Thanks. I'm trying to follow the spirit of the rule. I trust you guys will let me know if I ever cross a line anywhere.

FWIW I promise not to ever run stupid redundant spammy bonuses and whatnot in new threads, I don't have any reason to post about it if it's not something new to the site.

Micon,

I've just gone through and confirmed that those old dead threads were locked (except for one, which I just locked).

When I post new threads, it's always because there is something new we've added to the site. The rule says:


So when we create an entirely new type of bonus, or new games, then that's new and noteworthy and deserves a new thread. When I create a new thread, I lock the old one and let it sink before posting.

For what it's worth, I don't think you should feel worried or threatened by my occasional postings. I'm not spamming the forum, I'm using it to announce new features which is what it's intended for. In any case, I don't badmouth Seals or any other Bitcoin gaming sites, or attack you here or in the press. And in any case, we're not competing for the same market. So there's no need to attack me.

The word's not getting around, so help us spread the word on this and pick up a nice bonus yourself!

We've had 32 signups since this bonus was posted, and only 14 of them took the no-deposit bonus. If you have a StrikeSapphire.com account, sign up for our referral bonuses and get a bonus for 100% of the first deposit of everyone you refer, up to $15 each!

We're going to keep running this at least for the rest of January, so there's plenty of time for your friends to get a free $10 bonus and you to get some extra cash to play with if they deposit after that.

I'm not a marketer, that's true; and I tend to evaluate things based on proof rather than promises.

I do think it's really bizarre that all these articles focus on Infiniti's vaporware, and never mention Seals which actually, like, exists and has a thriving community. When I spoke to Caroline, I think the hook with her for Inifiniti was that it would be the first Bitcoin poker site which was fully legal in another country and took currencies other than Bitcoin, and was preparing to stand up to the US government in court if necessary. But I mean, SwitchPoker already meets that definition, other than the part about taking US players, and you can use a proxy if you want with them. Seals meets most of that definition, other than taking non-Bitcoin currency. So Micon's question stands - why focus on the vaporware and not mention the fully functioning poker sites that are already in this space?

I ain't worried about them, because we're not chasing the same market. StrikeSapphire isn't really a poker site. We do run some freeroll games, but we've never made anything from poker. It's just like a bonus to our casino players. If we'd decided a couple years back to focus on poker, and open to the US, it would be a different story. But no amount of money we could have made from that would have made it worth fighting the US Government on it.

I think Infiniti's phoney. That's my considered professional opinion. Seals is fine, and I wish Seals all the best, and always have, Freemoney's a good guy, and I tell everyone who asks that they're the best Bitcoin poker site out there and the place to find your best games. Especially if you're in the States. I don't view us as competition, because anything good for one Bitcoin site is good for another, there is so much room to grow. The whole Bitcoin economy including SR and all the trading sites is worth less than 1/1000th of the online gambling market. For every 10 new Bitcoiners that Infiniti or Seals gets into the game, probably 2-3 of them are from outside the US, and probably one of those feels like playing some roulette, craps, blackjack or video poker. And we have the best platform in the world for those people. So why wouldn't I be rooting for these guys at Infiniti unless I thought they were fake?

Said it before and I'll say it again... there's something not right about it. It doesn't take that long to build poker software. I know because I'm one coder and I did it myself with no prior experience, and it took about six months. I'm not sure what the point of this endless marketing campaign is, other than to show they have more money to spend on advertising and press than they do on building software. But if and when they do launch that's probably a good time to duck and run for cover; because what kind of never-launched, not-even-beta poker site has the connections and money to run media blitzes for a year solid? The kind that's an FBI decoy, lol.

I was going to bring up that article in Wired today. The amazing thing about that is, the main felony charge the NY state prosecutor leveled at the guy -- the thing he's looking at 35 years for -- was that he was "promoting gambling in New York". Not running a gambling site, mind you; not even aware which of his software clients might have been breaking New York law. This means that right now, Mavens could be indicted for providing software to Seals. It's completely possible that none of this guy's clients broke NY or US law, and that they define "promoting gambling" as simply writing software. We don't know because they won't unseal the indictment.

And this goes to the heart of the misunderstanding about Bitcoin, and why some operators and lots of gamblers think it's legal to gamble with it in the US. This case has nothing to do with Federal law. Yes, Bitcoin gets around the federal UIGEA, because it's not "money". But every state in the country has a law on the books against promoting untaxed, unlicensed gambling, and against running a game where a consideration is staked on a game of chance in exchange for something redeemable for value. Read that last sentence carefully. Only NY state, ironically, considers poker to not be a game of "chance", therefore making it technically not illegal to run a Bitcoin poker game in NY -- but that's down to some fluke ruling by a District Court judge in September, and probably won't be tested anywhere else for some time to come. As it stands, other states regulate poker by requiring licenses and/or regulating rakes, or even considering the game to be one of chance and banning it altogether. Any other game besides poker, where chance is involved, is definitely illegal gambling in all 50 states no matter if you're betting dollars or donuts on it.

