I came across the idea to *own* a casino in March. I looked at the various offers, carefully researched, checked for bad references and finally made a selection.

Readymade casinos, linked to windows casino looked to be the best option. It was the right type of casino,good games, fast download and it would not cripple the payment, even in weak South African Rand, converting to US Dollar.

I made the payment with baited breath after selecting the relevant name and skin, looking forward to some financial return, although being realistic enough not to expect to become *rich* overnight.

Little did I realize what horror and frustration was waiting ahead...

My first email received thanked me for joining them. So far so good. I checked that the various lists worked, and asked some friends to download the game, in order to see if the *real time* stats worked.

These friends had never heard of Windows casino, Never gambled on line, so no cookie could prevent them downloading via *my* casino, to be assigned to someone else.

Or so I thought. After all, every email told me not to *hesitate* asking if they could be of assistance.

The stats did not change. I sent off an email to Anna and asked about this as assured that my number would work if people played for real money. I was told to uninstall any version of Windows casino I had, reboot, refresh, download and check again. The stats did not change as they should.

On the 9th of August,I mailed my helpful person who prepared *my* casino, and told him that I wanted to run a competition, to spice up the local interest in the new site. He told me to speak to Anna.

She was very nice when she replied one week later and even suggested that she would keep a list of anyone who enrolled via my site, so that the draw could benefit real players.

I was mailing, writing, marketing the site in real life and on the Internet, using all the books I got via the purchase and buying various others.

The stats did not change as they should.

I mailed Readymade and Windows casinos on the 17th of August and voiced my concern about the sites. I received an email back, saying all is well and not to worry.

The stats did not change.

I mailed again on the 19th of August, apologizing to being a pest. The stats were not reflecting any change. Again I was assured everything was was tested. Windows massive casino would not harm me.

The competition started on the 22 nd of August and I mailed Anna to ask her opinion. She liked the idea.

Writing more articles, marketing the site via email and the Internet, I decided to try and trust to some extent. I asked a very brilliant web designer ( he wins international awards for his work), to set up a mirror site for me in order to see what traffic we drove to Windows casino on a daily basis, as I didn't want to trouble Anna daily.

The stats on my page did not change, even though it showed hundreds of people clicking the site, answering the competition question. We could trace them to the point of clicking *download*.

The Windows casino stats did not change.

I decided to wait until the 15th of September before checking the stats again. After all, twice before I was assured everything was fine.

The stats had not changed at all. I spoke to my web master who mirrored the traffic up to the point of customers clicking to download the Windows casino game. He said it was IMPOSSIBLE. I mailed Anna.

Hi Anna

I have waited until after the 15 th of September before I checked your records for any people downloading the casino software via my affiliate page.

As you know we running a competition and with my web master's skill I can actually keep track of exactly how many people , that is UNIQUE links or people I sent to the door of where they download the software from your page.

At first I questioned the counting of correct clicks. Now I am very concerned.

I am going to quote you figures and then I would like you to go the the page where I check my records at your casino and see that something very serious is wrong.

*297 distinct links to the download page up to date. and distinct could be more than 1 person on the same IP *according to our script that records every click to the download - *we sent you 1389 who was on the site.*

You honestly want to tell me only 9 of those people , of which 8 are friends of mine downloaded the games not one single person played even for ten dollars?

I find that impossible to believe.

I would appreciate if you can get back to me on this at your earliest convenience, or call me

I also know for a fact of at least ONE person who played at the live poker room for real money ( that is Party poker) Thanking you in advance.

I mailed Readymade casinos too.

Dear Mark

I need your help here please

Please read the letter below and see how you can help me. I am after all linked to windows casino because I purchased a ready made casino from you.

The figures just does not add up ;/

Regards

Readymade replied:

I would ignore the click though stats. The click through stats is a general issue for the new affiliates of Windows who promote through a long unique link not for Ready Made Casino owners. The players that visit a Ready Made Casino web site do not need to click through, they can download and play directly from the web site.

Since your affiliates are using the smart download links on your web site and bypassing the main Windows website the "number of click through s" are irrelevant and would normally show '0'. Click throughs also do not reflect clicks to your web site.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Things WOULD be alright.

The stats did not change.

I mailed Readymade again.. ( Windows casino

I am still not happy about this. I don't get replies from windows casino, I know Anna is very busy. Are you telling me that if someone searched the web, have a cookie on their computer, and didn't delete it, and then after that click on to windows casino link VIA my website, that it will not show and therefore I wont be given the affiliate benefit?

