Not everyone is pleased to see the autumn affiliate conference leaving Budapest for a return to Barcelona…
Category: iGaming Industry
Unbelievable Sportsbook “Affiliate”
I have to say, this has been one hell of a Monday. This is undeniably the funniest Skype conversation I’ve ever had. To provide some context, this “man” has been bombarding the affiliate manager and customer services team at one of my clients for a couple of weeks, first of all claiming he wants to promote the client’s sportsbook on a forum in his market. In principle, fine, although it wasn’t his forum – it appears he is just a member there looking to spam the hell out of it I should imagine. He asked for a salary to do it, which is obviously out of the question. He was told this, but has come back again and again now asking for $50 to be credited to his player account for the time that has been wasted and to compensate him for having to turn down an “offer” from Party Poker. I decided to get involved and this is what happened. Prepare to be amazed.
Names and locations have been replaced with X and Y:
[16:05:50] Tom Galanis: hi Affiliate X
[16:05:52] Affiliate X: Hi Tom
[16:05:56] Tom Galanis: Affiliate Manager X has passed this over to me
[16:06:02] Affiliate X: You are this most important person
[16:06:06] Affiliate X: in Sportsbook X :)?
[16:06:15] Tom Galanis: I wouldn’t say that exactly
[16:06:37] Tom Galanis: but I’m happy to talk to you about the way we work
[16:06:58] Affiliate X: Yes , I am happy š
[16:07:02] Tom Galanis: I gather that Affiliate Manager X has already told you that we are only looking to work with affiliates on a revenue share basis?
[16:07:36] Tom Galanis: the prospect of paying a forum member a salary to assist in promotion of Sportsbook X on the forum is simply out of the question
[16:07:51] Affiliate X: Hmm , I have advertiste on my forum from bookmakers who paid per month
[16:08:14] Affiliate X: without share basiis
[16:08:25] Tom Galanis: are you the owner of the site?
[16:08:37] Affiliate X: Contanst stake per month
[16:08:42] Affiliate X: few hundred dollars.
[16:08:51] Tom Galanis: how do you mean?
[16:08:58] Tom Galanis: you’re guaranteeing a number of bets?
[16:09:02] Tom Galanis: you’ve lost me
[16:09:05] Affiliate X: wait a moment
[16:09:33] Tom Galanis: do you run Site X?
[16:10:02] Affiliate X: My forum has the largest attendance in Country X, because of companies depending on what place on the page they want to have a banner set the rate each month.
[16:10:03] Affiliate X: yes .
[16:10:18] Affiliate X: I written with Affiliate Manager X that Sportsbook X can place banner on main page .
[16:10:29] Affiliate X: on my forum so it costs few hundred dolars per month .
[16:10:30] Tom Galanis: I’m confused, because you are not the nameholder of the affiliate account with Sportsbook X
[16:10:56] Tom Galanis: it is against our terms and conditions to discuss this account with anybody aside from the registered affiliate member
[16:11:03] Tom Galanis: for all I know, you could be anybody
[16:11:12] Affiliate X: I do not understand you know.
[16:11:27] Tom Galanis: really?
[16:11:36] Affiliate X: Yes
[16:11:39] Tom Galanis: I am going to Skype message the registered member
[16:11:43] Tom Galanis: and ask him
[16:11:53] Affiliate X: I am administrator of Site X
[16:12:33] Affiliate X: please does it me registered member? what do you mean?
[16:13:09] Affiliate X: because I do not understand this sentence.
[16:13:36] Tom Galanis: Site X registered as a Sportsbook X affiliate
[16:13:52] Tom Galanis: we can only discuss deals with the person registered under the account
[16:13:56] Tom Galanis: and that is not you
[16:14:17] Affiliate X: how registered in affiliate ?
[16:15:01] Affiliate X: and not discuss with me ? I have waited last 2 weeks for your final decision , I lost good offer advertise from this becauce I waited for Affiliate Manager X .
[16:15:17] Tom Galanis: but you don’t run the Site X?
[16:15:25] Tom Galanis: there is no offer as far as I can see it
[16:15:32] Affiliate X: Yes I run the Site X
[16:15:38] Tom Galanis: you are just a guy who uses the forum to place affiliate links, no?
