Read all about the Gambling Industry Association and other interesting news here.
Launch of the Gambling Industry Association (G.I.A.)
After more than 2 months of extensive preparation, the Gambling Industry Association has now been launched. The "association" is in fact an association in the making, the board of course having been founded by 3 webmasters. According to a board spokesman, the course of the G.I.A. will be plotted by its members although the "Captain's" of the ship will stand by to assist with navigation in troubled waters.
What makes the G.I.A. different to it's counterparts is the fact that it is an all encompassing board where players are needed to make things work. Players will decide on approved casinos, some players will even moderate the board, and most of all, players will talk to the industry as a whole about the experiences they have with casinos and webmasters. The casinos and the webmasters will have the privilege of hearing honest criticism and thus be able to make changes that will improve players experiences. Webmasters will be able to talk to the affiliate programs and likewise, affiliate programs will be able to talk to the webmasters, privately and in public.
The three board founders had this to say:
bigbcasinos (Big B Casinos)
I was with the GPWA since early 2003 and in the recent past, I was the Assistant Manager of the GPWA. That board is now firmly in the hands of Casino City and can be relied upon to provide great leverage for the affiliates in the industry. CAP is also a flourishing forum that has clout and muscle, but again, for the benefit of the webmasters.
Great player boards out there like Casinomeisters have the odd webmaster posting but are essentially players boards. These player forums advertise casinos too so you are unlikely to find webmasters sending their players to these players forums (it's competition after all).
The G.I.A. is a home for both player and webmaster and will only advertise affiliate programs. Our webmasters need not fear our marketing to their player base. This will allow more and more players to find an online voice and to interact with the casinos. Just think, they can tell a software provider what they think about their new games, they can tell a casino what they think about the service, and they can certainly tell the webmasters a thing or two about the human beings that are behind the clicks on their websites.
Most of all, this will allow the industry as a whole to talk about important industry matter and to possible work together to overcome the obstacles rather than working in a multitude of smaller individual groups. If we work together, I believe we may see strong levels of self regulation come to pass that even the most hardened online gambling opponent will find hard to ignore.
CPA (Casino Players Advocate)
Deciding to open this board was a tough decision. Having been staunch GPWA supporters, we honestly wanted to see it grow, but not at the expense of making it a commercial enterprise. The C.A.P. board is great as well. It has certainly become a force, and overtaken the GPWA in terms of activity, and popularity. Thus our reluctance to enter this arena.
At the same time, we felt that the niche Cindy Carley, (The original founder of the G.P.W.A.), created was lost in two subsequent sales of the portal. The G.P.W.A. will flourish again with the strength of Casino City behind it, but in a different way. The original spirit was lost in recent years, and to be honest, the G.P.W.A. needed to be reinvented. Casino City will make that happen now, but will leave that original niche unfilled. We will attempt to recreate some of that original vision here. We will also attempt to respect all facets of the Industry.
We feel that everyone should be represented without having to pay for this representation. There will be some inexpensive ways to support our efforts, but there are no mandatory fees to have a forum here. We will rely on our own personal efforts, (just like everyone else), and will not utilize this board as a dependent personal income stream at the expense of the Casinos, The Webmasters, or the Players. That is not our goal.
One area that we feel are lacking at our counterparts is the Players. They are primarily Webmaster Boards, and there are certainly advantages to that. On the other hand, we feel that the Players are more important than Affiliates, Casinos, or Affiliate Managers. Without them, the rest of us simply do not exist. Therefore, they will be represented just as prominently as everyone else.
One of our primary goals is to improve direct communications between Players and the Casinos in a controlled environment. YES, those forums will be closely monitored, and moderated for flames. We do understand the potential problems with this, so there must be a ZERO tolerance for flaming.
With that basic concept in mind, we have reserved many decisions as to the direction of this Board. Those will be decided by the members as we proceed. We would ask that you continue to support CAP, and the G.P.W.A., and just drop by here to offer some occasional input, and support. We do not want to fragment the boards. Hopefully this board will provide some varying opinions, and put everyone in closer communication with each other to improve the quality of this budding Industry we have all become a part of.
Universal4 (Universal4Casinos)
Having been involved in the computer industry (and then later the Hosting Business) since before the internet, I consulted and worked with many webmasters in different industries as they also learned the "net" and what it offered.
Being exposed to webmasters at the early stages it was only natural to also become involved in the Affiliate side of the business. Since I worked so closely with new webmasters, I saw many of the obstacles the small webmasters faced and became an advocate for the small affiliate as well as the larger groups.
I have tried to bring this feeling to the Gambling Industry as well. I make myself available to help affiliates whenever I can with both technical issues as well as acting as a Liaison with the Affiliate Programs whenever needed.
It is my hope that I can help translate this throughout the industry in terms of helping affiliates forge better relationships with the programs, and assist the other founding members with player's questions and issues as they arise from time to time.