Here at Online Casino Suite, we specialize in online casinos. Big surprise, right? What you may not know, however, is that in addition to reviewing online casinos, we also do our part to review the other guys doing the reviewing. In other words, we also pay close attention to other website’s just like Online Casino Suite. Going off the title of this post, you should know we’re specifically talking about OnlineCasino.net. Sure, it would be easy for us to deem them as competition and do all we can to not give them any good press. But why would we want to do that to one of the good guys – to other sites like OCS who are working hard to raise the standards of the online gambling industry?

The fact of the matter is that reputation is everything in this business, which is precisely why online casinos are always looking for good press. And for those operators who can’t get it from independent sources – for one reason or another – they will simply make it for themselves.

You probably wouldn’t know this unless you worked in the industry and had a back-stage pass to see what really goes on, but the truth is that certain unscrupulous operators will actually create their own so-called “casino review sites”, using them to do nothing other than promote their casino brands. And when I say brands, I mean brandzzzzzz. No, those aren’t z’s for sleeping, that’s my way of emphasizing plurality. Another fact most online gamblers do not know is that the number of operators in business today – especially those doing business with U.S. online casino gamblers – is fewer than you might think.

That’s because most operators own and manage several brands using the same software platform. It’s the classic case of fishing. The more hooks in the sea, the better the odds of catching a fish – or even better – a whale. Needless to say, one lone big-spending, unlucky whale can keep an online casino in business.

From a player’s perspective, the end result is a lot online casinos with different branding design, but essentially offering the same exact online gambling package. Some casinos don’t even bother changing up promotions. And yes, these are usually the same folks who launch “independent” review sites, used for no more than giving high ratings to their casino brands.

So, to make a long story short, this is why we pay attention to the other gambling portals out there publishing online casino reviews. While we’re not going to tell you who the fakes are (there’s simply too many), we can tell you what to look for. Frankly, it’s pretty obvious when you come across it. It often amounts to a whole lot of generality and hogwash praise. Granted, there are some online casinos out there that deserve praise. However, there is a fine line between a biased and unbiased recommendation. One is frank and specific, the other is filled to the brim with generalized marketing lingo. In other words, a distasteful sales pitch.

Casino review sites that do indeed publish helpful, unbiased reviews are the minority. If we could pick just one (besides OCS of course), it would be  onlinecasino.net – Reviews of the top online casinos get no better than this. In fact, this site was a major inspiration and model for OCS. If we’re going to give credit where credit is due, then By God, let’s really give it! Not only are their reviews informative, they are in-depth and timely. To really get an idea of what we mean, give them a visit (tell ‘em we sent you) and have a read for yourself. And as always, do your own due diligence before gambling at online casinos for real money.

In a move to make the company more appealing to buyers and investors, Sportingbet Plc reached an agreement to sell its Turkish website to East Pioneer Corporation. Sportingbet, the online betting company located in England, will sell its Turkish website for approximately £125 million. The move will temporarily cost the firm money, but is expected to strengthen them in the long run.

Turkey is an unregulated market for online gambling. Sportingbet has operated there tax free for some time, but a decision was made to move its business solely into regulated markets. The regulated markets have lower profits for online casinos and betting sites, but also come with lower risks and higher stock prices.

“We believe the unregulated income stream drags down the group,” said Sportingbet CEO Andrew McIver in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. McIver said that the company always planned to ditch Turkey at some point and this was a good time to do so.

Earlier this week, their negotiations with Ladbrokes fell apart due in part to the Turkey market. Ladbrokes wants to purchase Sportingbet, but considers the business in Turkey a liability. By selling the Turkish website, Sportingbet should be more attractive to Ladbrokes, who has said that they are still interested in a deal but not willing to rush into anything.

For some time, Ladbrokes has tried to grow its company to compete with the larger William Hill. Four years ago, Ladbrokes was in lengthy negotiations to buy 888 Holdings, but that deal eventually fell apart. Then again this year Ladbrokes again negotiated with 888 to buy the gambling website but eventually walked away because the two companies could not agree on a price.

While there have been many fluctuations in the volatile online gambling industry, 32Red Casino is seeing its biggest success at the moment. After a record-setting 2010, the company is looking for a record year yet again in 2011. As part of their business model, they are eschewing unregulated markets, such as the United States, and going after licensed markets. As such, they are currently eyeing Italy.

Speaking with Reuters, 32Red CEO Ed Ware said that the company is “investing more money in marketing at the topline and we are being more aggressive with our promotions, which are bringing in new players.” The company is expecting to make £2.1 million in profits this year before taxes and total revenue of £22.1 million.

More aggressive advertising has been a large part of their success. 32Red now sponsors the Swansea City Association Football Club, a Welsh professional football club that is part of the English Premier League. In addition, 32Red has aggressively promoted its brand through television advertising.

Italy is seen as their next conquest. The newly liberalized market is thought to be a big opportunity for the top online casino company. Ware says that 32Red is “only interested in regulated markets,” and wants to work with governments from the inside rather than approaching the market from the outside.

In addition to the current strategy of going after regulated markets and using aggressive advertising to get their name out there, Ward says he would consider buying smaller companies. They are also interested in becoming licensed in Spain, though the economic situation there worries Ward.

When many gambling companies have been hurt by Black Friday and its subsequent consequences or by the struggling global economy, 32Red is thriving. The company is licensed in Gibraltar.

In our last blog entry, we discussed the importance of reading forum boards and gauging complaints in valuing an online casino’s overall reputation. As mentioned in the post, the bulk of complaints and consequential reputation molding comes from players sharing their own personal experience at the casino in question.