[16:15:46] Tom Galanis: do you know Affiliate X?
[16:16:02] Tom Galanis: he is the person registered as the affiliate?
[16:16:21] Affiliate X: I pushed advertise as a banner on forum , NOT AFFILIATE LINKS
[16:16:38] Affiliate X: haha affiliate links joke
[16:16:45] Tom Galanis: they are the same thing
[16:16:50] Tom Galanis: a banner is an affiliate link
[16:17:15] Affiliate X: I will add baner on main place on forum aboce topic’s
[16:17:23] Affiliate X: it is the best plave for advertise
[16:17:35] Tom Galanis: ok, but do you understand my problem?
[16:17:44] Affiliate X: I do not understand so
[16:17:51] Tom Galanis: we have someone, who is not you, who has registered as the affiliate for Site X
[16:18:19] Tom Galanis: unless you send me proof that you are the site owner, I cannot enter in to negotiations with you
[16:18:26] Affiliate X: to this someone is rubber .
[16:18:37] Tom Galanis: please can you clarify what you mean?
[16:18:54] Affiliate X: On behalf of Site X all negotiations can only lead me as administrator
[16:19:08] Tom Galanis: ok, so do you know a person called Affiliate X?
[16:20:12] Affiliate X: No , nobody from my moderato’s on forum not called Affiliate X
[16:20:37] Affiliate X: So no one could on behalf of the forum to talk to you
[16:21:13] Tom Galanis: ok, so you don’t know that he is making money from Sportsbook X already, claiming it is through Site X and Site Y?
[16:22:09] Affiliate X: this forum is very smaller than my forum ( Site X )
[16:22:40] Tom Galanis: ok, in order to proceed with negotiations, I need you to send me proof that you own the forum Site X
[16:23:03] Tom Galanis: I do apologise if you do, but it would seem that someone is claiming to be the site owner already
[16:23:12] Tom Galanis: we cannot have 2 people running the same site
[16:23:53] Tom Galanis: it should be very easy to do – just go to your domain registrar and do a screenshot showing your account and the domain name
[16:24:11] Affiliate X: Okay no problem
[16:24:20] Tom Galanis: great, thanks
[16:25:01] Affiliate X: so I think you can add bonus to my account now š I think 50 USd will be good
[16:25:05] Affiliate X: real money , not funny
[16:25:17] Tom Galanis: seriously, are you not understanding me?
[16:25:33] Affiliate X: seriously , my english i so bad.
[16:25:37] Tom Galanis: why should I give you $50?
[16:25:52] Affiliate X: because I have waited long time for Affiliate Manager Xz final decision
[16:26:03] Affiliate X: and I lost good offer advertise ( from PartyPoker)
[16:26:10] Affiliate X: because I waited for Sportsbook X.
[16:26:15] Affiliate X: I lost good money.
[16:26:21] Tom Galanis: I waited 17 years to have sex, it doesn’t mean all the women in the world were going to go to bed with me when it finally happened.
[16:26:30] Tom Galanis: I’m sure the deal will still be there
[16:27:34] Affiliate X: So , please credit me bonus, I think you are serious person, because I dont know who are you ?
[16:27:37] Tom Galanis: If you like, I’ll speak to the affiliate manager at Partypoker and get them to help you
[16:27:44] Tom Galanis: what bonus?
[16:27:49] Affiliate X: 50 USD.
[16:27:58] Affiliate X: I can see only your nickname .
[16:28:36] Affiliate X: you want my screenshot domain register … so please credit me bonus , I will be know that you are serious person in Sportsbook X.
[16:28:52] Tom Galanis: my name is Tom Galanis. If you like I can speak to my friend at bet365, where I used to work. Iām sure he will be able to confirm your details as his banners are all over Site X
[16:29:29] Tom Galanis: I really don’t understand what game you are trying to play
[16:29:58] Tom Galanis: you must be mad to think that just because you harass members of my staff that you will get a $50 bonus
[16:29:58] Affiliate X: hohoho
[16:30:13] Tom Galanis: I may have a belly like santa, but I lack the beard
[16:30:40] Tom Galanis: I suggest you move on to your next victim – you will not be getting any bonus at Sportsbook X
[16:31:16] Affiliate X: What is your friend in bet365 ? I Just know a few person from this company .
