Steve S, Play, and whs-web:
You have a right to be angry. If I didn’t make it clear already, I am by NO means disagreeing with any of you that BCP is completely handling this situation wrong. My goal with this post was to lay out the full story from the horse’s mouth (to ensure the story was consistent across the board) and try to mediate some sort of resolution with them to get you guys (and others) paid. CAP has done this successfully in a countless number of similar situations over the past 10 years; any of our senior members would attest to this. In fact, we dealt with a BCP related matter in 2008 which we were successful in resolving. I can’t say this situation will be the same due to the dire circumstances, but the motivation and goal is the same.
Rather than making personal attacks against CAP, AGD, GPWA, and others claiming that we do not truly have affiliate’s interests at heart, I can only say that we are not miracle workers and are being placed in a very difficult situation because none of us are equipped to launch a legal class-action suit against an operator, especially in this industry where there is no regulation in the U.S. market and these companies are hidden behind multiple veils / structures in foreign countries which are very expensive to pierce. This is no different than a casino going out of business and not paying it’s players; the affiliate who sent those players is put in a difficult situation and does have an obligation to its players, but not once has an affiliate ever chose to take legal action against a casino on behalf of its players because it’s a futile effort.
I propose the following and welcome your thoughts on this:
- I will initiate contact with GPWA and AGD to get their thoughts on how we can find a resolution through a collaborative efforts.
- We will discuss all options available and try to prioritize them accordingly.
- I will communicate those back to the members ASAP and gain everyone’s feedback so we can help organize the appropriate action.
At the end of the day, this whole situation is going to come down to whether or not the owners of BCP wish to settle their obligations personally with affiliates as they are the ones who are driving this decision – essentially to remove themselves from the spotlight of U.S. authorities – which is the right thing to do based on recent events.
Again, I am trying to keep a rational viewpoint on the situation as that is the only way to mediate any type of situation like this, however, if we (and I can probably say the same for others) are going to be attacked rather than supported, then it only makes sense for us to respectfully bow out of this mediation.
I am open to any other ideas so long as they are productive towards our common end goal.