The world famous CPA part 1

[m249a]

1.} Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am 50 years old.
I was a professional student until I was around 25 years old, and have been self employed since then.

I have been married twice. The first while in college.
I have one daughter from that marriage that I raised, and 3 from my second marriage, for a grand total of 4 kids. 2 boys, and 2 girls.

2.) How long have you been involved in gambling, and how long have you been involved in online gambling?

I was probably 21, OK, maybe 18, when I hit my first casino.
Nobody was asking too many questions back in those days.
I'm not really an avid gambler in the sense that I go to a land casino frequently.
I never lived close to one, but I'm sure if there was one close by, I would probably be known as a regular at the BlackJack Tables.

I happened into online gambling by chance about 6 years ago. I wasn't that interested in the internet at the time, but had the service for the kids.
About that same time, my company went from having a good old fashioned manual accounting system, to being totally computerized, and I found myself gravitating to the "Desk Ornament Monitor" on my desk!
Before I knew it, I was addicted to the computer, and surfing the web.
Sound familiar to anyone?

I started bumping into online casino ads at the Microsoft Gaming Zone while playing spades for fun. I was having a blast with that, so when I saw I could gamble for real money on line, I was hooked instantly!
That was about five years ago, or so.

3.) You go by the handle CPA which stands for "casino players advocate", what caused you to become a player advocate?

Like many of us, I was Player before I was a Portal Owner.
It didn't take long to see that there were going to be some growing pains in the industry itself. It was clear to me that without proper regulation, and effective enforcement to keep everyone honest, problems would be a regular event.
There appeared to be a need at that time for some people to referee problems between disgruntled players, and casinos.

From a personal standpoint, I felt that if I was going to advertise the casinos to players, I should be willing to contribute whatever I could if problems came up.
It’s incumbent on all webmasters to pitch in for the sake of the industry if we are going to improve the environment, and make online gaming safer, and trustworthy.

4.) Ball park figure, how many successful mediations have you been a part of?
Probably a couple of hundred over the years. Most of them have been simple to solve, and I’ve found that most of the casinos are sincere, and appreciate amiable intervention on legitimate player disputes.
I have also found that not all of the disputes are legit though.
There are quite a few manipulators that want to use message boards as a blackmail tool to turn an honest loss into a profit, or even just breakeven by getting a deposit back. There is good, and bad on both sides. Sometimes it is difficult to know which is which.
I love message boards for getting the truth out on BAD Casinos.
At the same time, they are problematic in that the casinos are frequently berated before the facts, and the entire truth is known.
I’ve tried hard over the years to change this. I feel a problem should first handled discretely, and amiably from behind the scenes.
There is always the potential for a sore loser, or even a wicked competitor to cause unjust harm to a casino. They should not be publicly berated until an objective 3rd party has reviewed both sides of the story.
If the casino is crap, then by all means, let the tar and feathers fly!!!!

5.) DO you still gamble online, and if so what games do you prefer?
I do, however, not as much as I did 5 years ago. Most of the time when I do now, it is at a casino I don’t promote. That’s a little contrary to the way I started out.
I initially would not list a casino until I played, and got paid, but it’s a little different these days.

#1, I don’t want any potential conflicts with a casino I’m promoting.
I don’t want to have to answer questions to a player that maybe I won, or got paid because I promote them.

#2, Many of the affiliate contracts we agree to don’t allow the affiliates to play the casino.

I’ve been at this for a good while now, so I do have better insight to the programs than I did several years ago. There has also been some taming of this Wild West industry too. The casinos are doing a better job for the most part.
Even in closures, the software brands are doing a good job of making sure they close “Clean”, and the players paid out in the end.
While there is a LONG, LONG ways to go, there really has been a great deal of progress in this area.

6.) If you had to chose one software platform for gaming which one would you chose and why?

Trying to pin me down, Huh?
I like Wagerlogic, Playtech, and Boss Media for Blackjack.
If I feel like Video Poker, I prefer Microgaming, or Real Time Gaming.
If I’m in hurry, Real Time is great for Blackjack, too. Man are they fast.
It’s pretty hard to beat Microgaming in the slots department, although Playtech’s are running a close second on that these days.
Net Entertainment units are honest payers, and are a good choice for “No Download”, IMO.