I didn't get a reply about this..

And.. the stats did not reflect the traffic sent to Windows casino via *my* casino.

Anna responded on the 22 nd of September. She apologized for taking so long.

I was told that my web master had made a mistake. All of a sudden the cookie was not reflected in the mirror site. This should not have mattered because most traffic came through the original site. He mailed, I mailed. They responded. All the time : Not our fault. I did not believe this. I asked him to check and he did. The problem was not in his coding.

In all cases the redirect (TrackDownload.dll?) on THEIR server does not include ANY affiliate ID.

My script passes the URL redirect through to the clients browser UNALTERED. This is industry standard http 1.0 protocol!

This will not even affect a cookie or referer based tracking system as the clients browser does all the talking.

I will change it back to the "official" link however I don't see this solving the problem. Even before the script was put in place it was not counting downloads.

The windows stats did not change.

I was feeling panic. I had worked for 20 hours , for almost a month. Was all of this in vain?

Again and again I asked for telephone details. I felt that a conference call could resolve the problem. I was told that Anna does not take or do telepohne calls by the support of Windows casino on 22 September..

Readymade casinos also wouldnt supply a telephone number, even though I asked for one, and supplied my own number. I WAS PREPARED to pay for the call!

On the 22 nd of September.. one month and fourteen days after I voiced concern about this problem ( and please take into consideration that the mirror site didn't EXIST at this time) my problem was forwarded to technical support.

The stats had changed slightly.

Again Readymade casinos and Anna blamed the mirror site.

I agreed to have the original site loaded again. We checked it. My web master sent me a screen shot showing that whilst it LOOKS as if the cookie goes through, it actually is blank. They didn't seem to understand the makings of this. I mailed it to Mark and Anna.. and again I was assured that the stats would be correct.

And then, I asked my boyfriend to log on via the site DESIGNED by Readymade casinos,for me, and INSTALL the program. And.. he signed up as a REAL player...

I mailed Anna his details, asking for PROOF, that this sign up was assigned to me as STILL THE STATS did not change!

She couldn't.

This is what I got.26th September:

"It's not recommended to ask anyone to play for real money until you are 100% sure that the stats work. If a cookie was set previously on your player's computer you may not be referred."

They finally understood what I was ON about! All my work, frustration because I could not deal with Windows casino OR Readymade, except via email or icq if you lucky. down the drain. The competition was running.

No one showed as signing on for a real account through my affiliate. Not even my boyfriend.

On the 28th of September RTG came back and acknowledged that this account was not assigned to me.

Readymade casino now saidit was a windows problem. I realized with shock and horror that I was not going to win this one. And.. I couldn't even phone anyone about it.

I decided to use my mirror site and use another casino to try and regain some of my losses. I mailed some of the OPT in addresses I had via a PHP server which my web master set up for me and mailed out an invite to look at the new site.

At all times did I keep a close check that not ONE email was mailed more than once. The invite was short, ten lines, with a place to subscribe and unsubscribe according to e-mail Spam rules.

I commented about a strange intruder on my computer. The address was triton.ws2900.net. I had a Trojan on my pc according to my firewall. I went for a total REINSTALL of windows. It blocked this address since then.

I received no further email regarding the *cookie* problem from Anna until the 30th. She offered me a new affiliate number and I passed it on to Readymade casinos. They changed the cookie. My mirror site was not linked to the original site since the 26 of September.

Yet..The stats remained zero after the slight change on the 26th.

I have to deliver a prize to some that had never made me any money from all my effort.

Some person complained that I *spammed* them. I didn't. NO email was sent to me either from the server or via Readymade casinos about this complaint.

My account was suspended. No reason. Just Suspended. I didn't even know on which server it was hosted until I called the company I paid at initially.

Once again, my web master was blamed. Emails passed to and fro between Readymade and the web master.. yes I do have the copies... And in the end, all I got for a month of hard work, was a refund of a few dollar for the remaining months, ( November, Dec and January) Even though we were just barely in October.

I got an email from Anna, to say she is sorry, why was windows no longer the download available on the website.Read the story Anna, THAT is why your casino does not feature on my affiliate list anymore. THAT is why both sites now refer customers somewhere else.

Even when you did not reply to this email..and the stats never changed.

About the Author

SilverJade is a therapist and writer.