[16:31:24] Tom Galanis: I used to work there
[16:31:28] Affiliate X: polish and english .
[16:31:41] Tom Galanis: feel free to tell them all about me
[16:32:23] Affiliate X: ok fuck you
[16:32:44] Tom Galanis: it’s been a pleasure talking to you too Affiliate X
[16:32:47] Tom Galanis: have a nice day
[16:33:13] Affiliate X: buahahaha
[16:33:30] Affiliate X: Sportsbook X — Sportbook X’s Location’s rubber’s
[16:33:41] Tom Galanis: I would love to know what a rubber is
[16:34:00] Affiliate X: Sportsbook X
[16:34:22] Affiliate X: Sportsbook X does not have good opinion in Country X .
[16:34:24] Affiliate X: and Language X users’s
[16:34:51] Tom Galanis: you didn’t tell me you controlled the entire Language X market?
[16:35:19] Affiliate X: yes I control
[16:35:27] Affiliate X: you have bad note on SBR
[16:35:37] Tom Galanis: that’s an American site
[16:35:49] Affiliate X: yes but , the best .
[16:36:10] Affiliate X: users waiting 8 days from answer from Sportsbook X Support on email
[16:36:12] Affiliate X: LOOOOOOOL
[16:37:40] Tom Galanis: that probably has a lot to do with a certain someone phoning in every 5 minutes believing they warrant a bonus
[16:37:46] Tom Galanis: http://www.sportsbookreview.com/blacklist/
[16:37:51] Tom Galanis: I don’t see Sportsbook X here
[16:38:35] Tom Galanis: can you send me the link?
[16:38:46] Affiliate X: please look on my forum Site X
[16:38:49] Affiliate X: Topic Sportsbook X
[16:38:55] Affiliate X: lot of negative opinion’s
[16:38:57] Tom Galanis: can you send me the link?
[16:39:02] Affiliate X: yes
[16:40:01] Affiliate X: http://www.Site X/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4734429&page=3
[16:40:05] Affiliate X: 3 longs pages
[16:40:09] Affiliate X: negative opnion’s
[16:41:51] Tom Galanis: I have to say, it doesn’t seem too bad to me
[16:43:05] Affiliate X: you are not understand Language X
[16:43:07] Affiliate X: hehe
[16:43:16] Tom Galanis: I have translated it
[16:43:23] Affiliate X: it is not bad ?
[16:43:25] Affiliate X: Come On
[16:43:28] Affiliate X: you are funny
[16:43:47] Tom Galanis: from what I can see most people are just discussing whether they want to take the bonus or not
[16:43:53] Tom Galanis: an $8 bonus, not $50
[16:44:23] Affiliate X: please push all pages
[16:44:50] Affiliate X: These people do not have good opinion about Sportsbook X
[16:45:03] Affiliate X: They write ” **mence”
[16:45:08] Tom Galanis: it seems that most of them are racist to me
[16:45:23] Affiliate X: yes
[16:45:37] Affiliate X: “send personal ID to Nationality of Person running Sportsbook X”
[16:45:57] Tom Galanis: so let me get this straight
[16:46:09] Tom Galanis: you want me to pay you money to promote Sportsbook X on ‘your’ website
[16:46:24] Tom Galanis: but it seems you think very little of Country X
[16:46:36] Tom Galanis: why are you interested in working with Sportsbook X if this is what you think?
[16:47:17] Affiliate X: I dont understand your sentence
[16:47:21] Affiliate X: yes I can work in Sportsbook X.
[16:47:54] Affiliate X: I would like to be official representantive on global forum’s
[16:48:18] Affiliate X: I worked for Tobet few month.
