had a $50 deposit. There was no way the casino could fulfill so many bonuses totaling such a high amount—that was more than a 200% bonus. In this instance, the casino honored the conversion and two more bonuses. And our member was not at all happy about this.
There have been other members surprised by having bonuses denied—some of whom are angry not only with the casino, but GoneGambling and me, as well. I’m guessing those members neglected to read the following which is included in each of our prize confirmation emails:
GoneGambling and the sponsoring casinos reserve the right to refuse to honor any win or to alter the terms of any promotion at their discretion. Only play the games on the GoneGambling site if you accept these terms.
Look—neither GoneGambling or I can force a casino to do something that will negatively impact that casino. Further, I have to look after the best interests of GoneGambling as a whole. This means while a few members may be disappointed by a bonus denial, countless others are quite happy and free of issues with bonuses at that same casino.
If I believed or had real evidence that ANY of our casinos were acting in an unfair, unreasonable or unethical way towards our members, they’d be gone. But with this particular issue, when a casino is still issuing bonuses, yet are reviewing the number of bonuses on a player-by-player basis, I cannot say the casino is in the wrong. You may disagree, but this is where my feet are firmly planted.
There’s also the flip side of the coin: If a member is depositing on a regular basis into a certain casino, say maybe a few times a month, there is a greater likelihood that the casino will be willing to honor more bonuses. Basically, the casino wants a real player—not someone who is just trying to squeeze every last ounce of blood out of that casino. Make sense?
Continued below…
TOURNAMENT NEWS
Hey boys and girls! It's the last Tourneys of the month before our MONSTER May Tournament Triathlon! You know, the one carrying a whopping 6.5 MILLION GG's bounty and a crazy $650 in iNetBet casino cash?!?!?
Well, get your last bit of spinning practice in this weekend with these two fine Tournaments:
- EARTHQUAKE Tournament for Individuals - begins Friday, 1AM, EDT
- MOON ROCKET Team Tournament - begins Saturday, 1AM, EDT
Each Tournament runs three days.
MEMBER OF THE WEEK
Twelve years! That’s a very long time and that’s how long janb, our newest Member of the Week has been a loyal GoneGambling member! janb has recently been spending more time in our new forum, hanging with the GG gang and we’re all happy to be seeing more of him! Enjoy your bling, janb!
SOUPER ONION’S GAME OF THE WEEK
Souper Onion has come out with a GREAT pick for the Game of the Week: Jackpot Dice!
As the featured game, Souper Onion has discounted the cost per play from 10 GG's to only 5 GG's! Lower prices mean lower Jackpots, but MORE chances to WIN!
STATE OF GONEGAMBLING, PART III
There’s still more to go on about—everything from Gifting, to forum participation to non-depositing members and more. As it is, I’m sure I’ve already given you plenty to digest, so this is going to be a two-parter, cliff-hanger newsletter.
Next week, I’m going to discuss those bits I’ve yet to speak on. And before you start thinking things are all doom and gloom, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Hopefully after you and other members wrap your head around things, you’ll have a better appreciation for what this industry and GoneGambling has endured and how things are looking heading down the road in the future!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
I’m taking a break this weekend (hallelujah!). In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a hotel room in Phoenix where Joe and I have gone to take part in his sister’s wedding, this Saturday.
This means GoneGambling will be in the very capable hands of Deedeemoe, should you need anything (feel free to send her a PM, via our lovely new forum!). If you have any Auction wins needing to be credited, Deeds can also handle that—just drop her an email at deedeemoe @ gonegambling.com (be smart...delete the spaces between the name, @ sign and gonegambling.com!).
Have a wonderful weekend, an amazing week ahead and as always, win BIG!!!
Greedygirl
