$5,268.90. That’s how much money rogue gambling operators have stolen from me during the past decade.
Two real-money sites have refused to pay my winnings and then disappeared from the face of earth. Since the sites were licensed in Panama and Curacao, I had no way of getting my money back.
Ever since then, I’ve been obsessed with exposing rogue sites and identifying the legitimate ones.
I’ve been around the online gambling industry for the past ten years, and one of the biggest issues within the industry has been lack of honesty from both gambling operators and informational websites.
Whoever has the biggest advertising budget will get the recommendation regardless of how reliable the advertiser is.
I will never be able to change that aspect of the industry completely. However, I can do my part, which is to spread the word about scammers and, just as importantly, make sure people know which sites to trust. Making sure the visitors of Haplaydowns.ca get honest information is my top priority. I will only recommend sites I’m comfortable depositing to myself (and I have high standards).
A Cautionary Example
I’m a member at CasinoMeister and TwoPlusTwo forums, both of which are good places when you want to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the internet gambling world. If and when problems start arising at any of the sites recommended at Haplaydowns.ca, our readers will know about them at once.
A recent, cautionary example is the case of Lock Poker (they also have Lock Casino which was similarly affected by the scam). They’ve recently lost their Curacao license and now industry regulars fear they may owe customers more than $15 million. In addition to that TwoPlusTwo thread I just linked to, you can read a report of the case here.
What’s the lesson here? After all, Lock Poker was a decent US online poker room before all the cashout problems. They had solid player traffic and, most importantly, were paying their customers on time. Then slowly but surely, payouts were delayed.
That is always a warning sign.
Don’t get me wrong, all gambling sites have had cashout delays at some point but in every case it’s best to stay away until the problems have cleared.
In Lock Poker’s case, the warning signs were there for at least a year. Things got really taken seriously only when cashout delays were up to six months and more – at this point all the new customers were essentially depositing money to the site without any hope of seeing the money again. Also, amazingly, it took ridiculously long for Curacao to take away its license, or for informational sites to withdraw their advertisements.
The lesson? Always react fast. When visiting this site, you’ll know about any problems our recommended gambling sites may have, and you can take them into account before joining the sites. Whenever cashout issues start developing, it’s time to avoid any site – regardless of its history – until the problems have been solved.
So Who Am I?
Since I participate in industry events (which I want to keep on doing) and out scam operations at the same time, I prefer to stay anonymous. Well, I did come up with a pen name (Colin Williams) but it has nothing to do with my real name.
I’ve been in the online gambling industry in diffferent ways for over 10 years now. While my duties have changed every now and then, I’ve kept up-to-date with the latest developments throughout that time and not only have a good idea of the current state of the industry, but the history as well. I look forward to sharing valuable information and helping you to avoid problems when gambling with real money.
Additionally, I may hire experienced freelances to research and write on certain online gambling related topics. In such case I’ll ensure the writers have your best interests at heart and truly know their stuff.
You can contact me at [email protected].
Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you back here soon!