The APCW which is owned by the Casino City Group has throughout the month of January 09 been investigating the ownership of the Card Spike Poker Room which operates on the Cake Poker Network. This investigation primarily came about due to the fact that players and affiliates of CardSpike had not been paid for several months, yet Card Spike was still listed as a 'Certified' Program on CAP and an 'All In Program' on PAP. Information released by the APCW in their bi weekly video broadcasts over a period of four weeks, alluded to the fact that Warren Jolly CEO of CAP's parent company and Lou Fabiano the President of CAP's parent company had a financial interest in the operation of the Card Spike Poker Room. A clear conflict of interest if this was the case. After all their forums in the form of CAP and PAP are meant to represent the interests of the Affiliates that make up those communities and the affiliate programs which are afforded space there. If indeed it transpired that Jolly and Fabiano had a financial interest in CardSpike, then would this not be a conflict of interest and a complete lack of transparency on their part?

The APCW having been made aware of the possible financial and ownership link between CardSpike and Jolly and Fabiano by an article Gambling 911 ran with, contacted them by email on January 4th this year asking them to comment on the allegations raised and the persistent trouble surrounding affiliate payments with CardSpike. An email was sent to JTodd Executive Director of the APCW on the 6th January by Warren Jolly CEO of Affiliate Media and CAP's parent company stating:

"Cardspike is not controlled or managed by CAP, PAP, nor it's parent company, Affiliate Media Inc. CAP, PAP, Affiliate Media and all company personnel have absolutely no ownership interest, no profits interest and no beneficial interest whatsoever in CardSpike. Any statements to the contrary are untrue and unfair."

A link to the denial email in pdf format can be viewed here.

Notice how Jolly quite categorically states that they have no interest whatsoever in CardSpike. Yet on January 9th, the APCW uncovered that Lou Fabiano and Warren Jolly also had a shareholding in another company called Effective Media. Well what is the big deal with that? Well only that Effective Media have been providing consultancy for none other than CardSpike. Which Lou Fabiano admitted to on CAP TV - So why did Affiliate Media first of all deny that any of their personnel were not working or benefiting for CardSpike when first asked on January 4th? This information only came to light once they were confronted with it. Furthermore on January 23rd, Michael Corfman the CEO and owner of Casino City and Executive Director of the GPWA released a pdf file of a proposal from the Cake Poker Network for Casino Affiliate Programs to provide them with a Poker Room.

For a fuller picture of the CardSpike mystery and unravelling check out the videos released by the APCW below and make up your own mind as to whether the Professor has been up front and honest with the members of CAP and the Affiliate Programs represented on CAP. It is Online Casino Reviewer's view that by not only certifying CardSpike whilst providing consultancy for them, that Jolly and Fabiano did not want their 'interest' in CardSpike to become public knowledge. Especially as the CardSpike Affiliate Program ran into difficulties in paying their affiliates. A clear conflict of interest in our opinion. But watch the APCW videos for yourself and make up your own mind.

The sequence of videos were aired and released by the APCW from 9th January 2009 - 23rd January 2009. View from top left in clockwise order.

According to Casino Affiliate Programs parent company's website, the CAP Certified Program is "a rigorous and distinguished certification process for online casino affiliate programs. The CAP Certification Process is held in the highest regard among industry experts, and is designed to protect the integrity of affiliates and the online gaming industry as a whole."

Well according to one affiliate manager - Pierrick Leveque who posted recently on CasinoMeister "Sorry, jumping back a few pages here. I'm a bit puzzled by this too. We became certified the day our forum sponsorship payment hit CAP's bank account. As an Affiliate Manager on CAP since 2004 I've always seen their "certification" as an ill-named advertising fee, but 1/ stating publicly there is an actual certification process in place and 2/ calling it "rigorous" or "distinguished" is quite misleading to say the least."

Pierrick has basically told us what we already knew. To become certified on Casino Affiliate Programs you just need to be able to pay the going rate. So much for the rigorous and distinguished process involved. It is Online Casino Reviewer's view that there are currently several 'Certified' Cap Programs which we would not dream of recommending to our visitors. But apparently they have passed the rigorous and distinguished process that certification involves, which is namely being able to write a cheque!

Bryan Bailey the CasinoMeister summed it up even further by stating on his forum: "Who are these experts? I ain't one of them, that's for damn sure. This is ad copy - nothing less. Ad copy is okay to describe your casinos or affiliate programs, but it is NOT okay to use this for something that is supposedly objective in nature. Please do not baffle us with bullshit."

Our final issue we have with Casino Affiliate Programs is the slow but sure way they havebegun to marginalise other affiliates, companies and individuals who operate in the same sector of business as them. The much lauded and appreciated Affiliate Terms and Conditions Site - Affiliate Guard Dog had it's own dedicated forum on CAP for a number of years. The work CAP Member KWBlue performed was a stellar service for affiliates in the industry, whereby his software would monitor automatically any changes in the terms and conditions of affiliate programs for the online gambling industry. CAP should be applauded for giving Affiliate Guard Dog this platform in providing affiliates this much needed information in an as yet and still unregulated industry.

However last year, Affiliate Guard Dog had their forum removed from CAP and KWBlue was even banned for a period of time and even had his avatar on the forum changed. Why? Because CAP decided they would develop their own terms and conditions monitoring software. So much for CAP looking out for their members' interests! Instead CAP decided they wanted to move into this area and be the sole provider of this service.

Maybe this was a misunderstanding and a one off? Perhaps, possibly even. But why did then the APCW undergo the same fate as AGD? The APCW have had a forum on CAP for years. Run by JTodd and his buddy Anthony, the APCW first of all provided independent audits of affiliate programs and casinos and poker rooms. It was only until 2006 when the spectre of the UIGEA raised it's ugly head did Perspectives Weekly start. JTodd even won the Best Overall Affiliate at the inaugural CAP Awards held in January 2008. So what could the APCW have possibly done to fall out of favour with Casino Affiliate Programs and their management? Well, CAP being the ever growing community wanted to buy the APCW and launch CAP TV, utilising JTodd as their anchor man. They also wanted to provide their own casino affiliate program auditing process. JTodd is on record saying the offer CAP made was not enough and decided to approach Casino City instead, who agreed to purchase the APCW retaining the services of JTodd and his buddy Anthony. So what did CAP do? They banned the entire Casino City Team from their forum and still went ahead and launched CAP TV and CAP Audits.

In my view a picture is forming here and it is a picture I don't particularly like. Yes CAP is a business and businesses are not charities. But the business of CAP the community in my view is to look out for her members. Who are me, you, all webmasters involved in the gambling industry. To me it certainly appears that CAP put their interests first and their members' interests second. Until such time Affiliate Media address the very real issues raised, CAP - Casino Affiliate Programs are blacklisted and rogued on Online Casino Reviewer.

13TH AUGUST 2009

As a result of actions taken by CAP's parent company Affiliate Media, Online Casino Reviewer has removed the blacklisting of Casino Affiliate Programs. The actions include greater transparency on Casino Affiliate Program's part and the fact that Affiliate Media nor any of it's officers have any ownership interest in a casino or online poker room. In addition Online Casino Reviewer has learnt that Lou Fabiano no longer holds an interest in CAP's parent company Affiliate Media.