[16:48:41] Tom Galanis: Let me be clear, we do not want you to represent Sportsbook X
[16:48:53] Affiliate X: I have have the necessary experience
[16:49:39] Tom Galanis: that may be the case, but we will not be proceeding with working with you
[16:49:49] Tom Galanis: best of luck in your future endeavours
[16:50:24] Affiliate X: okay , so for this ” best lucky” credit me bonus to my Sportsbook X account
[16:50:47] Tom Galanis: no
[16:50:59] Affiliate X: yes
I’m not going to publicly name this guy, but if any affiliate managers would like to know more, I’d be happy to tell them. Simply incredible.
More Spam fun and games
Hi Affiliate Manager X,
Thanks for another email promoting your affiliate program. I actually replied to your last one a couple of weeks ago, but didnāt hear anything back. I am starting to wonder whether you are actually a robot programmed to send the same email numerous times without the programmed functionality to reply.
I can reply in binary code if that helps?
Thanks,
Tom
Why I will not work with you on a CPA basis
Hi Affiliate X,
Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, but I wanted to take the time in-house to discuss the option of offering CPA deals at Affiliate Program X. Up until now, at least on the sportsbook front, it is not an area that we have looked at solidly.
In principle and provided that we can get the mechanics right, I believe this is something the board at Affiliate Program X would entertain on a trial basis.
However, having looked at the activity of the 216 players you have sent to Affiliate Program X in the past 9-10 months, 93 of these players have clearly come to us in the hope of claiming and winning from their bonus. It is evident to me that players you have sent, on the whole, are very much hunting the bonus. Only 8 of the 216 players you have sent since October last year have deposited anything other than Ā£50, and only 2 have deposited more than once. As you know, the bonus most bookmakers is set up to act as a starting point for a player’s association with the company, rather than an end point.
Unfortunately, given the ever increasing number of bookmakers out there offering welcome bonuses, it is easy for players (and indeed affiliates to send their players) to go to bookmakers with the sole intention of claiming the bonus, and reducing a player’s risk below the 100% margin mark that natural bookmaking tends to go 6 or 7% above to maintain a profit – hence why your account is in the red. Working with an affiliate on a revenue sharing basis is therefore the most beneficial form of commission structure from my point of view as you are also sharing in any losses – which you should expect if you vehemently promote the welcome bonus.
Had we be paying you on a Ā£20 CPA basis for every player that has met a Ā£50 deposit release, you’d be a pretty wealthy man and it would have left us in the red on both the player and affiliate front. If it were clear to me that a pattern of the players you have brought in was not in line with simple bonus abuse (I am not suggesting that this was ever your intention) and indeed that more than 8 of your players had deposited anything other than Ā£50 on a one-off occasion, then I would look at a CPA. The fact is, only 2 of your players have ever redeposited and therefore it can make no sense to us to pay a CPA on this.
If you were to show me ways in which you do/could promote Affiliate Program X aside from pushing the welcome bonus rigourously and in ways that might allow for players, as is the norm, to ‘try’ the sportsbook with a Ā£10-Ā£20 deposit (90% of depositing players tend to join in this way), like what they see (that’s our job), come back in line with our expected redeposit rate from retention campaigns and remain loyal in line with our expected player lifetime and value, then we can look at a CPA payment. That being said, I’m sure a revenue share deal might suit you better when/if it came to this.
I do hope that the companies you do work with on a CPA basis are making a long term profit, or else you might find that the model you are working to will not last too long. If you would like to discuss ways in which you can compare bookmakers aside from a free bet comparison through your affiliate network, I would be more than happy to work alongside you to create a more sustainable business model which would see Affiliate Program X play a sizeable role on your site.
Kind regards,
Tom Galanis
Affiliate Program X Affiliate Manager
Who wants the Boobie Prize?
I’m pretty certain that the thinking behind this promotion is purely PR-inspired. We haven’t seen a promotion quite as dastardly as this since the early Noughties, but those risque folks at Celtic Casino have implanted an astonishing silicon-enhanced promotion back into the online gaming world. Ladies (and gentleman), I give you the Boob Job Draw!
That’s right, the ultimate boobie prize has made a return and the depths that this cleavage-hungry casino has plummeted to are incredible. If you’re, and I quote, “medically ineligible” or would simply rather receive cash to watch other boobies in strip clubs, Celtic Casino is offering ā¬1,000 in lieu of a trip to Costa Rica AND the surgery.
