About the Advertising on this Site

Last update: February 2021

How I pick the advertisers

Since I first accepted advertising on this site two decades ago, I've advertised/recommended only a single online casino at a time, trying to pick the best one for my readers.  I've advertised Bovada exclusively to U.S. traffic since 2005 (back when they were known as Bodog in the U.S.).

Here are my ideal criteria for an online casino:

1. Available to most U.S. players (most of my readership)
2. Browser-based free-play games, playable without registering
3. Good reputation on payouts, good review at Casinomeister
4. Responds promptly and professionally to player issues
5. Licensed by a reputable licensing authority
6. Publishes the RTP (return to player) for all of their slots
7. Has a good selection of modern-looking games (many casino's games graphics are on par with an old Nintendo)
8. Allows players to set daily, monthly, and yearly loss limits to reduce problem gambling
9. Provides wagering reports for tax purposes
10. Provides win/loss reports on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.

As far as I know, there is no online casino that meets even four of these ten criteria, much less all ten.  Bovada meets the #1-3 and #7.  They used to meet #4 too, until there was a problem with progressive jackpots which they addressed slowly and incompletely.

I'm continuing to advertise Bovada because even with their faults, they're still better than the other U.S.-facing casinos, especially in that they're the only one I know of that lets you play their games right in your web browser, with fake money, without having to register an account.  And if any readers know of a U.S.-wide casino that meets more of the criteria above, then by all means please let me know.

For fifteen years, Bovada allowed me to mediate player disputes for players I referred to them, but in Oct. 2020 they notified me that they will no longer do so.  It's not the worst thing, because at the time of the cancellation it had been many years since a player I referred requested my help.  Lack of player disputes is one reason I picked Bovada as my advertiser in the first place.

By the way, the reason that Bovada isn't licensed is that in the current climate with online gambling not being explicitly legal in most states, no legitimate foreign licensing authority will license any U.S.-wide casino, so far as I know.

Am I biased because I get advertising money?

Critics often allege that site owners, like me, are biased towards our advertisers because we get ad money from them.  That might make sense if I were desperate to find an advertiser, but I'm not.  There are literally thousands of casinos I could advertise on this site (and nearly every damn day one of the is writing to me begging me to pick them).  I didn't pick the advertiser randomly, I spent a lot of time trying to find one with a good reputation that will give players a good experience, one that I could feel good about recommending.  And the fact that I get advertising money from Bovada certainly didn't stop me from publicly criticizing their handling of the Betsoft jackpots issue.

That said, if you don't believe me and you think I'm biased towards my advertiser(s), then feel free to not play there.

I'm not sending readers to the poorhouse

Critics allege that I'm encouraging readers to gamble at the advertiser (and lose money).  They should read a lot more carefully. The overwhelming bulk of my advertising is for Bovada's free-play games (the kind you play without real money).  The overwhelming majority of my readers (99.97%) don't gamble online for real money (or at least not at the online casino I advertise), and the median loss is around $26/mo.   Also, one of the whole points of this site is to show how to minimize losses when gambling.  Following my advice makes gambling one of the cheaper forms of entertainment one can engage in.  When I can show people how to lose less money gambling, I'm happy.

This is a far cry from the attitude of many other gambling webmasters.  As one of them opined, "If the webmaster is not an idiot, he wants the rich, stupid and desperate gamblers to register and squeeze all the money out of him." (source)  That is absolutely not my position, and such selfishness angers me.  That webmaster's attitude goes a long way in explaining why the content on many other sites is crap.  It's also why I don't rub shoulders with other gambling webmasters except for a select few like the Wizard of Odds.

I don't directly profit from player losses

Most other webmasters get paid a portion of the player losses from the players they refer to the casino, but I get paid a flat monthly rate.  At first blush that might seem like I have no incentive to push readers to Bovada, but in theory I do:  the higher the player losses, the more I can negotiate for my monthly payment when the agreement is reviewed annually.

While that's true in theory, any reader can see for her/himself that I primarily promote Bovada's free-play games, and that a main goal of the site is to show gamblers how to play smarter to lose less money.  I'm not pushing readers to go gamble a lot and lose big.

That was true even when I considered running the site my main job.  Now I consider myself retired because I have enough money, so I consider the site a hobby (that I happen to get paid for).

Non-Casino Affiliate Advertising

Besides Bovada, some of the links on the site are affiliate links, where I get a commission if you click through to the advertiser and buy something (like a hotel room).  But that doesn't mean I'm going to steer you to a lesser-quality site in an effort to make more money.  For example, I'd get paid if I steered you to Travelocity for airfare booking, because Travelocity would pay me, but instead for I steer you to Skiplagged, even though they wouldn't pay me a thin dime.  I link to Skiplagged because they're the best site for finding airfare, and at Easy Vegas the reader always comes first.

If I could get paid by Skiplagged, then rest assured that I'd pile up the money on the bed and my wife and I would roll around in it naked.

Casinos I used to advertise

Dates are approximate.  Gaps between one advertiser ending and the next beginning is because the Wayback Machine didn't archive my site during the gaps.