APCW Audits – Gaming Income

APCW Audits – Gaming Income Group: Players and Webmasters Use Caution

The Association of Players, Casinos and Webmasters (APCW.org) has concluded a two month audit and investigation of the Gaming Income Casino Properties and is advising all players and webmaster to use extreme caution when dealing with their properties: Bet on USA, Pyramid Casino, and Interchamps.

April 30th, 2007 – The Association of Players, Casinos, and Webmasters (APCW.org) has been serving the online gaming community since 2003. One of the many ways we seek to help improve our industry is by conducting audits of casino and affiliate programs over a variety of criteria including deposits and withdrawals, interactive game play, customer service, download & installation, and the accuracy of affiliate statistical tracking. These audits provide a tangible measure of a sites credibility and help to assure players and webmasters are dealt with in fairness and with integrity.

INTRODUCTION:

The APCW had received several member and non-member complaints about the Gaming Income casino group regarding player and webmaster payments being processed in a timely manner. Some complaints alleged payments were taking several months. Gaming Income was listed as an APCW Member at the time of the complaints.

AUDIT:

We conducted an audit of the Gaming Income property, Bet on USA Casino, on January 27th, 2007. The player account that our auditor used was set up in November of 2006 and all money had been deposited into the account via NETeller prior to our game play.

During the auditors visit to Bet on USA, they noted that the game play was average to good, and the deposit (which had originally been made in November using NETeller) had been handled almost immediately. Having won a small amount, the auditor elected to withdraw monies via their player account.

All monies tracked correctly to the appropriate affiliate account, and on January 30th the auditor cashed out to his player account and the transaction was processed quickly. The month ended at the close of the following day, at which time all affiliate payments should have started processing.

ISSUES:

The APCW Auditor received a check for the player cash out within two weeks, on or about February 12th, 2007. However, the affiliate payment did not arrive until April 11th, 2007, which was almost two months later. We had been in contact with Gaming Income as early as March 9th about the missing affiliate payment and were assured at that time that a wire had already been sent.

Although the monies tracked correctly to the appropriate affiliate account, we noted that the hits and downloads reported did not always accurately track and, at times, did not add correctly from one column to the next. This could possibly be attributed to a server side delay in raw data updating.

Repeated emails to Bet on USA and Gaming Income resulted in sporadic answers which usually took two or three days. Telephone support could not provide any answers about payments, and the phone number to the Gaming Income offices in Montreal no longer worked.

In March, the APCW also discovered during our subsequent investigations that Gaming Income had been purchased and relocated without announcement. We received no notification of the buy out from Gaming Income or their representatives, and the offices in Montreal had been abandoned.

We made repeated emails over the next month to the new owners of the Gaming Income database, requesting additional information on the new owners such as company name, physical address, phone numbers, administrative contacts, and their membership status with APCW. The new owners refused to answer any of these questions, other than to say they are working out of Europe.

CONCLUSION:

At this time, Gaming Income has left us no choice but to expel them from the APCW. It should be noted that their website (which bears a copyright from 2005) claims that the company is still located in Montreal, which our reliable sources claim is not the case.

The Gaming Income web page states that they are a subsidiary of “BetOnUSA AG”, which is reported to be a publicly traded company who’s site is registered using a German domain extension. The last email from Gaming Income stated they were now based in Europe and was sent by someone who withheld their name but worked at SportsBetting.com.

It is our suspicion that the new owners may have purchased the database of players with no intention of continuing the Gaming Income brand. That would create the potential for players to receive spam email solicitations and lost revenue for webmasters. It is also worth noting that Gaming Income has not only been removed from APCW, but from other industry bodies as well.

Finally, the APCW strongly advises all players and webmasters to use a great deal of caution when dealing with Bet on USA, Pyramid Casino, Interchamps, Gaming Income or the new parent company. Any business that will not disclose the most basic information to their customers or partners should cause a great deal of concern. If customer service and / or payment issues should arise in the future, we will have no recourse.