But what about complaints from non-players, such as business partners or the online gaming affiliate community? Should these be used to gauge the reputation of an online casino as well? Here at OCS, we most certainly think so. The affiliate community, in particular, plays a key role in helping shape a casino’s reputation. Case in point is the Grand Prive group of internet betting sites.

If you’re new to the online gambling scene, you may not have heard about the “scandal” that took place a few years back between Grand Prive and the affiliates who helped generate traffic for their casinos, and consequently, grow their business. Basically, what happened is that Grand Prive decided to pull the plug on their affiliate program and there was a big fallout with affiliates. In the end, Grand Prive was basically labeled a rogue, and to this day, remains on many a blacklist.

What also remains are forum threads tracking the practices of Grand Prive, one of which was a thread at reputable watchdog affiliate forum, Affiliate Guard Dog. In the thread, it is revealed that Grand Prive had placed redirects on it’s online casino properties, taking visitors to new domains with the prefix “bet” added to the original domain. For example, JupiterClub.com now redirects to BetJupiterClub.com.

It is now confirmed that Grand Prive has reopened it’s doors to US online gamblers, and consequently, ended it’s licensing agreement with Microgaming Software. Furthermore, it appears that Grand Prive is mailing out software CD’s with a software platform called Betonsoft. There is also speculation that Grand Prive owns the software platform.

Just to clarify, this is by no means an endorsement for U.S. players. As mentioned, reputation amongst non-players and affiliate partners (or rather, former affiliate partners) goes a long way. Judging by Grand Prive’s past behavior, the reputation of this online gaming group still has some affiliates on the fence.

One Club Casino is one of the newest casinos to be featured here at OnlineCasinoSuite.com, but by no means should it be overlooked. The casino, which uses Real Time Gaming software, has an impressive selection of casino games and some good bonuses.

More than 120 casino games can be found at One Club Casino, each of them part of the impressive RTG suite. Among those games are progressive slots with jackpots of over $5 million. Each game is available to play for free, though for the most tension and excitement you would want to play for real money. The casino has a good selection of slots, blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, bingo, poker, video poker and more.

New members can receive a welcome bonus of up to $777 in free casino chips. That is from an incredible 250% match on your first deposit. It isn’t just the new members that receive bonuses at One Club Casino, though. Current members can receive the reload bonus, which is a 75% bonus on all of your deposits. With no limit to the bonuses, that is one of the best deals in the entire online casino industry. The bonus has a maximum amount of $500 per transactions, but no limit on the number of times it can be redeemed.

In addition to the bonuses and game selection, Club One Casino is known for its customer support. Someone is available at all hours of every day to assist you with any problems that may arise.

Over the last few years, Internet gambling cafés have become a big issue in the United States and across the world. In the U.S. no state yet regulates online gambling, and in most states, unregulated gambling is illegal, though some make exceptions for friendly card games, charity games and social games like bingo. In any case, though there are only a few states that expressly prohibit online gambling, operating an Internet gambling business in the U.S. is generally illegal. While it’s perfectly legal for a U.S. citizen to play casino games online at offshore websites, people cannot run those same businesses in the States.

For good and bad, capitalists find a way to make money any time there is demand for a product. If people want something, there is someone willing to sell it to them. As such, the great demand for convenient gambling in America has led to a large number of Internet gambling cafés springing up across the nation. But are they illegal?

That depends on who you ask. There is no question that the businesses violate the intent of laws that don’t allow unregulated gambling businesses. However, in some cases, according to the café owners, the businesses avoid violating the letter of the law. Due to loopholes, they said that their businesses are totally legal. Their opponents disagree.

The most common loophole that the gambling café owners exploit is removing the direct link between payment and wagers. If customers come in and spend money to place wagers on games online, there is no question that it is gambling. However, if the business only charges people for use of the Internet, which is totally legal, and all of those customers just happen to use their Internet time to gamble online, winning prizes from the business, the cafés say they are doing nothing wrong.

The issue has been a controversial one. Authorities in many states have been raiding those businesses, making arrests and shutting the cafés down. Some states have legislation under consideration that would expressly prohibit those gambling cafés. In each case, the business owners explain that they are not in violation of the law and assert their right to run their business. Sadly, this controversy probably would not be cleared up if the U.S. regulates online gambling at the federal level. In that case, the feds would not want the gambling cafés competing with the online casinos. However, such regulation could put those cafés out of business, because people could gamble online from their own homes.

Problem gambling is at the heart of any online casino debate. Already these individuals are suffering and no one wants to put them in the position to suffer more. Unfortunately they are often used as pawns in the online gambling debates to try to keep a country’s market unregulated. The idea is that if it is illegal no one will do it. A bit naïve but then perhaps there is some truth to it. But what some politicians may not be aware of is that problem gamblers may be safer in an online casino than in a land casino.

We here at onlinecasinosuite.com have been following the movements and debates around the world as countries try to establish regulated online gambling and online casinos. Of course keeping tabs on what is happening in Australia has out attention to. And it is from Australia that a strong argument that is pro-online gambling in relation to problem gamblers was made.

Cormac Barry, who is the Chief Executive of Betfair, was the one to make the argument. He said that with third party verification and analytics software it would be more possible to curb problem gambling online and off.

Problem gamblers will sometimes try to register at multiple online casinos. The idea is to have multiple accounts which would then allow them to wager more than their limit at a single online casino. Another method is to open a new account at an online casino they already play at but still register with the same address and phone number, merely using a different email address. Online casinos can use third party verification and analytics software to find similarities between accounts. Finding these similarities can lead fraud teams to problem gamblers to help them from over-gambling.

What makes this so strong for online gambling is that online casinos can use third party verification and analytics software to help find problem gamblers. Land casinos do not have that luxury. There is nothing to stop a problem gambler from leaving one casino and traveling to another. This is one argument, but it is a strong argument that is in favor of online gambling.