Hi all,  I'm new to the forum and my nickname is pokersmasher.

I love the content that both Jimbo and Craig provide.

Speak to you all soon.

congratulations, that's monstrously big

Iamretrak - 03/06/2020 at 22:23

I feel this needs to be brought to attention. Conquestador is a uk licenced casino and is still allowing UK players to buy bonuses.

I brought this to the attention chipmonkz earlier who said it was disgusting. I agree.

Very reckless and dangerous behaviour by the casino. This feature was banned for a reason.

What's everyone's thoughts ?

Yeah, and that paragon of virtue is spewing out seemingly endless videos of £40-£50 quid spins with huge payouts, mostly achieved off line, and apparently a bonus buy is disgusting. Go figure!

Just a suggestion for Jimbo and Craig

You could drive a lot of traffic on the forum by getting one of the game providers/nominated casino to sponsor incentives or competitions on the forum.

The mods could do all the real legwork and it would not have to take up much of your time. I seem to recall that Bandit did a team themed giveaway with the amounts being determined by bonuses being opened.

This could be a weekly team game with groups of four challenging each other and the results of the bonus being shared amongst the winning team. This would be a great way for you to showcase new slots and would probably generate a lot of traffic. You could probably get each of the game providers who wish to participate to nominate two or three slots a year.

In order to keep it interesting each forum member who wished to participate would have to visit the forum regularly and an idea may be something like "killer" where you lose a life until you are dead. The team with the most lives left at the end of the week would qualify for the bonus opening stream. This would perhaps result in more daily visits. The monthly giveaways are great but it does not drive forum traffic despite the large amounts given away already.

The sponsor may also wish to award a post of the week to the post they like the best. This could be on any subject whether amusing or serious and this may result in more interesting content all round.

Hope you do not think I am teaching you to suck eggs but i'd really like the forum to have more content and a lot of the streaming content is now really "samey". This may nor be the best idea but maybe someone else on the forum could come up with a funkier idea though.  

If there are any forum members who think this would be popular please just like this post to give the guys an indication of how many members have read this poost and would be interested.           

Good luck with your stream - hope you win lots

Could you try Beetlejuice Megaways if you get a chance.

Hi Robin,

Rounders is the standout for sure. The scene with the Oreo cookies towards the end is absolute genuis that only a true poker player could have written and John Malcovitch playe the part of Teddy KGB brilliantly however the scene at the home game where the professors have all of their cards read by Matt Damon's character is memorable too.

I really expected Molly's game to be better than it was. The solid player being tilted by the numbskull is very memorable I grant you but the main character played by Jessica Chastain was just not likeable enough. Perhaps my expecations were set too high as I yearned for the Aaron Sorkin style of dialogue and interplay exhibited so expertly in classics like The West Wing and The Newsroom. As as aside, if you've never seen The Newsroom there is a clip called "Booing a Gay Soldier" that is Sorkin at his absolute best and you could find it easily on YouTube.

The Cincinatti Kid is an excellent movie that I understand was simply an alternative version of The Hustler starring Paul Newman and both movies are fantastic.

I watched Weemonk's suggestion called The Cooler last evening and it was a very enjoyable watch so thanks very much to him for that recommendation.

I am no longer involved with it but I used to belong to a group of players who entered tournaments all across the country a few times a year and a group of ten poker players would always include some very interesting characters and it's a wonder there has never been a drama series based around a group such as this.

If anybody else has any suggestions please keep them coming.

As it clearly contentious, I'll not delve any further into the politics as it seems we may be on a different wavelength as is so often the way with politics.

The art of real gambling is however to extract odds where you feel that there is true value against the odds setter over the long term. Put simply, does the reader of my post consider that if there were 50 elections such as this that Nikki Haley would win more than once.

You may have a different perspective in that you may think it is 1000/1 or even so unlikely as to be impossible. The real artform of gambling is the ability to seek out these edges where they exist and where possible to recognise and disregard personal bias and leave sentiment at the door. I outlined my rationale to benefit the reader who is perfectly entitled to disregard my rationale as flawed if they wish. Indeed I think you probably did.

I could have just posted Nikki Haley at 50/1 to get the Republican nomination and most folks would just scratch their head and think "what on earth is he on about"

Given your response, and please believe me I have no intention in sparking a political debate at all,  You must think there is value in betting on Trump to win at 7/4? That is just the flipside to my original post as you believe that the odds have been influenced unduly by media coverage and this may offer a value opportunity.

Hi Yobudweiser,

I would not even pretend to understand the dynamic of your own relationshio with your partner. If she had bad experiences with a partner gambling her behaviour may well be driven by fear or fury. The only thing i would say is that there are few things more destructive in a relationship that a lack of trust.

