Sale of wizard of odds/vegas websites

Quote: Paradigm

I definitely need to go back and identify all the members that lambasted Wiz for being such a bad business person........wonder what percentage of them have ever sold any business asset for six figures, let alone seven?

Yeah, I wonder if we can get our donations back, with interest? :)

Just kidding, of course. Congratulations, Michael!

Quote: aceofspades

Hey BBB are you staying on as a mod?

Quote: GWAE

Bbb did the mods know about the sale. Just curious if he informed you all or was this thread news to you as well.

Respectfully, I am going to defer these type questions to Mike for now. Thanks.

Jeez, the hoopla over this sale is ridiculous. It was a nice place to talk to a lot of educated gambling people. Case closed.

It's good to see a guy who was on the balls of his ass to the point of having to embarrass himself, finally gets to fall into a pile of shit. (or cash)

God bless him and his family. It's probably sad for him that he has to stay on board for awhile. I'm sure he had enough of this gambling nonsense by now anyhow. It's good to know someone in the virtual sense that hit the lottery.

Run - Mike - Run

My first reaction was the story is in TheOnion.com or something.

It seems legitimate. How can I tell? The Amazon link is gone.


Congrats Mike! Good for you.

But doesn't that tropical island you're on have Internet? Talk to us! ;)

Quote: terapined

Alot of responses and questions.
I see the Wiz is on the site right now.
Probabbly reading this thread, I am hoping for a post from the Wiz.
(Or he left his browser open on this site and not at his computer)

Wow, looks like the Wiz was at his computer reading this thread with all the questions.
No response - huge dissapointment.
No response does not bode well due to the questions regarding privacy.

Quote: mcallister3200

Surprised I have not seen it here yet, but according to an article on calvinayre.com, our humble leader Mr. Shackleford has sold the wizard of odds and WoV websites to latestcasinobonuses.com but will stay on as a staff writer. Congratulations Michael, you have definitely put an immeasurable amount of hard work into your sites over the years and the entire gambling community from recreational players to ap owe you thanks, and deserve every dollar. I hope not much changes although I'm sure there will be more advertising.

I bet the overly fancy typeface at WOO changes.

Any plans for a One Spin at Roulette? If so, I recommend Seven Red.

I hope all that Green Inkers remain but if new powers that be dictate otherwise, thank you for your time and efforts.

I hope we all stay and continue to contribute our various views and news items.

Congrats to the Wizard. This is fantastic.

Wizard convinced many of you to donate cash to him, then sold the site for millions.

That's damn funny.

Well played sir ! ! !

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

Mike said that he and the admins don't read them, not that they can't.

Of course they can be read. They are stored in plaintext in a fucking database. You don't need a "smart web designer", you just need someone with access to the database and some kind of a basic clue about which end of a computer is up.

In any system where you can recover your password, it's not possible to make them unreadable. In a system where you can't recover a forgotten password, it's possible, but a pain in the ass.

Exactly.

A forum I used to post on (it's gone now), there was a controversy where a member sent PMs to other members, exposing corruption amongst the forum staff (admins). The admins deleted the PM from people's inboxes. Long story short, they claimed they had no access to view change etc. private messages. With a bit of 'detective' work, I was able to gain access to the entire database and show the members what had actually happened, and in fact, all messages are stored in plain text.


My post twist post was meant to be humorous, though. But that isn't to say there isn't private information on here that I want exposed. My email address that's connected to MGM CET, STN, etc. properties -- it'd be pretty easy for them to figure out who I am. Others have messaged me and I've messaged others my cell #. And I'm sure some people have much more they don't want exposed.


But, I don't think Wizard sold information to casinos. But, who knows.

I hope that the Casino Chip of the Day thread that I started (4,646 posts and 688,217 views so far) helped to draw traffic to the site and thereby helped a little toward letting Mike make a few bucks from his efforts. However, considering some of the posts above, I'm not all that sure that I should continue with this stuff. I assume that all of the discussion items that I posted (as well as PMs sent and received) have been archived and will be in the hands of whoever owns the site. At least the photographic images I posted (both chips and scenic views) belong to me and have never been stored on this site. I don't know whether the images in the one review article I wrote are stored here now or not.