Obviously, Costa Rica probably only ranks as an A Cup on the Plastic Surgery hotspots of the world, but ā¬1,000 to cover your trip and the augmentation hardly builds confidence for those lucky ladies or ladyboys keen enough to drop a load of cash into Celtic Casino to earn a raffle ticket for this titillating competition.
If you’re keen to enter this competition (how did you find my blog) or would simply like to find out more, have a peep by following this link.
This has to be the most outrageous attempt to create a USP/feast on industry PR sites like mine in years, bra none and if you fancy having a go, play at Celtic Casino Now!
When No Negative Carryover is so so Negative
I’ve just had an email exchange with an affiliate who is unhappy at my refusal to pay her Ā£253 in affiliate commission she believes is due to her for May.
Sadly for this affiliate, this particular affiliate program I represent has a negative carryover policy in place (if I had my way, this would be the case everywhere) and it works extremely well in this case.
In April, the single player attached to this affiliate’s account took away a 4 figure profit which put this affiliate’s account into the red to the tune of Ā£342. They have subsequently dropped about 80% of their profits back to the house, but have seemingly walked away with the rest.
Now can anyone in their right mind please tell me why this affiliate believes she is owed money? The terms and conditions are quite clear and if she had a sizeable number of profitable players on her account and one took her to the cleaners, then by all means, I would look at helping her out. Dare I say it, it would not surprise me (as I’ve seen it countless times before) if she was acquainted with the account holder. Many affiliate programs have minimum new player thresholds in place, and this is precisely why. In fact, I may even consider adding this clause for new affiliates joining this program going forward.
But this purely demonstrates the ridiculous expectations some affiliates have of affiliate programs, their interpretations of common sense business practice, and the preposterous nature to which all-too-many affiliate programs have bent over backwards over the past 5 or 6 years to please their affiliates. I’m all for helping affiliates out in an effort to grow their business, but not when circumstances are as ludicrous as this.
She has threatened to pull her promotion of my client and “tell the affiliate world”. Boo, bloody, hoo. Maybe that world will tell her how ridiculous she is being. I doubt it though. I can expect a chorus of chastising communication clamouring for my common-sense to be curtailed and for my “carefree” clients to cast cash into the chasms of this community-concocted, confused commercial consensus. Crazy.
The Futility of an Affiliate Manager’s existence
I’ve just had a Skype messenger conversation with an affiliate manager. He sold me the affiliate program pretty well and in fairness, without analysing every term and condition, it all seemed to be pretty nicely done as an offering. The notable downsides are that the software is Rival (clearly in a bit of a mess right now) and moreover, the casino really isn’t up to scratch. I mean, the screenshot from the bottom right corner of this casino’s homepage below goes some way to illustrate why I couldn’t possibly happily refer an affiliate to this guy.
I feel for good casino affiliate managers who just don’t have the right product to sell, and don’t have people in other departments pulling their weight making sure what they do is spot on too. In my opinion there are now far fewer respectable, top quality online gaming destinations than there are good, upstanding affiliate managers. How in God’s name is this poor guy going to get decent traffic to this casino and make ends meet? Surely whoever decided to launch this royalclubcasinoclubgamesvegascluborsomethinglikethat.com really should have made sure that the latest winners and progressive jackpot feeds were working and that his website manager knew HTML before putting the site live AND before he forced his affiliate manager out to get hold of traffic. #failing
From the book of Grey Goose Revelations
Verse 5: So, I went to Calvin Ayreās party last night. I hated the fact that I had to queue for half an hour, I immensely resented the fact āVIPSā managed to queue jump (surely that was envy?), I found the creative interpretations of the seven deadly sins to be pretty damn bland, with the exception of the half naked fat guys gnoshing raw meet off each otherās torsos whilst a butcher provided them with fresh produce, I felt the whole thing was altogether a stage managed production than a party. I just didnāt get the vibe and I have to rank it as one of the worst parties Iāve had the privilege of attending in online gaming over the past 6 years.
But hereās the thing. First off, my shock levels are obviously disturbingly high. Secondly, Iām an ungrateful son of a bitch as Mr Ayre provided me with free alcohol for 3 hours or so and something to blog about. The very fact that I hated the party is what was brilliant about it and what is brilliant about Calvin Ayre and his Bodog brand.
