The APCW and Microgaming: mission to highlight and condemn provider's failure to support customers of Tusk Gaming, Eurolinx and Grand Priv�

Online casino software provider Microgaming has had a turbid couple of years, in which the aftermath of the failure of two big pokerrooms and the closure of a large affiliate programme has seen both player customers and affiliate business partners vocal in their criticism and condemnation of the company.


The troubles began in February 2008, with the collapse of casino and poker operator Tusk Investment Corporation; I reported the matter in my licensee in liquidation article, and there were discussions at the 2+2 poker forums, in both the Microgaming skins closure and Microgaming poker scandal threads.


A year and a half later, high-profile pokerroom Eurolinx collapsed. I wrote up the story in my Eurolinx article, and the matter was extensively covered in the Eurolinx withdrawl problems thread at 2+2; that discussion is ongoing, as is the Eurolinx thread at Casinomeister.


Another interesting matter, rearing is head at the same time as the collapse, was posted by Eurolinx business partner Marc "myst" Karam - see his my Eurolinx story. Here are some revealing quotes from Karam's account:

Last June, 2008, the owner, Jo Remme, asked me to borrow money. They said they were tight on funds and wanted to do an advertising campaign at last year's WSOP...

Around two months ago, Jo tells me they are having some financial difficulties and that they will have to grind their way through it before moving...

Here are at least two allusions to financial trouble, but Microgaming was apparently none the wiser.


In neither Tusk nor Eurolinx case has Microgaming paid more than lip service to the matter, maintaining almost total silence for the most part in spite of what appear to have been woefully lax controls on either licensee: Tusk Gaming was clearly in financial strife some time before its final collapse, and it emerged that Eurolinx owner Jo Remme had the sort of chequered past that should surely have disqualified him from ever running a Microgaming pokerroom - to say nothing of the financial strife admitted by Remme to Marc Karam. Microgaming was apparently unaware of their prospective licensee's history; as such, their research and background checking seems to have been found badly wanting.


Between these two licensee collapses, whose cost to players I conservatively estimate at USD $10,000,000, Microgaming casino group Grand Priv� decided to close its affiliate programme, sever all relations with its webmaster business partners and pay them no further affiliate commission.

This would be all well and good if the casinos were also closing, as there would then be no more player income and nothing owed to anyone. However, the casinos were not closing - all were to remain open. Grand Priv�'s plan was simply to renege on the commission agreement with their partners and stop paying affiliate income to those same webmasters whose sites had sent players to the casinos in the first place, and without whom the casinos would not have made that money.

A bad case of biting the hands that feed you.


The matter was discussed at various affiliate organisations - see the battle against Grand Priv�, Grand Priv� predatory behaviour and Grand Prive snubs the affiliate community threads.

(I also raised the matter in my Grand Prive affiliate problem article, where I focussed my jaundiced eye on affiliate apathy rather than the injustice of the matter - Grand Priv� was a bad group, and promoting them was always asking for trouble in my estimation.)


In the interests of refreshing the subject matter, I've taken longer than usual to come to the main point of this article. Time to get back on track:


The APCW, formerly the "Association of Professional Casino Webmasters" and now renamed "Association of Players, Casinos and Webmasters" and owned by the GPWA, has been taking a proactive stance with regard to Microgaming's apparent indifference to the plight of the customers of Tusk Gaming, Eurolinx and Grand Priv�.


The organisation runs a weekly ten-minute video show, Perspectives weekly, which over the last few weeks has included videos directly related to Microgaming customer apathy.

The "Can't Lift A Finger" show contains a parody of a country & west song; here are some select highlights:

We're watchin' Eurolinx and Tusk go down,
And Microgaming never makes a sound.
Seems to me that they could have stepped up.
Won't lift a finger cuz their thumbs up their butt!

Now we know Microgaming used to be
The highest standard of integrity.
I may sound crazy but it seems to me
These guys got misplaced priorities!

It's like their ethics were replaced by greed!
They turn a profit while the rest of us bleed?
We're gettin' screwed by folks at Grand Prive
And Microgaming's still got nuthin' to say.

When trouble comes they just look away.
With players hurtin' they got nothin' to say.
They're sittin' phat, but we're out of luck.
The whole damn situation sucks!

The October 30th show also talks about the Microgaming issue, and the project was discussed in the APCW sneak preview thread at GPWA.


It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of this.


For myself, I'll be trying to have words with Microgaming at the IGE 2010 in London early next year.


There might be a long queue.

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