Interview with .com Casino Guide
by Dosia Blackerby, Outpost staff
Steve Grimm is part of a team running .com Casino Guide, which provides information to the public about casino listings and casino reviews. They debuted their site in April 2000 and hope the site will become the Yahoo! of Internet gaming sites.
|
.com's front page logo |
Q (Outpost): Are you worried about the federal legislation pending (the Kyl bill) that would outlaw online gambling within U.S. boundaries, and for all U.S. citizens? What impact do you think this legislation might have?
A (Grimm): I'm not worried about the Kyl bill, to be honest with you. Trying to force ISPs to block specific IPs and domain names will be nearly impossible to regulate. Let alone setting an awful precedence that the government can pass bills regulating what they think citizens should be able to access on the Internet. I believe more intelligent politicians will prevail and the bill will be killed.
Q: How much is traffic to your site growing?
A: Our site only recently debuted, I'll say a month ago, so we're having a nice ramp up period now. We're still getting the name of .com Casino Guide out to all search engines, etc., so people can start to know us. I'll say our numbers are doubling every week. We're constantly adding more gaming information, and casino reviews. We are completely unbiased as we are not affiliated with any online casinos. We offer no banners that enable us to get profits from casinos by linking from our site. We want to be the Yahoo of Internet Casinos.
|
|
A: Our directory and reviews are the most popular. We are the only site, that I know of, that allows the user to not only search for a specific game, such as blackjack, but also for specific rules variations that the online casinos can change to manipulate the odds in their favor. For example, in blackjack some casinos shuffle the deck every hand, others might shuffle after say half the deck has been dealt. The odds are much better for the player if the cards are not shuffled every hand. This allows people to be able to get to a site that offers their favorite game at their favorite odds.
Q: What do users (gamblers) want to know the most about what they're doing?
A: Like I described above, I feel online gamblers want to play at the most fair game possible. There are far too many ways casinos can change the game rules to cheat the player. Some of these are obvious, say for example the American Wheel Roulette game with 0 and 00, as opposed to the European Wheel with just 0. Others are more hidden such as specific blackjack rules, that we hope to document for each site.
Q: And what are the benefits/cons to gambling online versus in a real casino?
A: Online casinos will be at a disadvantage for a very long time in that the live action and live people element is not in the player's computer room. Some online casinos have taken a step in the right direction allowing multiplayer games, but it's still not the same. Last I checked, nobody is offering free cocktails delivered to your home while your playing! Technology is always improving to allow for improvements though. If the players and sites opt for it, it would be easy enough to at least get a video feed of the people you are playing with, microphones as well to talk live to others.
There are advantages to playing at home though. #1, there aren't the free drinks flowing, so you're more apt to keep a level head and play within your limits. You are also relaxed at home, so are more likely to bet smarter. Card counting for blackjack (illegal I suppose, but that's another issue) is certainly easier in your home where you're controlling when the next hand is played as opposed to in a loud and crowded casino.
Posted May 1, 2000
Copyright 2000 Nevada Outpost
|
|
|
|
|
Nevada Outpost is produced by
students at the |
|
