CasinoNow

I was hoping to refrain from having to make a posting along these lines, but giving the persons mentioned below two months to clear up the mess they created, I no longer feel as though I will be jumping the gun by publicly posting this statement. In fact, I will be quite pleased if I save someone the headache of going through hassles with the iGlobal family of casinos.

As a select few of you who have known me a long time already know, I spent the past year working as the Gaming Industry Analyst for a software development company here in the states. This company was funded by an investor in the Philippines, Mr. Amador Pastrana.

During the Estrada ordeal several months ago, the value of the currency dropped dramatically, and the country began freezing wire transfers leaving the country, especially large ones for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The end result was serious complications in the funding for the company that I worked for, although they somehow managed to get us enough money to cover payroll and to keep things going until the political issues in Manilla had subsided.

Sadly, by the time Estrada resigned, Mr. Pastrana had entered into what would be a very long downward spiral in the stock market. Eventually, the company I worked for was forced to close due to Amador's inability to continue funding the operation, along with 6 other companies that closed for identical reasons on the same day. I am currently owed over $10,000 in back salary and expenses, and never even bothered counting up all of the receipts because I'll never see a dime of it anyway.

Ok. I know you are waiting to hear the point with this, so I'll try to get to it. Prior to the closing of the company I worked for, I came to realize that Mr. Pastrana was also the primary investor for iGlobal Media of Dominica. I say primary because there is always the chance that there were multiple investors, but I have seen no documents that carry any name other than Amadors, and combined with my personal knowledge of how he operates, I would say it's safe to assume that he was the only investor.

Luckily for iGlobal, they had a few portals and casinos already in operations, so they were not hit as hard as they other companies and were able to stay in business. However, they did not go unharmed. In fact, since the problem first happened two months ago, they have been desperately searching for someone with enough money to take over 50% ownership in their portals, which is only the first sign of their financial problems.

I know for a fact that Amador's financial situation never got any better, and as far as I know, no funding has ever resumed for any of the companies he is affiliated with, and I don't believe that iGlobal has enough receivables to continue operations for much longer without his financial backing. I sincerely hope I am wrong for the sake of those who choose to play regularly at these sites, but I can only see it as a matter of time before they do not have funds to pay players either, and I wanted to post a general alert/keep your eyes peeled message in advance.

Of course, I had stopped playing at and promoting their casinos long ago because of my own problems with them, and the fact that I caught them cheating me on their affiliate program. I have thought of them as dishonest for quite a while, but to know that they are also involved with a flake that owes me so much money (and I'm one of the lucky ones) only makes it worse. I would strongly advise against playing at any of their sites for quite some time, until things have had a chance to settle and you can see what kind of shape they are really in.

Jerry Garner
<a href="http://www.casinonow.net">CasinoNow Gaming Resource Center</a>

zrapture

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't IGlobal Media the software that runs all the rigged games? Such as Starluck and Planetluck.

If so, I would hope nobody would be playing there anyway. Jerry, can you really be suprised that they ripped you for 10K, they have been ripping players off for a long time now. Why would you even work for someone that is affiliated with bilking honest hard working people out of their money?

CasinoNow

Well, it wasn't actually them that owes me the money. However, they are fueled by the same investor who does owe me the money, so I personally consider it the same. After all, they are receiving dollars that should be going to pay off myself and the 30 other people who are owed money (some ranging from $30k to $100k).

And, again, I had stopped promoting the iGlobal Media sites long ago because I caught them in their dishonesty. And, please don't confuse the situation to think that I was working for iGlobal or that I was knowingly working under someone who was affiliated with them. That is certainly not the case.

I originally found out about the "Investor's" (I use quotes because you have to actually have money to be an investor) link to them in March, which was about a month before they closed. At that time, our COO had mentioned that the investor had another gaming company in Dominica that may contract us to develop new front end graphics and animations for their software, and asked my opinion about the company. When he told me who it was, my immediate reaction was to tell him that I would resign if we entered into business with them, and since my reaction was so strong and firm, the topic never went any farther than that. Upon reflection, I wish I would have just resigned anyway, as I would have gotten out owed only about $1500 if I would have left at the time.

Jerry Garner
<a href="http://www.casinonow.net">CasinoNow Gaming Resource Center</a>

zrapture

Thanks for clearing that up. You don't seem like the type to promote of work for dishonest operators.

CasinoNow

No problem zrapture. And, I am in agreement with you that they are a bunch of dishonest crooks. However, I'm sure there are a lot of people that stumble across this forum that have accounts at those casinos, so I just wanted to point out that in addition to being crooks, they are also going through financial hardships of their own, and I wouldn't be a bit suprised if we soon find their sites up for sale along with the Cyber Dealer sites, owing all of their players money. This should be avoided if at all possible.

Imagine if you had an account at Fairplay and had stumbled across a message warning of their negative finances prior to their current situation. Would you have cleared out your account or kept playing to run the risk?

Jerry Garner
<a href="http://www.casinonow.net">CasinoNow Gaming Resource Center</a>


[This message has been edited by CasinoNow (edited 06-11-2001).]

Apollo355

I gotta chip in my 2 cents about Iglobalmedia. They were the first casinos I promote upon entering this business. I must say they DO pay promptly, and their staff are superficially friendly.
However I was quick to learn that their casinos yearn very low conversion and NO retention rate. (Perhaps a factor is because they don't offer a free download version). I confronted them numerously regarding the matter and each time was a lame excuse.
I hold no animosity towards them yet my advice to the rookie webmasters is do not waste your time with them.

CasinoNow

Well, I tried promoting them myself a while back, mainly because there weren't a lot of good no-download sites available at the time and I wanted a few sites to promote for visitors who didn't want to take half an hour out of their day to download the software.

I immediately noticed a huge difference in the conversion rates between my ads for them and all other ads that were previously in the same insertion points. I was very skeptical, and had a few friends open accounts through my affiliate links. Guess what? It never showed up in the stats page.

I tried contacting them multiple times about the problem. I do not know if it has since changed, but at the time, all they had available was a form on their website - no email or phone number. I can't tell you how many times I submitted that form with no response from them at all.

It wasn't until I posted my complaint in these forums that they contacted me. Suprise, suprise. They must read the forums more than the forms submitted through their site, because it was only a matter of hours after making my post that they gave me a personal phone call at home. They apologized and gave me a very lame excuse about an upgrade of their tracking software. They said I was owed about $100, and I got paid at the end of the week. Who knows how much I was really owed, considering that their stats never tracked a single player.

The bottom line is that these guys are liars and cheats.

Jerry Garner
<a href="http://www.casinonow.net">CasinoNow Gaming Resource Center</a>



[This message has been edited by CasinoNow (edited 06-12-2001).]

CasinoNow

Also, for those interested in hearing the story from a different person's point of view, check out:

http://www.lingo-slingers.org/dotbomb.html

It is incredibly funny to read, and you will not regret it. I go there from time to time when I need a good laugh to lift my spirits.

Jerry Garner
<a href="http://www.casinonow.net">CasinoNow Gaming Resource Center</a>



[This message has been edited by CasinoNow (edited 03-02-2002).]

Portia

Very interesting story Gerry. Thanks so much for sharing it.