I see a lot of enthusiasm and support for Golden Palace Casino here, which leads me to believe some of you have forgotton their past history of dealing with what they called "bonus abusers". Here's what I posted on my site over 6 years ago: The Blacklist May 19, 2000 Golden Palace Casino This casino, which uses MicroGaming software, has earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first entry on our list of casinos that we recommend you not patronize. Once a highly-regarded operation, Golden Palace Casino has initiated some actions in the past few weeks which have caused quite a stir in the online gambling world. Recently, about a dozen customers of Golden Palace found that the money in their accounts had been confiscated by the casino due to what has been termed "bonus abuse" and as of the date above, these players have not had the money returned to them. It seems that the players not only had bonuses revoked, but also winnings in their accounts were withheld and, according to some, even payouts which had previously been approved were never actually sent. The casino's side of the story, as we've read on message boards and other commentary on the 'Net, is that these players gambled at the casino only when bonuses were offered. The casino believes that is wrong and obviously also feels that the money in those particular customers' accounts belongs to them and not to the customer. Since the Golden Palace Casino has not chosen to provide us with further explanation, we can only assume that this situation is much like your favorite department store refusing to do business with you because you shop only during their sales. And, not only do they stop doing business with you, they refuse to ship the merchandise you bought last week! The gambling industry survives on trust. That may seem odd because this is an "us-versus-them" relationship, but trust lies at its core. To be sure, most casinos don't trust their patrons (or even their own employees) and the patrons may not trust the casinos, but they do trust the regulatory bodies which, in most cases, oversee brick-and-mortar casinos. The Internet gambling business has very little oversight like that, but it was going along pretty well, slowly building trust and gaining credibility, based primarily upon the actions of individual casinos who realize that trust and credibility are essential ingredients to success. Then, along comes the Golden Palace Casino (a member of the Interactive Gaming Council who has not released a statement on this) and they shake this concept of trust to its very foundation. To make matters even worse, Golden Palace Casino is licensed by the government of Antigua and Barbuda who has not, to the best of our knowledge, made a comment on this matter. Even if the Golden Palace's actions are justified, trust and credibility are lost when situations are handled in this manner and that's never good for an industry which is in its infancy. Perhaps a leopard can change its spots, but forewarned is fore-armed. GM
I have a complaint about Golden Pee, there are now too many people joining some of these tournaments. Looks like over 40 for tonights 250 game. Damn me and my mouth.
