AXL, you must be on the same crack as us here at CasinoBlasters. Jeff and I love the stuff 
I was getting ready to start a new post but, lucky for me, this post was reopened.
All of you know by now that I am not a big fan of discussion boards and forums. I think this is my first reply in more than 2 years. You know that if I’m wasting my time on learning to navigate this website, Riccardo has something to say.
We here at CasinoBlasters are not happy Marc. In fact, we are in disbelief. Your post is shocking and I have to agree with you on one thing at least…you do have a lot of guts for writing it. I am sure you are frustrated…we are ALL frustrated. But sometimes you have to temper your enthusiasm a bit, and regain some composure before shooting off. That is exactly what I did after I read your post. Otherwise my reply would have come several hours ago and would not have been suitable for children.
Your post was not very well thought out. Think logically. Do you think we are happy with this situation? Do you know how much time we spent preparing for this event? Do you know how many affiliates we were flying down? The contest we promoted for over 9 months was actually pushing the CAC Marc! It is still there on http://www.casinoblasters.com if you want to read it. Believe me I wasn’t happy when I learned 2 days before my flight to Las Vegas that, not only were we pulling out, but that we were not even making the trip! That was a fun Friday for me calling 14 affiliates to explain how our contest has been postponed:
“Sorry but your 25% chance of winning at least $5,000 is not going to happen next week. Oh, and you will not be getting the $1,000 in spending money we promised until a later date to be determined. And don’t worry…there will not be a raid and you are 100% safe…but just in case, I won’t be there. Have fun without me.”
Then I had to email all my other affiliates and friends to explain the situation. Do I think anyone will get arrested? NO!
Do I think something will happen? NO!
However, can I guarantee it for sure, 100%? NO!
As Tim pointed out, I am not about to have that on my conscience. Two MAJOR arrests in 2 months is a big deal. And I refuse to be mocked by the department of justice, the CAC, Marc Lesnic, or anyone else. The risk is not worth the reward.
In my opinion, after the arrest of David Caruthers, your venue should have been moved outside the US. You had plenty of time to do so and you had to see the writing on the wall. Had you moved it to Canada in October for example, everyone would have attended and enjoyed the event. Vancouver is 3 hours north of Vegas and is a gorgeous city. But that is neither here nor there.
CasinoBlasters.com is one of a handful of programs that have exhibited at every single one of your CAC conferences since its inception in the Spring of 2003 in Amsterdam. Actually, if memory serves, only 888.com, Cpays.com, and CasinoBlasters have been at your previous SEVEN CAC conferences. These same programs have pulled out of this CAC for obvious reasons. I know for a fact Marc that we have paid over $50,000 in exhibition fees alone, including the $14,000+ for this week’s show. To call us gutless and yellow is ludicrous and very lacking in class. You and I go way back. I have always supported your events and I have always spoken highly of you. But this post, at a time like this, is a real low blow.
What really gets me is how different this post is to the telephone conversation we had yesterday. On the phone you told me that you totally understood and, had YOU been our legal counsel, you would have suggested that we pull out of the show also. So where did this 180-degree turn come from? You understood yesterday and woke up today thinking differently? Try and see this from ours and other programs’ point of view. How can you expect everyone to show up after the second arrest? Bad timing I admit, but that can’t be helped. We and everyone else did what they thought was best. You should see that.
Riccardo