I didn't know, nor did i expect to be privy to business decisions. I volunteered out of appreciation, and that's where that ends. I expect a heads up as much as i expect a paycheck.

I assume I'll be nixed by our new overlord. Que sera sera. I had fun =)

A heartfelt congrats, Mike. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.

I hope there's a backup of the forum data somewhere...

On other things, who set the DeLorean for 1999?

Am I alone here?

I don't get where all the paranoia is coming from.

I mean, just how much personal intimation will the new owners have access to? Our email address? Big deal. It's not like any of us don't get contacted by a Nigerian princess on a regular basis...

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Am I alone here?

I don't get where all the paranoia is coming from.

I mean, just how much personal intimation will the new owners have access to? Our email address? Big deal. It's not like any of us don't get contacted by a Nigerian princess on a regular basis...

Right? and, really, what are the odds that the new owners of this site are NOT among the internet casinos who are already spamming my Gmail account as a result of Caesars or MGM or Penn Gaming or Resorts or...selling my info?

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Am I alone here?

I don't get where all the paranoia is coming from.

I mean, just how much personal intimation will the new owners have access to? Our email address? Big deal. It's not like any of us don't get contacted by a Nigerian princess on a regular basis...

They will have access to any information that may have been shared in private messages - names, phone numbers, plays

I'm not worried but have no reason to worry. It's almost like an episode of Three's Company right now with all the people jumping to conclusions. Something written on the internet is always taken with a grain of salt and therefore unreliable. Loveman would just say I do not recall and neither do I.

I've always wanted to order a bunch of stuff at nobu without looking at the menu...... I'm just saying :)

Congrats mike. Always great to hear the honest guy with some integrity win. Remember the talk we had about integrity don't pay.... Well I was wrong.

It is true that images taken by people and posted are still copy written to the original photographer

Mike has published a blog about the sale in the last few minutes:

New Owner

Quote: aceofspades

It is true that images taken by people and posted are still copy written to the original photographer

yes that is true. Say you are on vacation and you ask a friendly tourist to take a picture of you with your camera. In the backround something remarkable happens like a UFO. You have the picture on your camera but the tourist actually owns the rights to it.

Quote: GWAE

yes that is true. Say you are on vacation and you ask a friendly tourist to take a picture of you with your camera. In the backround something remarkable happens like a UFO. You have the picture on your camera but the tourist actually owns the rights to it.

Unless you pay them to take the picture.

I find it *amazing* that the deal came together this quickly, and that Mike had no idea a fat payday was on the horizon when the tin cup was shaken.

But as I think Mike is credible, I accept as true the notion that he had no idea this deal was brewing when the tin cup was passed around and filled (although not by me: I never give money to roadside beggars, let alone quasi-genius actuaries).

Things can and do happen quickly, no doubt about it.

Quote: rdw4potus

Right? and, really, what are the odds that the new owners of this site are NOT among the internet casinos who are already spamming my Gmail account as a result of Caesars or MGM or Penn Gaming or Resorts or...selling my info?

The odds are slim, perhaps.

But if you're on Facebook, use Google or Gmail, Twitter, etc, etc, then much more information about you is already available for purchase (one reason my Facebook profile is woefully incomplete, as FB reminds me every other minute).

What about the articles published here, including the various hotel reviews? Mike paid for first run rights, sure. They can stay published here until the Big Rip, no problem. But I don't think they can be re-published elsewhere without permission.

Congratulations Mike.

