Here is a short statement from senior management at Grand Prive/ Villa Fortuna outlining why they believe they are within their rights to stop paying affiliates for the players we sent them.
I am shocked at this stance and even more shocked that they say many of their largest affiliates are fine with this and have already migrated over to Villa Fortuna. Shame on the affiliates that throw all ethics out the window and work with this rogue!
The reality is that the increasingly difficult trading conditions in the United States, coupled with Microgaming’s decision to halt any NEW registrations from US-based players, has led to GrandPrivé Affiliates not being able to sustain itself as a viable business unit. It makes no commercial sense to GrandPrive.com to keep that business unit open if it’s not profitable and not fulfilling its corporate mandate.
We received notification of this decision from GrandPrive.com and within 24 hours communicated this decision to close GrandPrivé Affiliates (not the casinos) to it’s affiliates. We then timeously, and on two separate occasions again communicated this to the Grand Prive affiliates. Grand Prive Affiliate’s also clearly communicated that all affiliates will receive any monies due to them when the last payments were made, early December. That was duly done as promised.
The Terms and Conditions , under the “Termination” clause states: “The term of this Agreement will begin when the applicant completes an application form and accepts the terms and conditions herein and will continue until either party notifies the other in writing that it wishes to terminate the Agreement, in which case this Agreement will be terminated immediately.
TERMINATION IS AT WILL, FOR ANY REASON, BY EITHER PARTY. For purposes of notification of termination, delivery via e-mail is considered a written and immediate form of notification.”
Grand Privé Affiliates has acted responsibly and within the rights afforded by the Terms and Conditions. Grand Privé Affiliates has also given ample warning of its intentions to close GrandPrivé Affiliates on 1 December 2008.
Grand Privé casinos, however, remain open.
To move on to the issues surrounding Villa Fortuna Casino.
Please note that Grand Prive.com do not own this casino and that this is not a rebranding exercise. The situation is that we manage the Villa Fortuna Affiliate Program in terms of a partnership agreement with a European company.
We believe that future growth lies in Europe (Villa Fortuna Casino does not accept any bets from US-based players) and have encouraged all affiliates that we have a good relationship with and whom have a non US focused business to join Villa Fortuna Affiliates. Fortunately we have had a good response so far and most of our trusted affiliates have joined, and are already starting to deliver players and earn money.
We would appreciate your support in encouraging other affiliates to follow, and look forward to working together with familiar old faces (and hopefully some new ones) to build a reputable and solid business in an affable jurisdiction.
I trust this answers your questions and clarifies the situation.