After checking the details provided by Joanna, one of our astute support agents noticed that the check did not match her original details at the Casino. Lets just say for example, she meant to type Grant Street but she accidentally wrote Grand Street. The next step was to cancel the current check and issue a new one. Due to fraud controls, the banks that our processor work with have strict regulations about re-issuing a check before the original check has been cancelled. To add insult to injury, it can take up to ten days to cancel a check and another week to get a new one issued. To make matters even worse, there was a federal holiday during this period, further adding to the delay. Joanne was very understanding about the delays, realizing that the error had indeed come at her end. However for us at the Jackpot Factory, it wasn’t acceptable that she should to have to wait nearly a month to get another check, and on top of that she would certainly not receive the funds in time for her 10th anniversary. I spoke to both our processor and the issuing bank numerous times, but was unable to make any progress. Rules are rules, and they are in place to protect both the casino and the players. It’s hard to argue with that!

I contacted Joanne to let her know how we were progressing with her new check. She was very understanding but was quite disappointed considering her plans for her upcoming anniversary. After consulting with casino management, it was decided we would try and turn this situation around. We arranged for a gift certificate to be sent to her from a local sporting good store so she could indeed get those new golf clubs. It was the very least we could do for one of our loyal players.

So when people say, “what does it mean to be a casino spokesman”… I say, “I just try and provide happy endings!”

Every slot has its ups and downs and, as I promised, I’m bringing you a report of the action straight from the casino floor.

This week’s hot slot: Good to Go is really racing ahead of the pack. It’s paid out over $100,000 this weekend alone!

What’s not: Unless you’re a die hard fan, I would avoid Bush Telegraph and Isis. Both of them seem to have gone really cold for the past 4 days. Though, that could be a sign of big things to come.

If you’ve had a good run on a specific game this weekend, make sure to share with everyone!

Allow me to introduce you to Joanne K, a longtime All Slots Casino player from North Carolina. Joanne works as a florists at a neighborhood shop. Her story started when Neteller decided to stop processing transactions for customers based in the US. She had just hit a payout of $2,613 when she called it a night. She was fairly excited because her 10th anniversary was only a month and a half away and now she could surprise her husband with the new set of golf clubs he had his eyes on. Unfortunately Neteller was no longer processing withdrawals but we were able to send her a check. There was a lot of confusion at the time about how we were going to process withdrawals for US players so it took about a week before we were able to provide information to our players. Joanne, requested that check be sent to her work address so she could still surprise her husband! For some reason, the check never arrived. She contacted our support team about it and they started their “investigation” We saw that the check had been processed, FedEx had shipped it and that a Chris G. had signed for it. The only problem was Joanne didn’t know any Chris G. She contacted our support team again to try and sort out this issue. It was at this point it was escalated to my attention - Joanne told our support team about her anniversary surprise and they thought it was something I should know about. Next week I’ll fill everyone in about what we did to resolve this case.

People always ask me, what exactly does it mean to be spokesman for an online casino? For starters it means I am in charge of putting together press releases for all the going on at the Jackpot Factory. Our casino management team passes on anything they think might be newsworthy for the general public and I send it out in a nice coherent statement.

One of the more interesting part of my job is to deal with public complaints against the casino. Unfortunately things don’t always run smoothly and sometimes players air their complaints about the casino in public. That’s when I step in and try to sort out their issues. Sometimes is just a matter of a misunderstanding with our support team and sometimes it’s a legitimate gripe with how they’ve been treated. I deal with just about everyone in the same manner - with complete honesty and open feedback. Later in the week I’ll tell you about a recent case I’ve been dealing with for 3 months! But not to worry, the story had an happy ending.

I wish I could come here and talk about all the progress being made on US banking situation but the reality is that things are moving slowly. Industry insiders were sure that numerous company’s would prop up to fill the void left by Neteller, Instadebit and the like, but it seems there are very few options left for US players. Longtime online gamers remember when PayPal shut their doors to the online casino industry and within months Neteller was flourishing and serving the community well. However, things are a little different this time around. Most mainstream company’s are really afraid of starting up with the US government and the smaller company that are willing to take risks are simply not reliable enough for online casinos to trust. As a casino operator we take player security quite seriously and simply can’t work with “shady” payment options.

So what’s left for our US player base? First of all, we still have an ability to process your standard VISA cards. Yes, some players get rejected but if you try enough your transaction should go through. Additionally we have a direct relationship with a very reliable e-wallet and can open new accounts for US players with them on a case-by-case basis. As I mentioned in previous posts, if you are a US players and would like to explore this option please send an email to our support team.

Read the rest of this entry »

It is with mixed emotions that I report our Grape Vine II tournament was so popular that we ran into a technical glitch and the tournament locked players out! Apparently, once we have 1,500 players in the system we were unable to accept new registrations. I’m sorry - but at least I’ll know better for next time.

We’re checking this out with Micrograming and hope to have some details quickly. In any event it looks like we’ll just have to provide our players with another free tournament next week once the kinks are worked out. I think this time we’ll aim for 5000 players! So as Frankie said, “Start spreading the news!”

My sincere apologies to those of you who got locked out but I promise that we’ll make it up to you.

I am happy to report that I have managed to get $4,000 allocated for a new MPV slots bloggers only tournament! We’ve decided to split the prize pool amongst the top winners this time with $1,000 going to the first place, $500 to the second, and tens of other cash prizes!

Remember, all this is for free - no entry fee! It’s just the Jackpot Factory’s way of saying thanks to the community. We’re happy to be out here listening to player feedback and serving everyone in the best possible way.

Look for the Grape Vine II tournament in the All Jackpots Casino software starting Monday August 13^th at 12:00 AM GMT. The tournament runs for 2 days!

Good luck to everyone!

Here’s something that I thought might be of interest. The world famous Oxford University is conducting an online survey on the subject of online gambling. Everyone is invited, but I would hope that only online gamblers respond to this survey.

The cool thing about this is that they’re giving out six 80gb video-playing iPods as a way to say thank you. True, only six will win, but I think this is a very important survey and it can teach us a great deal about our community.

Like I said, Oxford is known as being one of the top universities in the world. The questions are straightforward and since it’s multiple choice questions, it shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes - it took me around 10 minutes.

And for those nervous about privacy, they declare that they are not collecting IP addresses and they will not be contacting people about their responses. Of course, if you want to be entered into the raffle for the iPods (I entered myself!) you need to provide an email address, but they make a note to say that, “We will not be able to link your email to your answers to the survey.”

For more info go to: http://www.oxfordgamblingsurvey.org/

With the overwhelming success from our inaugural bloggers only tournament I’ve been given the green light to host another FREE slots tournament! The new tournament will take place sometime during the next week. All we need now is a new name, so please send in your suggestions! Last time we did a winner take all format but we will field requests to split the prize pool amongst a larger group of players. The total cash prizes is still up for negotiations but I am working to get a bigger prize pool than before allocated to this event. I am just trying to get as much as I can for our loyal bloggers! Stay tuned for more information….

Step right up folks and play against me… David Brickman in our weekly Spin with David tournament. The tournament opens tonight and will run until 12:00 PM GMT on Wednesday. You can enter for the great low price of $2! The top ten players will win $20 each and EVERY single player who manages to top my score will win $10 each plus the right to return to the blog and do a little trash talking!