Issue N18, 2011
May 10, 2011
888.com Has Slots Ad Banned
888 Casino saw one of its pop up ads draw fire, eventually leading to the British Advertising Standards Authority banning the ad outright. The problem began when a single pop up ad appeared on 888’s Facebook site asking: “Addicted to slots?” The ad then went on to offer: “Register in 888casino & get 7 spins every week for a whole year ABSOLUTELY FREE! Get the chance to win every day. No deposit necessary.” One complainant decided that he or she didn’t like the gist of the ad and made a formal complaint to the ASA, which investigated the matter and decided that it did, indeed, encourage people to gamble. “We considered that in doing so the ad trivialised gambling addiction, and condoned and encouraged gambling behaviour that could lead to financial, social or emotional harm. We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible,” wrote the group.
888.com, on its part, said that it had not even been aware of the creation of the ad, nor did it give its approval for publication; however, having said that, it also said that it did not see any problem with its text, nor did it see how it could be construed as encouraging gambling to the young or the vulnerable.
Player Wins Luxury Trip in Grand Prive Birthday Promotion
The online casino group, Grand Prive, recently gave away a fantastic luxury vacation package to the lucky winner of its The Power of Ten promotion to celebrate a whole decade in the industry. The player was given the option of flying to a number of top destinations in the world, and eventually settled on Sun City in South Africa, one of the world’s premier gambling destinations. The prize was valued at $10,000, and was part of the larger $100,000 given away to other players throughout April in the promotion.
“‘Ronaldus298’ has been crowned the overall winner of the competition and receives a luxury trip for two people to one of our top-ten gambling destinations valued at $10,000,” said Sonia Bradshaw, speaking for Grand Prive.
“His gambling destination of choice is Sun City in South Africa. The competition itself was a complete success. We had a record number of players participating and have received positive feedback regarding the competition’s structure and allotment of prizes.”
Every ten days, players won $30,000 worth of bonuses at Grand Prive casinos, including Casino Grand Bay, Jupiter Club Casino, Bella Vegas casino, Lake Palace Casino and Road House Reels Casino.
New Games Rolled out at Celtic Casino
The Visionary iGaming SA powered online casino, Celtic Casino has rolled out six new exciting games that complement the superb live gaming options available at the site. There are three new slot games available at Celtic Casino, as well as three poker titles, each one unique and graphically stunning in its own right. The three slot games are Fruit Fever, Good and Evil and Lucky 7, and the poker titles are Let it Ride, Tropical Poker and Color Champion, a video poker game.
“What separates Celtic Casino from other online live dealer casinos is the studio environment that allows the dealers to interact with the players more,” said Celtic Casino in a statement this week. “This increased dealer-player interaction is the hallmark of CelticCasino.com and we use a software platform developed and maintained by Visionary iGaming, which is one of the best live dealer software companies serving the market today.”
Players can enjoy top promotions that run all the time at Celtic Casino, including a free trip to Vegas offer that is running during the entire month of May. The Spring Bank Las Vegas promo is only one of many promos at this site.
Absolute Poker and UB.com Drop Sponsored Pros
Another effect of Black Friday has been felt, after Absolute Poker and UB.com, poker sites on the Cereus Network, announced that they were dropping their sponsored pros, saying that they were no longer in a position to provide them with the funds needed to further their poker careers. Among those players affected were Joe Sebok, Brandon Cantu, Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, Scott Ian and Adam “Roothless” Levy.
In a statement issued by Blanaca Games, the parent company of Absolute Poker and UB.com it was said: “This was a difficult task for Blanca’s management, and we are very disappointed that we have been compelled to sever ties with our sponsored pros…we regret that we are no longer in a position to partner with our sponsored pros, or to provide them with a source of income for playing the game that they love.” The online poker industry was hit with a major clampdown by US authorities after they seized the domain names of top sites such as Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars on April 15th, known now as Black Friday.