Marty Jensen Steps Out From The Shadows

When to Pay Winners

Brian Cullingworth Question: As an operator/owner what do you regard as a reasonable period for a player to be paid at one of your casinos (a) electronically and (b) via more traditional methods?

Marty Jensen: Well, this week we are going to begin paying players within 48 hours.  The problem is this requires a lot of staff.  I know that when I win I like to get paid fast.  What we've done in the past, if you won $500 or more we'll overnight you a check and as of this week anybody with winnings of $250 or more we are going to overnight you a check.  There is going to be a cost to us as we are going to incur the overnight fees but it is worth it to us.  That is one of the things we are always trying to do is get the money back to the players a lot quicker than we have in the past.

Sports911: Now when you say "In the past", what was the lag time we are talking about here?

Marty Jensen: We played around with various policies in the past.  There is a group of good casino operators that believe if you lag the payouts for two weeks - I think the number (of these players) is 30 percent - the players will deposit money during that intervening two week period.  So the thinking from a business point of view is you are better to lag for those two weeks to get the money in.  I know several casino operators who do just that.  We experimented with that for a while but I really think that the new policy we have in place now is superior.  

Sports911: So we are talking slow pay here or is this policy stated on the website?

Marty Jensen: No, it would be stated on the website.  It would say "If you win between such and such an amount".  For example, if we have a guy who wins from $20,000 and up now, we wire within two days.  It is a celebration for them.  We had someone win a jackpot for $74,000, she had that money in two days.  If you come in and win playing blackjack and I don't have any history on you that could take three or four days to get paid. 

TheRx.com Purchase

Jensen really did not want to talk much about this other than the fact that he does have a partner who is not active in the industry itself.  The purchase price is confidential and when asked if it was worth it, he said to ask him in six months. 

The Focus: "Faster, more secure and much more stable (especially in light of the recent Denial of Service attacks).  We've spent a lot of money upgrading the servers and have good people working for me."

Improvements: "Increase traffic and improve our live lines feature."

"Ken Weitzner (aka "The Shrink" and original owner pictured above) is committed 100 percent to the future growth of TheRx."

Conflict: "They are two separate businesses.  Casinos and sportsbooks are two different animals and TheRx.com will remain a sportsbook portal.  Will not get involved in the online casino aspect of the industry."

Would it remain a watchdog site?

"Yes I believe this is a good model."

In fact, he has turned down advertisers since coming on board. 

"It hurts turning away money but sometimes it is the better decision.  It is not a healthy thing to have a book that's only been around six or eight months going down."

Jensen does not want to saturate the advertising space. 

"If you are one of our ten advertisers, we do not want to dilute the income that is coming in from the current advertisers, which is why increasing the traffic is so important.  We can continue increasing the number of advertisers then."

There will not be any planned rate increases over the next few months.

Thoughts on eCobra

Brian Cullingworth Question:  As a casino owner and operator you will no doubt have watched with interest the development of the eCOGRA organisation and it's attempts to provide a form of voluntary self-regulation by casinos that have achieved its Seal?  Any comments on the structure and potential impact of this body on the industry?

Marty Jensen: Here is my comment on that.  If it is truly independent every casino on there is Microgaming.  Same for Safebet, a similar organization set up by Real Time Gaming.  The principal behind that was Michael Staw so it's a bit of a farce.

Sports911: That was a great one since nearly everyone on there (Safebet) has failed.  (We of course were being sarcastic).

Marty Jensen: Exactly.  For me, that sort of thing is great (the organizations set up by the companies themselves) but they need to be truly independent and I don't know that they are.

RTG vs. Playtech

Jensen left Real Time Gaming for one reason, "Playtech is a better product".

Marty Jensen: It (RTG) is not as sophisticated as Playtech, plain and simple.

Costa Rica Licensing and Insurance?

Brian Cullingworth Question: Players frequently ridicule the notion that a Costa Rican *business* license is a valid online casino gambling assurance that it is truly licensed for online gambling, yet casinos - particularly those powered by RTG - seem intent on perpetuating that myth.  What are  your feelings about Costa Rica as a true gambling jurisdiction, and do you believe that the government of that country is sincere in their oft-stated intention to genuinely regulate and tax online casinos with a real gambling license and requirements regarding minimum cash reserves, management probity checks, genuine player dispute infrastructures and ongoing monitoring for fair and honest games?

Marty Jensen: The players are right, it's a myth.  As far as getting a business license that is just rhetoric.

Jensen does have great hope for Costa Rica in terms of allowing operators to stay put there.  He feels the government looks more kindly upon online casino operators than they do sportsbook owners. 

Marty Jensen: There is a vast difference between online casinos and sportsbooks.  You have to realize that every article about a sportsbook down here is negative but understand there is just too much revenue and employment generated here.  I believe they are more comfortable with the online casinos.  Sportsbook owners are often looked upon as a rougher crew perhaps.

Brian Cullingworth Question: Another claim made on RTG sites that is regarded with some doubt by the player community is the statement that the casino in question is "Fully Insured".  Do you have this claim on your sites?  If so, can you tell us for what your players are insured and by whom?

Marty Jensen: I don't believe there is any insurance in Costa Rica.  I think you can buy insurance from certain countries like the UK but the premiums would be astronomical.  I don't think we have anything posted like that on any of our sites but I will go through them and check with my tech guys.  Let's just say hypothetically I've been a terrible business man and have blown all the money, there is no insurance for the players if we were to go down and I am quite sure that 98 percent of the online casinos out there are the same way.