Once that bond is broken it can be hugely difficult, if not impossible,to repair. 

I am quite open about how much I gamble but then again my partner also gambles and we share a bank account and have done so for over thity years. We regard wins as our wins and losses as our losses.

For a lot of people it is much more complicated though and especially so if one is a gambler and the other is not.

I'm sure there are lots of different viewpoints on this.

I was in bonus funds the other day and made a really silly error. This is the email I sent to the casino

Hello and good evening, I am just dropping you an email to seek your assistance with a problem I had encountered with a bonus granted to me on 22nd July 2020 following an email from xxxx(name redacted) received earlier today.

I had already contacted support and sent a few messages. This shortened version of the issues I had may prove a little easier for you to follow.

After having completed over half of the required wagering I selected a slot that I had never played before called Gods of Gold. I generally play slots at no more than £2 a spin and often at a much lower stake. 

During the wagering to that point the vast majority of spins were at a £1 value. It was early in the morning at around 4am and I selected the new slot and, I thought, the correct stake only to notice after ten spins that I had selected the coin value as opposed to the total bet, at £1 in error. I was horrified at my error and immediately contacted live chat for support and asked them to log the issue.

I can only say in my defence that it was an unintentional mistake and I realise that this is against the terms normally applied to bonus funds where there is a £5 cap. I am absolutely guilty of carelessness though not of intentional bonus abuse. Furthermore, at the time of my mistake I had amassed a balance of £1,458 with only around 45% of the wagering to complete. I was in a happy place!

There is no reason other than my carelessness that would have caused me to intentionally raise the bet to £20 per spin as the repercussions, whether the spins were successful or not, would be hazardous and would almost undoubtedly result in the cancellation of my bonus funds. I tried to make this point, albeit poorly, in the early hours of the morning of 23rd July and in a subsequent email. I have subsequently completed the wagering and am now sitting with a cash balance of £1,341. I am however conscious that £200 of the required wagering was completed by the ten spins at £20. Whilst these spins resulted in an overall loss of £92 and did not boost my cash balance they did nonetheless accelerated the completion of the required wagering.

I do not want to attempt to cash out this balance as I feel this would be unfair on the casino and would in any event probably result in an automatic forfeiture. I am throwing myself at the mercy of the your customer services team to attempt to make my case as an honest player who made an honest mistake. I am only asking to be treated fairly and not be penalised for a rather silly error. I would appreciate if this matter could be investigated sympathetically with a view to finding a fair solution to both parties.

Kind Regards  

pokersmasher

Before I detail how the casino have handled this issue  I would like to say that Craig was really responsive in the new DM system and it is really encouraging that in the event of an issue such as this that the guys are genuinely there to fight your corner and give advice rather than just make empty promises before the sign up stage. Signing up through the affililiation link is not all about prize draws , it is also about the affiliate looking after the players too.

If anybody else has has a similar style issue please feel free to add it to the thread. I will post the casino's reponse later today with any updates

There are a fair few casinos out there however there are many that fall under the same licence such White Hat Gaming where the skins devolve a lot of the promotional drives, verification procedures and loyalty management to a centrally administered section. This is not uncommon with franchises as it allows the operators to reduce cost and get on with building their franchise.

The recently suspended Genesis Global Ltd operations were all suspended at the same time and effectively closed their doors to UK players pending a wider decision on the group's operations in the UK. Reading between the lines it appears that there has been some sort of question mark over the suitability of the people operating/holding the core licence. Whether this suspension is lifted or not  is as yet unknown. Imagine that you are a responsible operator and you get the plug pulled out simply because a member of the board has a dodgy past undisclosed to the UKGC. There are a fair few rogues in this trade. Even companies listed on the UK stock market such as 888 or Playtech have had serious questions raised over their personnel in the past and the CEO of GVC, who operate Party, resigned in a hurry recently probably in order to avoid a scandal.

In reality the new kids on the block such as WHG appear to operate more efficiently that the old guard such as William Hill or Coral who appear far more able to mess up on compliance issues. Added to that there are questionable operators and companies who prey on vulnerable characters with only limited sanction. I suspect that even the larger fines meted out to gambling companies are seen as a cost of doing business much like court awards against the tabloids. Over the piece they earn more than they lose.

The  first stage of playing online should be handled by the UKGC and the creation of a player ID. Without this player ID being used no bets should be permitted at any UK casino and/or gambling establishment. The UKGC would therefore be in control of identity checks and mandatory spending controls across all licensed casinos within a given time interval. Deposits and Withdrawals would require to be completed within 4 hours or 16 hours if crossing hours outside normal working hours.

