You’ve probably wondered who dreams up all this cool stuff that the online casinos do? Well, most casinos have a marketing department who help identify who their target audience is and what they are looking for. Determining your target will help you determine what type of promotion to run. Do I run a lottery, draw, contest, or giveaway? There are also some legal constraints in certain jurisdictions that require you to phrase a promotion in a certain way.

Along with the marketing team there is generally a creative team. Once the audience is identified, the creative team will think of a way to match that target with something exciting, interesting and fun! They are usually in charge of both the design & content. Basically it’s the entire pack our players see.

I’ll bet you didn’t realize how much work went into an online casino promotion? That’s only half the story… I will share the rest soon!

Sorry for the long delay between posts; I have basically been out of commission battling a nasty sinus infection  :cry:  I am happy to report that I am healthy as ever and ready to get back to action. There is a lot of news to report!

Last week we launched a revolutionary new product called the PCM – Player Communications Manager. It allows us to interact with players inside the casino software and provide live on the fly personalized assistance.  Not sure how to complete registration, don’t know which payment option works best for you?  Not a problem… our marketing representatives are standing by ready to help!

I’ll try and post on a more consistent basis now that I am back and healthy!

With the movie 21 going strong at the box office, everyone’s thoughts are on the card game 21, also known as blackjack.  So I thought it would be a good time to ask Jerry Needleman, our resident online blackjack expert, for a tip I could pass along to you.  Here’s what he said:

“Hey, David, thanks for asking.  And by the way, congratulations on your promotion, Mr. Vice President.

The best blackjack tip I could pass along to your readers would be to always remember what is the object of the game of blackjack.  Many people will tell you that the object is to get as close to 21 as possible, but that is not true.  The real object of the game is to beat the dealer.  There is a big difference between the two, and I’ll give you an example to show you what I mean.

Suppose you have cards totaling 12, and the dealer is showing a 6.  If the object were to get as close as possible to 21, you would hit.  But since the real object is to beat the dealer, you would be better off standing and letting the dealer go ahead and lose.

How is the dealer going to lose?  Remember, there are more 10-value cards than any other card in the deck.  So if the dealer is showing a 6, there is a good chance that he has a 10-card in the hole for a total of 16.  Now, the rules of blackjack say that the dealer must hit on 16, whether he wants to or not.  And when he hits on 16, there is a very good chance that he will get a 6 or higher and bust, and your 12 will win the game.

Some people might say a win with 12 is not a pretty win.  I say a win is a win, and I’ll take it any way I can get it.  Pretty or ugly, the important thing is to beat the dealer.  That’s what blackjack is all about”.

As the Vice President of Player affairs I have received a few emails regarding our customer support.  It’s amazing how sometimes one story can be seen completely different by two different people!

We had a case where a player was requested to send in some outstanding documents in order to receive their withdrawal. This might seem like a pain but it’s a preventative security measure plus an E-COGRA regulation.  We never purposefully hassle players with documents but we need to be sure the person we are paying is the player!

Anyway, this woman simply refused to send in documents. She didn’t really understand that the documents were required to receive the winnings but thought it was a stall tactic not to pay! Once she had decided to not send them in, no amount of explanations could change her mind. Therefore she thought our support service was terrible and non cooperative. To make a long story short, after a 15 minute call we managed to sort out the details and documents and she has since been paid.

I think the lesson learned here is communications. Everyone needs to really learn to listen better and not just see things from their perspective. She was sure we were stalling and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t getting paid. Our support team was getting frustrated because they didn’t understand why she simply didn’t fax the documents…

It’s all about communications..

One of the best ways for players to find a casino is to use a 3rd party reference site which is commonly referred to as an affiliate.

Affiliate websites can be forums, blogs, or just pages and pages of banner advertisements. It helps to get a 3rd party’s opinion on the casino operation and about their support service, games, and payment options. A well respected and long time affiliate partner of ours is Online Casino Suite  where you can find online casino reviews, games reviews, and software provider reviews.

Here’s an excellent example of a casino review done for All Slots Casino, which is the biggest online slots casino.

Like I said, when choosing an online casino it’s important to know who are the reputable and reliable operations. But once you’ve read the All Slots review I am sure you won’t have to look any further!

Wild Jack Casino,  is happy to announce the #1 in 21 Trivia quiz. It’s a great chance for you to test yourself on general information and win the $21,000 top prize! All you have to do is answer the questions at number1in21.com and you’ll be entered to win the draw!
For those of you who don’t know, Wild Jack is the best online casino for Blackjack, otherwise known as 21! We’ve got over 50 different blackjack games, which means there’s something for everyone!
We’ve created a special application for those Facebook users among you! You can find it here.
Good luck with the contest.. if anybody needs some help with the answers feel free to let me know :)

With all these new “community” sites popping up every day I decided to see what all the hype was about. I’ve just finished creating my own account on Facebook. Now I am just waiting for some friends!

It might actually be a nice way for members of the Jackpot Factory community to reach out to each other, share tips and ideas, and meet other people who have a common interest…winning a jackpot!

Just search for David Brickman in Facebook. There are a few of us, but not to worry, you’ll know which one I am!

I’ll use this forum to introduce our players to a rather new member of The Jackpot Factory – Wild Jack Mobile Casino (WJMC). WJMC has launched in the UK almost two years ago, and has grown to become the UK’s most loved mobile casino. Since then, it has been gaining popularity for its easy-to-use and casino-like experience as mobile consumers become interested in using their mobile devices for more than just voice calls.WJMC’s story began when the Jackpot Factory has joined forces with Spin3 the world’s leader in mobile gaming technology. WJMC currently supports over 750 mobile devices and packs 11 favorite games to play, including the casino classics Roulette, BlackJack and Tomb Raider^TM. It’s also the first mobile casino to offer progressive jackpots, with Major Millions nearing the $500K Jackpot! Two of WJMC’s players have already enjoyed this action-packed casino – Colin B. and Darren M. have spun the wheels and turned the cards and won £20K EACH on Jacks or Better and Roulette!

Unfortunately, WJMC isn’t available in North America at the moment, but other players from around the world are welcome to join the and enjoy the thrill. To start playing Wild Jack Mobile Casino simply go to www.WJMC.com and enter your mobile number. UK players can also download the casino by texting ‘WJMC’ to 89895. Then follow the registration process (which includes a strict age verification process – no under 18 here!) – and within minutes you will begin playing the games. From that point on there is no need to visit a website – everything needed to be up and running can be done via a compatible mobile.

So go on and Make Your Play!

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.

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/