On Friday 19th January 2001, Susanne Uebler, 38, from Long Island, New York, was announced the Oriental Casino “Win a Million” million dollar prize winner. Her name was chosen at random from all the competition entries. She then correctly answered a trivia question over the phone on air on Mike Craig’s casinogazette.com online radio show to win the one million U.S dollars grand prize.
“I was shaking all over to hear Mike say I’d won the million,” said Susanne. “I think for a moment the whole world was shaking.”
Later she added, “I am still a little bit out of breath but as the reality sinks in, I’m a very happy person. I entered the competition without even in my wildest dreams believing I would be the winner of one million dollars.”
Susanne was born in Austria and moved to the U.S in 1994. She spends her time doing water sports and hanging out on the beach in the summer with her favorite companion, a baby parrot called Simba.
Oriental Casino is owned and operated by CyberCroupier Ltd (www.cybercroupier.com).
CyberCroupier says this is the first time anyone has ever won a million dollars in an online casino promotion. Payment of the prize money will be made in equal monthly installments of US$3,333 over a period of 25 years. The first payment will be made March 2001.
Beat Web Casinos:
Bill Haywood’s strategy for beating Web casinos, as outlined in his 198 page book Beat Web Casinos: The Shrewd Player’s Guide to Internet Gambling, is simple: Play at casinos that offer the best bonuses, play enough of a low-risk game like baccarat or basic strategy blackjack to meet your bonus obligations, then cash out. He calls it “poaching deposit bonuses” and while casinos hate it, it’s the only real advantage an online player has.
For those unfamiliar with bonus poaching, I’ll give a quick example. Sign up at a casino that offers, say, a 15% sign-up bonus. Deposit $1000, and you receive a $150 bonus. Now, with $1150 in your account, play just enough blackjack or baccarat to meet the requirements of the promo without losing much of your stake. (You are usually required to wager one or two times the value of the bonus before you can cash it out). Then cash out — hopefully with your original deposit and a piece of the bonus in your pocket — and move to the next casino.
I’ve done this myself numerous times (see our reviews page) and it can work. One online gambler, after reading my review of Gaming Club, wrote to tell me how he registered for the casino’s $25 promotion, hit triple seven on the slots twice, won $1500, and had the money deposited into his account in four days. The player never even made a deposit. That’s bonus poaching at its best.
There’s really not much more to it, although Haywood beefs up his bonus section to include 789bet advice on keeping detailed logs and records, basic guidance on avoiding scam operations, and tips on camouflaging your play so you don’t get blacklisted. Indeed, his discussion on the shared blacklist of bonus poachers maintained by the Interactive Gaming Council is one of the more enlightening sections in the book.
Beyond the bonus strategy, Haywood offers a brief but succinct rundown of the legalities of online gambling, plus information on some of the main software providers and Net resources, the arithmetic of gambling, basic blackjack strategy and gambling addiction.
Give Haywood credit for having the guts to call it like he sees it. In particular he takes many of the online gaming commissions and associations to task for working for the benefit of the casinos and not the players they claim to represent.
Haywood’s information is generally accurate, but he is quick to jump to conclusions. For example, Haywood repeatedly tells us not to play at Handa-Lopez casinos, such as the Grand Dominican. His reason? “I cannot tell you why because I cannot prove it. Trust me.” If Haywood has evidence of wrong-doing online gamblers need to hear about it. Let’s hope the facts come out in the next edition.
While his lists of Good and Bad casinos are generally sound, surprisingly, Haywood recommends playing at Golden Palace. Golden Palace has a long history of locking out the accounts of players suspected of bonus abuse, and many of these players used the very strategy described in his book.…