The takeaway here, the thing to remember, is that any bored district attorney in any county of any one of those 50 states can get an indictment and have a casino owner extradited from anywhere else in the country; or, if they're a US citizen, from anywhere else in the world with an extradition treaty. This has nothing to do with US Federal law regulating currency; it's 50x as much jeopardy and Bitcoin does not alleviate it in the slightest.

Are you planning to also sell Bitcoins for Ukash?

I just want to say -

I love this site. Great execution, simple and fast, no hiccups and excellent gameplay. Solid piece of original software. The owner is very responsive and the crowd banter is fun. I lost something like 8 BTC the other night to a good opponent, but I can't seem to stay away from it - this is my favorite Bitcoin site of the year, bar none. If you want to test your wits, I've been on there most nights for the last week under the alias "chevy".

Great job BitTrivia, and keep up the excellent work.

Just a reminder, this evening we have:
8pm GMT - $100 Grand Player Points tournament (5k pp to enter),
9pm GMT - $40 Junior Player Points tournament (2k pp to enter).

There are very few players for these tournaments, so it's an easy shot at some coins. If you have player points in our system, come and join up! And if not - player points are quickly earned (1 point for every $0.25 in bets, including any live poker bets that are made and called, and any paid poker tournament entries).

Just a reminder if you're last-minute Christmas shopping.... it's not too late to send Bitcoins!

And... we have a winner! The winning player took down a solid pot of $1428 on a $5 bet - as well as some nice blackjack winnings. Congrats to player CG, who belongs to these forums and can make himself known if he so chooses.

It's 12:51 am where I'm sitting in Europe, and the world hasn't ended so that's good news. And it means we'll be running another fantastic promotion next week (providing conditions on Earth remain amicable to life between now and midnight in Samoa).

Happy Mayan Flip-over-day and thanks to all who played!

The Mayan Gold multiplayer slots jackpot now stands at $1,059.00 on the dot.

It will remain in this state, plus any additional collected progressives, until tomorrow, 12/21/2012, at 5pm GMT when we will add a final extra $100 to the pot.

The promotion ends at Midnight GMT, 12/22/2012, if the world hasn't ended by then... so come and play!

Thanks Libertaad, good to hear it! Our little Bitcoin corner of the world is such a tiny fraction of the online gaming industry - I've believed since the beginning that growth for any Bitcoin casino is growth for all of us. Our real competition isn't each other, it's Moneybookers, Neteller, and the old casinos that take them. And how many of those offer an HTML5, mobile, provably fair blackjack game like you do? None. And none of them let you multitable between different multiplayer games in the browser like us. Bitcoin democratized online gambling sites, and opened a market to independent developers who otherwise wouldn't have had the huge amounts of capital needed to launch a traditional casino. The innovation and freedom that's come out of it is astonishing, and I think will shake the whole moribund $12B a year industry. The main e-gaming providers (playtech, mb, et al.) haven't come up with anything fresh other than new slot themes for the last decade, and their development process is anything but agile. We think the more original Bitcoin casinos are out there, the better - because people don't go to Vegas for one or two casinos out in the desert. They go because that's where the action is. Even a dump like the Imperial Palace can make a killing when it's surrounded by the strip. Bitcoin's the only online currency where your cash is immediately mobile from one gaming house to the next. Some will do better than others over the next few years, but a rising tide for Bitcoin gaming lifts all boats.

The Mayan Gold jackpot currently stands at $721.55 ... only 3 days left to the end!

We've just introduced a new $40 player points freeroll for Sunday in addition to our $100 game...

For only 2000 player points, you can now buy into our $40 Sunday "Junior Player Points $40" game. Signups are already open. Two tables max, 5 players required to start this one. The game starts at 9pm GMT (our Grand $100 player points giveaway starts at 8pm). See you Sunday (if the world don't end)!

Jackpot's up to $600 

Thanks for the backup wachtwoord (and to you TradeFortress for retracting the post - I'm guilty of losing a few hundred bucks on your blackjack in the last few months, btw. No hard feelings).

And yes, this is so we can bump the thread at least once a day...

We've just added another $100 and the standing jackpot on Mayan Gold is now $500 and climbing.

Expected jackpot payouts on individual $0.25-$5.00 Mayan Gold tables are around $500, proportional to the bet size as a fraction of the maximum bet. Jackpots are typically paid about every 800 spins per seat, and since there are 3 seats per player and 10 seats total that means a full table should see one every 80 spins or so. 6% of every bet goes into the progressive pot, win or lose. So our expected final payout this week is $1500, tripling the normal jackpot and turning the game from about a 97.2% expected RTP to one north of 120%.

Anyway, no point saving your money when the world's ending next week. On the other hand, an extra $1k or so might just buy those extra cans of tuna you need to ride out the apocalypse...

Yup. Well, all our other threads are obsolete and/or locked, and this is a new thing - a $1000 jackpot for the week. Thanks for reading us our rights!

(Edit: I should also note that I've never been anything less than glowing in regards to Bitzino when speaking within the community, in the industry, or to press, so this takes me by surprise).