Each player would have a UKGC dashboard to show results from gambling in terms of:-

Overall net deposits

Time spent

Amount Wagered & Amounts returned to player

Deposits could only be made at preset intervals i.e. the ability to deposit six times in an hour would be blocked and there would be a four hour delay before a deposit would be available for play.

Timeouts would be enforced at hourly intervals at say 55 minutes past the hour like synchronised breaks on poker sites where no wagering could take place and players would be forced to acknowledge playing levels in the prior 55 minutes and agree whether or not they wished to continue.

Gamblers would be classed into categories where appropriate safeguards could be created. This categorisation could be determined by income levels, credit ratings, employment status etc.

A lot of this is akin to the method of joining a bricks and mortar casino prior to all of the rules being relaxed so much. For instance it used to be impossible to pitch up at a casino and join and enter that evening - there was a 24 hour waiting period.

Many people gamble and most do it relatively responsibly. Online gambling is here to stay and in some ways it is more dangerous than the "crack cocaine" FOBT's located so liberally in every bookmaker on every high street where at least  problem gamblers can be seen. How many problem gamblers are able to lose large sums and no-one knows because they use a laptop or mobile phone behing closed doors.

Nobody wants a nanny state and people must largely regulate their own actions and decisions. The fact is though that there are issues with underage gambling,excessive gamling, destruction of family units and massive social costs surrounding addiction. An addiction to gambling is equally as destructive in many ways as alcoholism or drug use. Most people could have a few drinks and not go majorly overboard too often and pay a huge premium to do so. The level of tax on alcohol or cigarettes is frighteningly high and why should gambling really be tax free to consumers.

The UKGC should be expanded, empowered and given really extensive statutory powers to protect consumers and keep casino operators in line. The ISP's would be fined if any non-regulated content could be accessed by UK consumers.

A tiny levy on wagering would easily cover the costs of this. If memory serves me correctly you used to have to pay 9% tax in the bookies and people still paid it to place a bet so if it were set at a level of something miniscule like 0.1% on all online gambling would it not just become the norm.

A proper review and reset of the gambling industry is required and as usual the government is dipsy doodling around the periphery and making no discernible difference to anything.

The follow up video was actually worse. I think there is a clear need for a person to explain addiction, the pitfalls and the escape route for those people who find themselvs in varying forms of difficulty.

I have no doubt Phil is genuinely well intentioned and as a recovering addict he is able to understand the emotions of an addicted gambler as only an addicted gambler could. By attacking others, he risks deflection, and he simply reinforces the misconception that an addicted gambler's issues are anything other than self-inflicted.

I would imagine that for every addict one of the most important realisations has to be, "this is all my doing - no ifs, no buts and if they are going to recover they've got to be the first person to want to fix it.  Any deflection is wholly counterproductive.

I seen an interview with Neil Channing who is a wonderful story teller with an engaging personality who can talk about all aspects of gambling readily and expansively. He can hold the crowd like a story teller and is unerringly positive.

Of course problem and recovering addicts need good advice but it needs to be delivered positively in a friendly way whilst never sugar coating the viewer that the predicament that they find themselves in is down to them and them alone.

I hope he manages to recover fully though and rid himself of the urge to gamble permanently.

Craig,

The £2 cap may be no bad thing. It will make the streams more relevant to a lot of viewers and subscribers. I dare say that some streamers will welcome this as there would be no need to try and compete with their competition spinning at £40 per spin. How many streams received viewers just because they were on high stakes? Clearly some streamers would get around this by betting large sums on table games though. The likes of Gabriel Slots play largely within these stakes in any case and still appear to get solid enough viewing figures.

If the streamers who genuinely entertain are placed on a level playing field they may actually benefit overall and the likes of Chipmonkz and Bandit will probably lose viewership despite their current viewer numbers. Bandit appears to have become less interested in recent times and I cannot see how Chipmonkz was ever popular in the first place. He strikes me as a very greedy individual who has cynically milked his viewership for cash using every questionable strategy possible.

Perhaps if the UKGC were to demand that all casinos were required to document all interactions/payments with streamers and exhibit this to UKGC on request. Any faked or subsidised play purported to be real would become a criminal offence. Each stream should be prefaced with a declaration from the streamer to verify whether the stream was subsidised or supported in any way. Any breach of the rule would see sanctions imposed on the streamer and the casino involved.

Weemonk23 Profile - 27/10/2020 at 12:02

Why would you get backlash or removed. Call it how you see it and it is a good warning to others who may sign up through him.

