Confusion reigned in the ranks of both players and affiliate marketers
as the week ended, with the Golden Palace Casino affiliate program
Casino Blasters sending out confusing signals that suggested the pioneer
online casino could be about to turn its back on US players.
In a communication to affiliates, Casino Blasters and other Golden
Palace affiliate structures said that as a result of the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act the CasinoBlasters.com partner sites
(Golden Palace Casino and its skins) will no longer allow gaming by
USA residents.
The notice revealed the existence of a new entity, Golden Casino on
a .com domain registered on 19 October to which US players on the
system are apparently being moved.
"All USA player accounts from the CasinoBlasters.com family
of sites have been transferred to GoldenCasino.com," the
notice proclaimed, adding that CasinoBlasters and/or its partner sites
are not affiliated with GoldenCasino.com.
"GoldenCasino.com has its own affiliate program, BestCasinoPartner.com,"
the notice advised, adding that an apparently unilateral decision
had been made to move all affiliate accounts for US players to Best
Casino Partner's system, using the same ID and password information.
Affiliates are given until December 1st to effect the changeover.
CasinoBlasters will pay out all USA-generated affiliate commissions
to November 15, when the new affiliate program will become responsible.
Casinos affected include:
Golden Palace
Aspinalls
Grandonline
Flamingo
24ktgold
Gpbingo
Online Vegas
Only Bingo
Go Casino
Grand Riviera
Merlin's Magic
Star Online Casino
The Six Shooter
Top Card Casino
Triple Win
Early opinions from industry observers are that Golden Palace is preparing
to bail out of the US facing business, but has formed a new entity
to ensure that revenues are not lost, albeit indirectly.
Exacerbating an already confused and poorly communicated situation,
some US affiliates who spoke to support centres were told that they
could continue to gamble on Golden Palace indefinitely, whilst other
Golden Palace group operations were already re-directing players to
the new Golden Casino.com.
As we went to press this week it did not appear that Golden Palace
has yet communicated the situation to the players.
Several sources informed InfoPowa that the Golden Casino.com operation
is powered by a software different to the Playtech system used by
Golden Palace. Playtech has announced that it will no longer accept
US players at its licensee operations. Apparently Golden Casino is
using Odds On software, which was reportedly absorbed by Vegas Technologies
in the L&G group earlier this year.