Quote: mcallister3200

Surprised I have not seen it here yet, but according to an article on calvinayre.com, our humble leader Mr. Shackleford has sold the wizard of odds and WoV websites to latestcasinobonuses.com but will stay on as a staff writer. Congratulations Michael, you have definitely put an immeasurable amount of hard work into your sites over the years and the entire gambling community from recreational players to ap owe you thanks, and deserve every dollar. I hope not much changes although I'm sure there will be more advertising.

congrats on the $2.35M!!

but why sell WoV?!
you said yourself WoV doesn't generate any $.
and its the same 20 or people that post with some newbies here and there that last a month.

and since the site is sold, whats the story with JuicyJennie?!

Quote: Doc

I hope that the Casino Chip of the Day thread that I started (4,646 posts and 688,217 views so far) helped to draw traffic to the site and thereby helped a little toward letting Mike make a few bucks from his efforts. However, considering some of the posts above, I'm not all that sure that I should continue with this stuff. I assume that all of the discussion items that I posted (as well as PMs sent and received) have been archived and will be in the hands of whoever owns the site. At least the photographic images I posted (both chips and scenic views) belong to me and have never been stored on this site. I don't know whether the images in the one review article I wrote are stored here now or not.

Don't pat yourself on the back to hard, cut that number by about 75% on just the views alone.

EVERY TIME you do ANYTHING IT COUNTS AS A NEW VIEW .IE When you post a picture, when you navigate from page to page, when you use a format code, wen you post the format code when you close the tread, when you post, any time you click a link and come back it counts as at least 2 views, anytime something moves it counts, no matter what it is. Even if you edit something it counts as 2 views.

Long time lurker, always enjoyed this site and everybody is jumping ship??

Does this give a freepass for GR8 to make a comeback??

Do think the very recently solictored for donations should be refunded.

Quote: 100xOdds

congrats on the $2.35M!!

but why sell WoV?!
you said yourself WoV doesn't generate any $.

Sites that don't generate any money, vs being paid $2+ millions for those sites.

Hm. I wish I had that problem.

Quote: Nareed

Sites that don't generate any money, vs being paid $2+ millions for those sites.

Hm. I wish I had that problem.

This deal applies to all my Wizard sites: this one, Wizard of Vegas, Wizard of Macau and Las Apuestas.mx.

so I guess i'll be seeing everyone on the Wiz's DT site next month?

wiz- did you contact any business professionals about the $2.35M for your site?

I would have figured WoO be worth 8 figures since it's basically the goto site for all things gambling.

and now everyone:
download the WoO website onto your hard drive before that info disappears/gets altered/becomes a pay site!

Quote: AxiomOfChoice

Yeah, good for him. Now he has money and spammers have all of our information, including every PM that we have ever sent.

Thanks Mike! Enjoy your money.

Mike has no way of accessing PM's not related to him, is my understanding, so I doubt if the sale of the site would have changed the way the message board is coded. We have no access to PM's or passwords.

n/m
n/m

Quote: Mission146

Mike has no way of accessing PM's not related to him, is my understanding, so I doubt if the sale of the site would have changed the way the message board is coded. We have no access to PM's or passwords.

I think people are worried the new owners can find a way to mine this information.

Quote: MrV

I find it *amazing* that the deal came together this quickly, and that Mike had no idea a fat payday was on the horizon when the tin cup was shaken.

But as I think Mike is credible, I accept as true the notion that he had no idea this deal was brewing when the tin cup was passed around and filled (although not by me: I never give money to roadside beggars, let alone quasi-genius actuaries).

Things can and do happen quickly, no doubt about it.

I think the reality of how this happened is different than how you're looking at it. I'm not speaking for Mike, but I'm looking at everything he's said in the past few months about this. He did everything he could think of to stay independent and continue to operate, including the humbling and embarrassing experience of asking for donations when he's always funded the site himself. He has probably had many offers of various types for the websites over the past few years, but did not want to sell, as he's mentioned before. A series of really ugly things happened; don't forget Cyprus confiscating an incredible amount of money, for example.