After Iād made the decision to leave, rounded up a few of my nearest and dearest in iGaming and headed over to a more traditional party (Grey Goose and Moet on tap ā thanks William Hill), I managed to share my thoughts to Calvinās lawyer and Bodogās Director of Products. I told them that the party wasnāt for me, that I didnāt get it and that I thought Calvin was an egotistical prick. That last bit was the Grey Goose squawking, but it made my point very nicely.
Now, these two fellas were good guys, typically gaming, typically defending their boss and the company that pays their wages. But that shouldnāt happen at Bodog. I spent the next hour or two telling them precisely why they shouldnāt be trying to make me see sense that it was a great party. What makes Calvin Ayre and Bodog so important to iGaming is not the fat naked guys, the pole-dancers, the bondage sessions, the wankers who get in the VIP area or queue jump, or even the deformed dwarves. Itās the fact that I hated it and some people loved it.
Imagine if all those mugs who had queued alongside me had been registered players and that party dictated whether they played at Bodog or not… Once we were finally let into the hype-filled freak show, most would have left straight away without spending a penny even with a no-deposit bonus of a free bar. 5 or 10 percent would have loved it and now believe that Calvin Ayre can walk on water. They would have dropped a grand in no time flat. Hell, theyād probably even be blogging about it with some affiliate links in there for good measure.
As a result, the party Iāve disliked most in online gambling is also the most important. I left it for another run of the mill booze fest courtesy of William Hill and a decent club. Iāve woken up wearing Eau de Grey Goose and it feels like just another conference day. Before reaching this all-too-familiar ignominy, I told the guys at Bodog what I thought of their attempts to sell the Calvin party to me. In a nutshell, I told them that they shouldnāt be working at Bodog if they took the viewpoint that everyone has to like something they do. Thatās iGamingās biggest problem ā every operation tries to please everyone. They take what other companies do, copy it, take a small margin, cannibalise the industry, bore players and revel in it beyond belief as they down their Grey Goose.
So, hats off to Calvin Ayre and Bodog for differentiating on their brand. Your product is run of the mill along with 95% of the gambling operations, but every Tom, Dick and Harry has an opinion on your party, was prepared to queue in the rain for an hour and look like a tit, and write a blog post about it and this makes your brand special. It shows that extremes attract some people and that picks out Bodogās well-deserved share of the market. Everyone else sits on their āevolutionaryā, āstate of the artā canāt-tell-the-difference-software-suites, letās-all-go-for-the-same-players-and-pay-stupid-CPAs-to-acquire-them pedestals, all the while not sparing a moment to realise they are all drinking and smelling of the same brand of vodka. Good on you Calvin. For as long as you can stay out of jail, keep on carryinā on.
(Please forgive any grammatical or spelling mistakes here. I am inebriated courtesy of Grey Goose. Maybe I should have shares there…)
Affiliate Whizz-Kid
To continue on my trend of not-so-wise igaming affiliates, these questions were posed to a dome-headed friend of mine by an affiliate seeking answers to his affiliate program’s terms and conditions. This guy goes well beyond the realms of negative carryover, of lifetime value and of payment dates. Yes, this guy goes for the very heart of the issue, the crux that ensures webmaster earnings, the million dollar question that so many hard working affiliates have been toiling away to discover for over a decade. If Spielberg and Lucas wanted to make a fifth Indiana Jones film, they should pass over Harrison Ford for their ingenius, adventure hungry hero in favour of this guy. If God was looking to send a Messiah to save iGaming in its hour of need, surely we’ve found him. Round up your gold, frankincense and myrrh. Christmas has come early!
And so I quote:
Hi There. I’m about to sign up for your program but I have a few questions first. Are my commissions based on whether a player wins or looses (sic.)? If a player looses (sic.) does my commission decrease? Does it ever go into a negitve (sic.) amount? Also are there any tools for affiliates such as banners or tickers we can place on our websites?
Can we give this guy an FBI Award for Services to iGaming?
Poker’s Black Friday – Remind you of something?
