- Joined
- Jun 30, 1998
- Location
- Bierland
It has been twenty-six years this month since I created a few HTML pages, conjured up the name Casinomeister, and uploaded these from my two-bedroom apartment in San Diego. That was a seemingly magical period of the Internet where anyone could come up with an idea, slap together a few pages (or one for that matter) and create a website that other folks might want to interact with.
I remember those first few months watching the traffic ticker – forty people in a day was awesome traffic in 1998 – and as it slowly grew, so did the site, my ideas — and with it grew the online gaming industry.
The impetus for Casinomeister was to list casinos that people could trust, and to list those that were the baddies – thus our mission statement:
“Trust is what it’s all about. Our mission at Casinomeister is to provide solid information, information that enables players to make smart choices. Since trust is spawned by information, the more players know about online casinos, the more at ease and safer they will be.”
That mission statement has always been the underlying philosophy of the site, and I have never wavered from it.
In the twenty-six years of running Casinomeister, I have been in the trenches alongside our community members. I have stood up for and defended countless players, affiliates, and even operators against the wave of greed and dishonesty that this industry breeds. And it was not just me, but the power of Casinomeister’s community that gave me that leverage. There are a lot of forum members who have been on this journey alongside me, most of whom I am very grateful for. It’s the members of our forum who really kept the online gambling industry in line. And those voices, especially the critical ones, helped me steer the right course for Casinomeister and continue our mission.
We have an incredibly small but dedicated staff. Max Drayman, our complaints manager, came on in 2007 and was a perfect match. Both of us have had the same experiences – especially during the infamous cowboy era of non-regulated casinos. Max and I have loads of stories to tell of the silly antics that some casinos (and players) would conjure up to rack up the Benjamins. Those stories will continue on our podcasts.
We have eight folks working behind the scenes here – not scores of people like our competitors – but eight. These happy few have given our competitors a run for their money – and we didn’t even have a marketing budget. So our success is something to be chuffed about.
What I am also chuffed about are the people I’ve connected with in the past twenty-six years of running this site. I know that many folks reading this have met lifelong friends via Casinomeister’s forum. Heck, we have had members enter love trysts and even go so far as marrying one other – after first meeting here in our forum.
I also can’t ignore the hundreds of thousands of dollars we have raised to help good causes through the years: the horrific tsunami in Thailand, the catastrophic Haitian earthquake, members in need, cancer drives, and even a charity drive for single mothers in the slums of Nairobi. This website has been behind positive, life-changing experiences for many folks – not just gamblers.
But I digress. Speaking of the here and now, it is time for me to move on – to leave my legacy here with you, with my community and my staff. I can say, without a doubt, that I have stood up to any opposition, never backed down, fessed up to my mistakes (when and if), ate crow on occasion — and had a lot of laughs along the way. Selling the company was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make in my entire life. This website has been my persona, my life, and my vision since that summer of 1998 — and I have stuck to my guns the entire time.
I am heartened to know that GiG is planning to provide the resources to enable Casinomeister to become what I always imaged it could be. I am very stoked about the future of Casinomeister (not to forget about GoneGambling – that’s part of the deal too). GiG and I go way back, to the very beginning of their company; myself and some of our forum members even visited their offices years ago in Malta, so there is a poetic sort of ambiance with this move.
I will still be here for the next few months, assisting in the transition and chiming in here and there. But there will come a day when I won’t be around anymore – as George Harrison once sublimely put it: “all things must pass”. And and so it goes…
So I am passing on my legacy and my labour of love to everyone reading these words. Please carry on the Casinomeister spirit with integrity, candour, love and good humour.
Peace
Bryan
I remember those first few months watching the traffic ticker – forty people in a day was awesome traffic in 1998 – and as it slowly grew, so did the site, my ideas — and with it grew the online gaming industry.
The impetus for Casinomeister was to list casinos that people could trust, and to list those that were the baddies – thus our mission statement:
“Trust is what it’s all about. Our mission at Casinomeister is to provide solid information, information that enables players to make smart choices. Since trust is spawned by information, the more players know about online casinos, the more at ease and safer they will be.”
That mission statement has always been the underlying philosophy of the site, and I have never wavered from it.
In the twenty-six years of running Casinomeister, I have been in the trenches alongside our community members. I have stood up for and defended countless players, affiliates, and even operators against the wave of greed and dishonesty that this industry breeds. And it was not just me, but the power of Casinomeister’s community that gave me that leverage. There are a lot of forum members who have been on this journey alongside me, most of whom I am very grateful for. It’s the members of our forum who really kept the online gambling industry in line. And those voices, especially the critical ones, helped me steer the right course for Casinomeister and continue our mission.
We have an incredibly small but dedicated staff. Max Drayman, our complaints manager, came on in 2007 and was a perfect match. Both of us have had the same experiences – especially during the infamous cowboy era of non-regulated casinos. Max and I have loads of stories to tell of the silly antics that some casinos (and players) would conjure up to rack up the Benjamins. Those stories will continue on our podcasts.
We have eight folks working behind the scenes here – not scores of people like our competitors – but eight. These happy few have given our competitors a run for their money – and we didn’t even have a marketing budget. So our success is something to be chuffed about.
What I am also chuffed about are the people I’ve connected with in the past twenty-six years of running this site. I know that many folks reading this have met lifelong friends via Casinomeister’s forum. Heck, we have had members enter love trysts and even go so far as marrying one other – after first meeting here in our forum.
I also can’t ignore the hundreds of thousands of dollars we have raised to help good causes through the years: the horrific tsunami in Thailand, the catastrophic Haitian earthquake, members in need, cancer drives, and even a charity drive for single mothers in the slums of Nairobi. This website has been behind positive, life-changing experiences for many folks – not just gamblers.
But I digress. Speaking of the here and now, it is time for me to move on – to leave my legacy here with you, with my community and my staff. I can say, without a doubt, that I have stood up to any opposition, never backed down, fessed up to my mistakes (when and if), ate crow on occasion — and had a lot of laughs along the way. Selling the company was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make in my entire life. This website has been my persona, my life, and my vision since that summer of 1998 — and I have stuck to my guns the entire time.
I am heartened to know that GiG is planning to provide the resources to enable Casinomeister to become what I always imaged it could be. I am very stoked about the future of Casinomeister (not to forget about GoneGambling – that’s part of the deal too). GiG and I go way back, to the very beginning of their company; myself and some of our forum members even visited their offices years ago in Malta, so there is a poetic sort of ambiance with this move.
I will still be here for the next few months, assisting in the transition and chiming in here and there. But there will come a day when I won’t be around anymore – as George Harrison once sublimely put it: “all things must pass”. And and so it goes…
So I am passing on my legacy and my labour of love to everyone reading these words. Please carry on the Casinomeister spirit with integrity, candour, love and good humour.
Peace
Bryan
Lest anyone fear that I have been remiss: 
cheers Bryan and thanks for all the assistance/contributions/work over these 11.5 years (and the years before I joined too!) 
