Joeyl has been very astute here on many counts.
I am still a supporter of eCOGRA – as an organization that is representing casinos that are not rogue towards players and as an organization that has the potential to improve player relations and take care of complaints by players against it’s members.
However, I now think that it’s usefulness is completely limited to the above, and it says nothing about the actual integrity of the casinos it represents in general. They can be rotten as can be – just not to players. I am very disappointed. I will continue to tell players that an eCOGRA approved casino is safer than some unknown entity, but I am not at all conceding anymore that having an eCOGRA seal says anything about integrity in general.
As in breach of contract – I have spoken to Fortune in Miami. I have to say I was very disappointed. Firstly, I was handed off to a third party who was nice and pleasant but really had nothing to say at all. I was slightly insulted by this, but did try to establish some sort of communication. The thing is, Fortune’s position is intransigent, their mind is made up, they counted on the reaction they got, and I don’t think they much care about losing affiliates. Maintaining affiliates costs money too, and I suppose there are many who are not worth their keep.
Fortune maintains they have to do this to fix cash flow problems, and there is no other way to do it.
At least Fortune made the effort to have someone available to speak with – I have not been able to contact Vegas Partners at all. There was a late night party they sponsored – too late for someone like me so I didn’t make it to that. Perhaps it might have been possible to have some meaningful conversation there.
These two programs seem to have their mind made up – it is and will be breach of contract.
Party Poker is not done fixing and explaining, and it doesn’t seem to be breach of contract there. We will have to wait and see a bit on that one before jumping to conclusions.