So iGaming has had its Black Friday. About time I say. The bottom line is, this should have happened four and a half years ago. Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker are but a few of the operations flaunting the UIGEA regulation, continually angering the US federal authorities. It seems, finally, that the FBI have finally found the backbone on the wet kipper these poker operations have been slapping around their faces for such a long time now.
The fact remains that outlawing online gambling is, on the whole, an unpopular decision amongst US voters. Sure, there is certainly a large school of thought against gambling and its voice is significantly more powerful than those wanting to throw their money into online poker and casino betting, but it is certainly smaller in number.
Playing or offering online poker and, more widely, online gambling is not a crime in my eyes, or in the eyes of the vast majority. For some, it is a problem and that needs to be handled with respect, and perhaps Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker have been lacking that in abundance over the past four and a half years. Before I set sail properly on the analogy I wish to make, I do not wish to imply that the actions of Messrs Scheinberg, Bitar, Burtnick, Tom and Beckley are akin to those of a mob. They are simply businessmen who have been successfully finding loopholes in regulation to provide entertainment to people who are crying out for it – notwithstanding the rewards they have each individually accrued as a result.
On with this analogy. The following ditty was recounted by Edward, Prince of Wales to his father, King George V, in 1919 and refers to Americans popping over the border to Canada during the prohibition era:
“Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry,
Went across the border to get a drink of rye.
When the rye was opened, the Yanks began to sing,
“God bless America, but God save the King!”
Pretty much sums up how things have been for American gamblers these past four years, though I doubt Prince Charles or his mother would risk laying claim to Full Tilt’s Irish headquarters and may even get a few frowns from the Isle of Man.
The late 1920s saw the era of alcoholic prohibition in the United States become more heavily enforced. The more it was enforced, the harder the criminal underworld rebelled against it to turn an even greater profit. The public popularity behind their work to keep speakeasies open was huge and contempt for the ban on alcohol grew. Eventually, President Roosevelt caved in to popular opinion, in a time where financial depression was rife, and repealed the Volstead Act during his First Hundred Days in tandem with his New Deal reforms.
Roosevelt’s New Deal for the American people quite simply would not have worked had he not repealed prohibition. It gained him crucial support in the cities and allowed him leeway on increasing taxes to aid the economic recovery. (A message for Mr Obama as election time looms, I wonder…). By this point, the prohibitionist movement had all but died out and its efforts to rid the nation of the ills of alcohol had been deemed a failure. That said, a legacy of the movement’s efforts, wanted or unwanted, was put in place.
One part of this legacy was the need alcohol marketeers had to attract new clients. One notable group of new drinkers were women. Those who were not in support of prohibition could drink in the new semi-public environment of speakeasies. This was a result of the masculinity of drinking being reduced as a result of the saloon dying out and the norm of women drinking in public was much more acceptable.
Heavy drinkers and alcoholics were among the most affected parties during prohibition. Those who were determined to find liquor could still do so, but those who saw their drinking habits as destructive typically had difficulty in finding the help they sought. The self-help societies had withered away along with the alcohol industry and in 1935 a new self-help group was founded: Alcoholics Anonymous.
In effect, prohibition had widened the market for alcoholic drinks, but had at the same time been responsible for the founding of one of the most successful self-help organisations the world has ever seen. Lessons to be learned here, if and when online gambling becomes regulated in the United States – there can be a happy marriage between those wanting and those not wanting gambling to be legitimised.
Once the decision to repeal prohibition had been made, Roosevelt’s government simply could not let off those who had profited from flaunting prohibition. The feds continued to pursue the likes of Al Capone and Bugs Moran until finally building a strong enough legal case to bring them down, in 1931 and 1946 respectively. Their struggle was finding those who were willing to testify against them. In 2011, they found their man to bring down those responsible for flaunting UIGEA in the shape of Daniel Tzvetkoff.
So, nearly 80 years on, have we reached a focal point in the historical acceptance of online gambling, and a point at which enough scapegoats have been made and brought to account for us all to move on with enjoying the entertainment pastime that is gambling online? I guess that is the multi-billion dollar question. I wonder if online poker might form part of an Obama-style New Deal during his forthcoming election campaign…
Tom Galanis 