The guy has turned into a degenerate. He began chasing bigger and bigger wins, wasn't happy playing lower stakes any more, playing lots off line and looking miserable unless something big happened. Used to watch him daily then saw the change and signs. I've been gambling for 20+ years, I know the signs, been there before and its hard not to slip back. Wouldn't be so bad if he owned it and didn't try to hide it.

He's there for the money and the money only. Money keeps the business afloat but keeps his expensive habit going. He's destroyed his channel but continues to have his loyal fanbase of people who watch live in a morning who must have cozy jobs being able to do that or no job. He will rarely answer questions, he may pop on a forum like this but doesn't give satisfactory answers. He's not obliged to though. 

I chose to stop watching, up to him what he does but yes, he should be very transparent as not everyone reads T&C's (even though you should). To be clear, if Jimbo and Craig started acting like Chip, I'd be off. 

I think it is probably trying to balance this post up a little however I would preface this response by making it clear that I am in no way a fan of Chipmonkz.

A lot of streamers graduate from lower or affordable stakes to eye watering stakes within a relatively short period of time  especially if the stream can be partially, or even fully, funded by affiliate income. Chipmonkz in that respect is no different. It is not that long ago that Craig was purchasing Extra Chilli bonuses at £1,000 and Bandit has been known to spin at £40 a spin before huge wins or losses.

Whether he thought he needed bigger wins for his channel or it is underpinned by a gambling addiction or a mixture of both is pure conjecture although weemonk's observations are based upon personal experience and the behaviour patterns of gamblers who have lost control are telegraphed to others who can recognise these patterns only too well.

Has he destroyed his channel? I am not sure and enough people continue to support him and he must have built up quite a reasonable level of recurring revenue from his existing players. The content is poor and that's easy to see however it was measured against a low bar and was never of any quality in the first place. No amount of gimmicks are able to make up for the fact that he is a character that very few people think is remotely entertaining and many others find an irritating bore. The addition of his younger sidekick and his supposed girlfriend who he supposedly met on the stream is just contrived nonsense. The fact is the whole thing is just contrived, almost uniformally formulaic and totally incredulous  and this just shows that he has neither the intelligence nor the personality to change it or he simply does not care any longer. I'd argue the latter.

His attempts to justify his actions are perfunctory at best and his inability to deal with reasonably valid questions and comments speaks volumes about his lack of character. He will earn from his subscribers but not even remotely try and defend his actions other that infantile whingeing on his stream. The bottom line is that he is in it for the cash and this is evidenced by by the fact that he gives away to his subscribers almost entirely nothing and the begging for likes and subscribers is beyond pitiful. Allied to this he promotes every casino possible and floods YouTube with a stream of really poor quality clips promoting probably some of, if not, the worst online offerings in the UK. He has no shame and in my view he will break every rule possible before exiting as this is his job and not a sideline.

My view is that he is in it for the money and that his whole persona is bent out of a shape because he probably has more haters than all of the respectable streamers put together so he now regards all viewers the same and is just collecting as much cash as possible whilst the opportunity still exists. He has no likeability factor and his reputation is never going to improve anyway.

Is he in the same bracket as Roshtein or Ayezee?  In my view he's probably worse as they are so bad that anyone with half a brain sees through them whilst Chipmonkz targets the folks too dim to realise what he is but pretending to be something other than he is. Who else would put out three or four videos a day promoting crappy Aspire brands that no other streamer would touch and achieve so many winning sessions. Presumably Aspire let him create as many videos as he wants but limit him to a fixed payout so that he never actually loses for reeling in customers to these crappy brands.

Be a fly on the wall in a hospital and what would be more startling than anything to you is the sheer number of dedicated and qualified  staff required to look after so few patients.

The politicians have been an absolute disaster and appear able to look even more clueless than they actually are. Even the decision to lock down England was leaked to the press and the announcement delayed  by hours. Boris Johnson is a useless oaf surrounded by almost equally useless incompetents . Small countries , with far less resources, like Vietnam and Greece have handled the pandemic far better than the UK.  The Test and Trace is so bad it is actually counterproductive, the sleaze around contract awards and the squabbling between devolved governments just illustrates that no-one is in control.  Our "world beating" track and trace testing regime is patently a poorly organised shambles administered by people only capable of very little.

This is the reason for the rising case numbers and the lockdown - nothing else.  The experts will of course disagree but the politicians must be guided by scientific fact before making informed decisions.  At any lesser level of restrictions to date, given those undeniable failures, we would be in a much worse position. Arguably, we are entering the winter in around the worse position possible given the sacrifices already made by the population and the gargantuan effect on our economy and our lives for generations to come.

The UK needed a real leader, someone capable of delivering unpalatable news and being respected and believed, not the incompetent liar who people just ignore as a fool floundering in his vocabulary of nonsense.