The time came when he had to make some really hard choices, and he had assets he could monetize. A man provides for his family first, and that's what it came down to. I think it's way too early to panic, and suggest folks give him a day or two to decide what he wants to say on here, because this has been a labor of love, and he is having a hard time with all of it.

Quote: AxelWolf

I think people are worried the new owners can find a way to mine this information.

I suppose that's theoretically possible, but I still don't see it as a reason for everyone to leave. If anyone thinks this is something about which to be concerned, simply delete your PM history.

I should also say CONGRATULATIONS to Mike! I think it's about time all the hard work he put into these sites over the years pays off!

Quote: Mission146

Mike has no way of accessing PM's not related to him, is my understanding, so I doubt if the sale of the site would have changed the way the message board is coded. We have no access to PM's or passwords.

If I have your site and the DB, I have access to your PMs you have sent that still exist in the Inbox. Especially on the WoV site, where it's been handcoded. I may not have your password, but I'm pretty sure I can change it to one I want to use and then log in as you.

Same here as well as 100's of other places.

I assume no-one gives a flying one, and not someone paying 2.35 Million to see if I did really send an email to X telling him about the AP opportunity as Y. If they do give a flying one, then well, there's easier ways than spending the money to buy the site to find it out. A new owner might look through for curiosities sake. You'll just have to trust 'em. If you don't yet, I'd delete your inbox and wait and see.

And by the way... well done to Mike for the sale. Good on him.... I have no issue with donating a few bucks to him for the years I've used his sites. If he then sells them, well I was only paying for what I had used, not what the future held.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Unless you pay them to take the picture.

Even if you pay them, unless they release the image to you fully, not just for certain use, they still own the copyright

Just want to send a shout out to Mike and say congratulations. I think this huge payday solves any financial worries. You've created an incredible site and loyal following. Well done sir!

I just read Mike's blog post. I've done work for the new owner on other projects. He is involved in internet marketing. Those that think this is some conspiracy to hunt B&M APs are jumping to a ridiculous conclusion. If you are that concerned delete your messages and only use them to get skype info etc.

Congratulations to Mike on an investment that paid off!!!

He put a good solid 17 - 18 years into WOO to make it the Go-To site for gambling information on the net. I remember using it back in '02 to learn how to play Pai Gow, Craps, and the other games. I remember printing his cards for blackjack strategy.

Certainly, Mike shared the visits and page views with Chan, and Chan decided that a site getting that many page views has the potential to have a good return on investment and may drive traffic to his casino sites and affiliates.

Mike deserves every penny.

As for the privacy thing, I am absolutely positive that this site has been mined by every bot out there looking for our information. Now the new owners will have access to our PMs and our email addresses, and deleting them now doesn't mean that they won't be available on a backup somewhere or archived. But whenever we put something out there, be it a PM or anything that is sitting in a database, it can be mined and we should expect it to be so.

And for all of you saying, "my privacy, my privacy", you had chance to jump ship when Mike publicly stated that he was thinking about ditching the sites to generate some money. At that point in time, those who were privacy-conscious should have thought about that.

Here's a thought. Change the DB program to allow us to delete our consciousness from WoV, somewhere where we can login and hit a "delete all my WoV activity" button and have all of our posted be replaced by the word "deleted", and then remove our PMs and replace our email address with an xxxxx@xxxxx.com and change our password to something randomly generated, a "nuke my account" button, per se.

It's not like Mike is a Target or a Home Depot, and our CC information or SSN information is compromised. The new owner has our email addresses, and given that this site has no privacy policy that I recall reading, i am sure the new owners are figuring out how to market to us, which to be honest, I think is fair use for us using this site for the last five years or so for free.

So, personally, I say THANKS Mike for giving the thousands of us a great forum to discuss math, gambling, ObamaCare, HotBlonde's weight loss, and other stuff. THANKS Mike for providing WOO, the only truly non-biased and authorative site to discuss the true math of gambling. THANKS for spending the tens of thousands of hours to help turn noobs into ploppies into knowledgeable gamblers and a few APs to boot. THANKS for giving me this source of entertainment.

