Online Gambling Forum Power

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Up to 40 percent of online players use message boards, and here's why

The 11 000 respondents to the recent eCOGRA-commissioned online gambling survey completed by Nottingham Trent University indicated that up to 40 percent of players use independent message boards, or 'forums,' for purposes ranging from checking out online gambling venues before playing to the best bonuses available.

Top boards have memberships in the thousands and daily offer a wide range of topics and in some cases genuine mediation services for players with disputes that have proved impossible to settle directly.

Everything from the US political and legal situation and the mathematics of gambling odds to responsible gambling, business news and game preferences is debated in depth, along with rogue behaviour by players or casinos, industry news and events, spamming and shills, swopping information and wild card exchanges that are just plain fun.

One of the more enduring and generally respected forums, Casinomeister.com, has been around for the past ten years and provides an example of what a leading site can offer. With thousands of members, and both e-newsletters and webcasting augmenting the online site the webmaster revealed this week that over the month of June alone 373 new threads (topics) were opened, motivating a total for the month of 5 190 new posts.

Online casino staffers that want to keep a finger on the industry and player pulse visit the site daily, and have found value in both the information exchanged and player perceptions that they find, or in stepping in to sort out disputes or give alternative perspectives on issues.

On the mediation side webmaster Bryan Bailey, who takes balanced approach favouring neither player or casino, revealed that there were 31 formal complaints submitted at Casinomeister’s “Pitch a Bitch” section during June. With contacts and experience built up over a decade, Bailey is often able to independently resolve issues where others have failed.

Alarmingly, nearly half of the June complaints concerned casinos operated from Costa Rica, whilst eight concerned properties licensed in Kahnawake. The majority of these complaints were from players located in the US who are having difficulty receiving their winnings following the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which disrupts online gambling financial transactions. Apart from slow-pay complaints of this nature, most complaints are about differences over bonuses.

With player protection in mind, Casinomeister lists the whole gamut of online casinos - Rogues to Recommended and categories in between like the "Bumblings, Blunders and Negligence" section. This listing is reserved for casinos that commit acts of serious stupidity or fail to protect their players from software bugs, stolen data-bases, spammers or other forms of doltish goof-ups.

At the positive end of the spectrum, Bailey insists on personally meeting the management of the casinos he showcases, and personally checks out corporate and operational track records before endorsing a company. The site covers online casinos, poker rooms and more recently skill gaming sites.

When it comes to spammers or shills (casino employees posing as players and recommending their own casino) Bailey is merciless, investigating their background and location with some sophisticated aids and publishing the detail, addresses and server IDs for all to see.