Grand Prive and Microgaming go their separate ways...but not the way anyone expected

Grand Prive and Microgaming go their separate ways...but not the way anyone expected

In late 2008, casino group Grand Prive closed its affiliate programme and stopped all future commission payments to its affiliate partners, causing uproar in online casino affiliate land.

I've documented the matter in four articles to date:

• Grand Prive affiliate problem

• The APCW and Microgaming

• Grand Prive investigated by eCOGRA

• eCOGRA concludes investigation


Many people, myself included, were highly critical of the "see no evil, hear no evil" approach that software provider Microgaming appeared to be taking in refusing to speak out against Grand Prive; surely the right thing to do would be to distance themselves from Grand Prive and rescind the company's operating license?

Microgaming did not seem to share this opinion, and Grand Prive went ahead as a Microgaming licensee.

Until 2nd April 2010.


On that day, Microgaming issued a news bulletin announcing the termination of the Grand Prive operating licence:

02 April 2010

ISLE OF MAN - Microgaming today announced the termination of its software licence agreements with the LiveWeb Group of casinos. The casinos managed by this Group include: Big Dollar; Jackpot Wheel; Fortune Junction; Villa Fortuna; Casino Grand Bay; Bella Vegas; Jupiter Club; Lake Palace; Roadhouse Reels; Grand Bay Poker; Kasino Grand Bay.

-ENDS-

Hooray. Finally Microgaming did the right thing and sent Grand Prive off to the back of beyond.

Well, err...no, actually.

It was Grand Prive that ended the agreement with Microgaming. As reported by industry insider and self-proclaimed "watchdog" Bryan Bailey:

2nd April 2010, 01:17 PM

Just got a call from MGS - they were as surprised as everyone else. So they are in the process of terminating their agreement with Grand Prive.

Strategic timing - it's a four day weekend for most Europeans.

The news was followed up by an Infopowa report:

After many years of using Microgaming software it appears that the much-criticised Grand Prive group of online casinos has switched to BetOnSoft, a lesser known company with a smaller selection of games.

(more)

The topsy-turvy irony of this turn of events certainly doesn't escape me.

Were Grand Prive in fact so astonished at Microgaming's lack of action against them that they decided to do the software giant's job for them and revoke their own license? Was this the self-flagellatory response of a casino group that finally saw the light and decided to give a lesson in ethics to its own software provider, consigning themselves yet further to the cyber dustbin in the process?


W.S. Gilbert, that mighty 19th century paragon of wit, satire and parody would have seen the funny side of this; and I can think of no better way to draw a line under the matter than to quote the passage of his that immediately came to my mind when I read the news a few days ago, from Iolanthe:

The leader of the House Of Lords wants to marry his ward, but cannot do so without...his own consent.

The feelings of a Lord Chancellor who is in love with a Ward of Court are not to be envied.

What is his position? Can he give his own consent to his own marriage with his own Ward?

Can he marry his own Ward without his own consent?

And if he marries his own Ward without his own consent, can he commit himself for contempt of his own Court?

And if he commit himself for contempt of his own Court, can he appear by counsel before himself, to move for arrest of his own judgement?

At the risk of cheapening the mighty Mr. Gilbert, I think he would have found material worthy of his pen in the final denouement of the farcical Microgaming / Grand Prive saga.

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