Thank you.

wow congrats michael..

as a newbie.. glad I found this gem before the turnover.

thanks for all the info you have shared with all of us.

Congratulations Mike. It's good to see the good guys win.

As for this thread. Very entertaining, and a window into several very unpleasant personalities. Mike owes y'all nothing.

Settle down everybody. There are a lot of topics that have been broached that I wish to address. Let me go point by point.

Timing of the Announcement

I wanted to give the buyer of my sites the courtesy of making the announcement first when he was ready. I wasn't sure exactly when it was going to be. This morning I went to a couple nearby casinos to put in my half-point parlay cards, which I have promised to report on all season. At the Suncoast I noticed it was a 7x points day so sat down to play video poker for an hour or so. The news broke about half an hour into this play because I started getting phone calls and texts about it. I then quit early and went home to be there on the big day the announcement was formally made.

So, I apologize that you didn't hear it from me first. I will say, in my defense, that I've dropped lots of hints in advance.


Thank You

I would like to thank those forum members were who big enough to say "congratulations," and wish me success going forward. Considering some other messages, I appreciate all the kind words I can get right now.



Donations

My tin cup came out on August 8. That was truly a very low point for me. I ended the exclusive ad deal with Bodog/Bovada on August 1 and the new ads were being virtually ignored. My strategy of supporting multiple brands was a complete disaster. Maybe the idea wasn't bad, but certainly the way I implemented it was.

So, I make no apologies for taking out the tin cup when I did. At that time the sites were making almost nothing. What little I paid JB and VegasAces was much more than what I was pulling in. Considering my sites are enjoyed by hundreds of thousands, I thinking asking for a little something back at a time my income was negative was not unwarranted.

Nevertheless, if anybody who made a donation wishes to have it back, the request will be honored.

Email Address

All we have in our database of members is your Email address and logon. We only ask for the Email address to ensure the request to sign up is legitimate and to use as verification when somebody forgets their password.

When the site was sold it did include this database of Email addresses. It is standard when you buy a web site that it comes with all the code and member databases. However, I asked the new owner to comment about this issue. He said that the policy to not sell or give the Email list to third parties would remain in effect. In the future, there may be a newsletter, but it would have a simple one-click opt-out policy for anybody that doesn't want it.


Private Messages

Let me say that I'm very insulted at the accusations that I or the other admins have been snooping on private messages. I'm also quite sure the new owner has better things to do than eavesdrop on private communication. If one could do so well in business to pay seven figures for some web sites, you would think he would have better things to do than sift through thousands of private messages for advantage plays or phone numbers. For those worried about that, what you should be worried about is what the really big fish, like Facebook, know about you.

To address general questions about private messages, as BBB said, admins don't have the technical ability to read them. The forum was created to not allow that abuse. However, for the paranoid members, I will say that once a Private Message is deleted it is gone forever. If it will make you feel better, then delete your old ones.


Meet Zuga

The new owner of this forum is Joshua Chan, the long-time owner of Latest Casino Bonuses.com, which already has a forum with almost 68,000 members. So, he knows a thing or two already about running forums. His representative Zuga will be helping to keep things going here. I expect him to be posting soon to say a few words about the future of this site.

The Future

However, I can already say that the site is now on solid financial footing. In fact, Josh is already investing in making this site mobile friendly, which is not something I would have ever considered. About 40% of users of this forum already use it on a smart phone or tablet.

Plus, both JB and I will continue to be active. JB is now on Josh's payroll to make sure all the Wizard sites are running smoothly on the back end. I'll also continue to post and help moderate around here.

Again, thanks to those who did leave kind messages. I'm sure I'm forgetting something to say, but I'm not going anywhere.

So they are going to have our e-mail addresses. Yip, Yip, Yahoo. This is not 1998. You can filter spam and in the first place any legit operator, and the $2MM after-tax payout is serious, will let you opt out.

The sale was about WoO, WoV is just some icing on the cake. They get a good fan base, but of what, 100 super-serious people? Unless they are looking to recruit for a blackjack or poker team the reality is the forum is not where the money is. In that respect this place is not much different than most forums; a dedicated crew of 10-20 people, ten times that who are less active, many who come for a simple answer and leave, and an unknown amount of lurkers. This has not changed since USENET in the early-1990s and it will not change based on one sale.

I see one of three things happening to the forums:

1. They get closed outright. This is unlikely as it keeps community for little cost and gives a free base of beta-testers and proofreaders. It probably also gives Mike more credibility for consulting. Likelyhood doubtful.

2. It gets promoted and lots of new users come onboard. If this happens then the tone changes and some of the "forum fathers" will drift off and leave. Forums are weird in that people take time to find one they like then stick and rarely switch. They are also for people born before 1985 and even 1980. Likelyhood questionable.

3. Next to no changes. Maybe colors or ads, but it will be 95% the same and kept to build community. Lieklyhood probable.

Very Nice Congrats on the sale. To the people who are making a big deal out of the sale Mike owes you nothing and has provided all of us entertainment for many years at no cost. It is about time that he receives a decent compensation for all his work and effort. I personally will hang around and see what changes are made prior to leaving or making false accusations.

Slack

AZ just made the most sensible post of the day.

Mike, while I didn't say it in my brief post supporting your business acumen......CONGRATULATIONS on the monetization!!! Sounds like a pretty nice lump sum retirement distribution to me, but with capital gain tax treatment......I love it and well done!!

Thanx for the intro Mike :)

Hi guys, I understand you probably have tons of questions and I do understand that this news might be upsetting to some of you.

So let me start off by introducing myself. My name is Nikola, you may call me Nik , also known as Zuga.

I am representing LCB ( LatestCasinoBonuses.com ), and yes We are the new and proud owners of WOV and WOO sites.

A bit of info on who we are can be found here : About Us

Mike already said it but let me make it clear again, your emails are confidential and will remain confidential as part of the WizardOfOdds network. We aint going to spam nor we going to disclose your emails to any 3rd parties. Yes we might decide to send an occasional newsletter, with an option to opt out. Also anything that was/is said in the private messages is private and we have no access to it.

Now, we have no intention to change the concept of the site, nor we will remove the current Admins. Also most importantly Mike is going to stay as the head content writer and consultant.
So in that aspect nothing is going to change.

We do plan on making some tweaks in order to improve the website(s). For which you will be duly notified. And as Mike mentioned one of the first tasks is to make the site(s) mobile/tablet friendly.

So please if you have any questions do let me know here or via PM.


cheers
Zuga

Hello, Nik, and welcome to the site!

Quote: Zuga

Thanx for the intro Mike :)

Hi guys, I understand you probably have tons of questions and I do understand that this news might be upsetting to some of you.

So let me start off by introducing myself. My name is Nikola, you may call me Nik , also known as Zuga.

I am representing LCB ( LatestCasinoBonuses.com ), and yes We are the new and proud owners of WOV and WOO sites.

A bit of info on who we are can be found here : About Us

Mike already said it but let me make it clear again, your emails are confidential and will remain confidential as part of the WizardOfOdds network. We aint going to spam nor we going to disclose your emails to any 3rd parties. Yes we might decide to send an occasional newsletter, with an option to opt out. Also anything that was/is said in the private messages is private and we have no access to it.

Now, we have no intention to change the concept of the site, nor we will remove the current Admins. Also most importantly Mike is going to stay as the head content writer and consultant.
So in that aspect nothing is going to change.

We do plan on making some tweaks in order to improve the website(s). For which you will be duly notified. And as Mike mentioned one of the first tasks is to make the site(s) mobile/tablet friendly.

So please if you have any questions do let me know here or via PM.


cheers
Zuga

Have you seen the suspension list, Zuga? Is that really something that you want to continue?