Costa Rican sources state that known rogue operation BetCSI.com will soon fold down, if they haven't dissapeared already. This scam sportsbook was run from an industrial park in Heredia, Costa Rica. They have re-launched the shop under a different name - SelectWagering.com- and have redirected the BetCSI.com URL to Sportsbookreview.com.

SportsCrew.com Statement: Many scam sportsbooks and undercapitalized operations will close their doors after the NCAA tournament, just to reappear right before the NFL Pre-Season with an outrageous bonus offer. In a 8-month run, these con artists look forward to luring the unaware player into depositing with them and when April comes, they close down operations and dissappear with your hard-earned cash. Do not become a victim of these scammers, here are a few symptoms that you can spot to help you identify these places...(read more)

A Summary on the MyBookie.com situation: After much debate and despite a situation that was never black and white, MyBookie.com has agreed to settle a pending balance of over $85,000 with one of their players. While this situation has been solved successfully, some of the questions that arose were left unanswered; especially regarding the professional ethics of so called ‘watchdog sites'.

The bottom line is that despite all the confusion and media manipulation, MyBookie.com has decided to settle their outstanding balance with the player, reaffirming their position as one of the reputable companies in the industry. It should also be noted that Ken Weitzner, Russ Hawkins and General Pete -authoritative figures in the offshore wagering industry- were instrumental in facilitating and providing open channels of communication between the player and the sportsbook.

Bill Dozer form SBR reports on Betgateway.com -known scam sportsbook- going as far as zeroing out betting accounts. One player have reported to SBR how his balance of $11,500 has been removed from his account. This is flat out stealing and it cannot be be seen as anything else. SportsCrew.com recommends that under no circumstances you send funds to this 'stiff joint'.

On March 3, 2005 Bill Dozer from SBR first reported on some players being slow-paid by Intertops.com. Management issued an official statement claiming the reason for such delay was the result of a marketing campaign they had conducted in their poker room and that had generated an unpredicted amount of pay-out requests via Neteller. They further stated the situation had been addressed and that all payments would be resumed after 3-4 business days.

On March 8, 2005 some players reported receiving pending withdrawal requests via Neteller. However, Intertops.com has failed to return to their standard operational procedures as of yet and the company has also failed to settle pending balances with owed players using alternative methods, as it was initially offered by management.

SportsCrew statement: the explanation offered by Intertops.com management is very plausible, as many merchants work on a projected cash flow when dealing with 3rd party payment solutions such as NETeller. At times, it's possible that the incoming withdrawal requests will exceed this projected cash flow, and since it takes 3-4 business days for a NETeller merchant to fund their NT account via Bank Wire, this might result on delayed payments via NETller. The period of time that it takes to clear that bank wire is usually the period of time that it takes for a NT merchant to resume payments via this method. However, we also believe it was a irresponsible for Intertops.com management to not have foreseen this situation, especially after launching a marketing campaign of this magnitude; it is unacceptable to delay payments beyond 3-4 business days and we also believe Intertops.com should have offered to settle all pending withdrawal requests using alternative methods of transaction.

After a 10 day period of delayed payments and until this situation is cleared, Intertops.com has been moved from our list of “Other Reputable Books” to our list of “Additional Books”. We recommend that players refrain from sending funds to Intertops.com until this situation is cleared. While Intertops.com is one of the senior companies in the online gaming industry, no risk should be absorbed by the players.

SportsCrew.com has contacted Intertops.com requesting a comment on their current situation with delayed NT payments. This is the body of the e-mail sent to Intertops.com by Will Gatten, SportsCrew.com senior analyst:



""Hello;



My name is Will Gatten and I'm contacting you from http://www.SportsCrew.com . We have reviewed Intertops.com and we believe your operation is one of the most reputable and professional operations in the industry. Please take a look at our review on your company: http://www.sportscrew.com/review/review_II.php?reviewid=137

The reason we are contacting you is because we have read the multiple reports from Bill Dozer on SBR and we have issued a statement of our own. Please allow me to quote:



” On March 3, 2005 Bill Dozer from SBR first reported on some players being slow-paid by Intertops.com. Management issued an official statement claiming the reason for such delay was the result of a marketing campaign they had conducted in their poker room and that had generated an unpredicted amount of pay-out requests via Neteller. The further stated the situation had been addressed and that all payments would be resumed after 3-4 business days...” (cut off for sake of brevity).



You can view this statement by visiting the following page: http://www.sportscrew.com/review/review_frontpage.php. In an effort to remain as objective as possible, we would like for you to comment on this situation and we would like you to know we will publish your comments or lack of them.

Thanks in advance for your time and help.

Kind regards,

Will Gatten

Senior Analyst

www.SportsCrew.com

www.SportsCrewPOKER.com"

SportsCrew.com will publish Intertops.com future comments on this situation.

Michael Maerz from Intertops.com has sent SportsCrew.com a prompt response on the issues reported by SBR. "There is  really little to add to our original statement except that we have always had a good reputation for paying out our customers. As you know , we have been in operation for over 20 years and we can assure you and our customers that we are not in the business of defrauding anyone out of their money." he continued to say; "If there was a magic button to clear the backlog caused by the success of our poker promotion we'd use it but under the circumstances we are working through the pay-outs as fast as humanly possible and I am happy to report that we should be back to normal by tomorrow, Thursday, Friday the latest."

When inquired regarding the statements of Bill Dozer from SBR, Mr. Maerz added: "There was a misunderstanding when I or one of my colleagues spoke to Mr. Dozer: While we do offer alternative payment out methods, customers who deposited funds via NETeller must be paid out by NETeller - this as per our merchant agreement with the payment processor. Once again, please accept our apologies for the delays and our assurance that in the future we won't allow a similar situation to arise".

SportsCrew.com statement: we believe Intertops is a very reputable operation tested by time; and while this situation with NT has represented an incovenience to many players, it's also true Intertops.com has never been known to delay payment to their customers as a business practice. As previously reported, a large percentage of players have received their funds today, March 09 and as Mr. Maerz has stated, all players should be paid in full by Friday at the latest. We believe this was an isolated incident with this company and they will be placed back on our 'Other Reputable Sportsbooks' list, once all players involved in this situation have been paid.

Intertops has reportedly returned to their usual operational standards when processing payouts via NETeller. The following is the official statement issued by Intertops.com management:

"Dear Valued Customer,

Intertops.com Management is pleased to announce that as of today our payment processing is back to normal.

We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best Regards,



The Intertops.com Management"

SportsCrew.com Statement: All players that had pending withdrawal requests have been paid within the time frame initially offered by the management of this company. We believe that while this situation could have been prevented, it's always a good sign when management gets seriously involved to make sure all issues of this nature are addressed professionally and expeditiously. We commend Mr. Michael Maerz from Intertops for having shown such a professional and eager disposition to clear all doubts and establishing a premium channel of communication with us. Intertops.com has been placed back into our 'Other Reputable Books' list. Read their review here.

After reviewing the information submitted by Bill Dozer from SBR and Minnow from Major Wager, SportsCrew strongly recommends players to avoid all gaming websites holding a license from the Futurebet Gaming Network, as all of these sites are at least 30 days behind in the processing of Neteller withdrawal requests. With no exceptions, all player's funds should be available upon request promptly and with no hassles. A 30 day delay period is simply unacceptable.

Bill Dozer from SBR is reporting delays on payments to at least one player by Dimebetting.com. Management has claimed they're having problems with their banking system and have alleged they will resume payments as soon as a pending bank wire is cleared. However, it seems odd that an operation will not have finacial solvency to honor withdrawal requests via two or more transaction methods simultaneously. Unconfirmed sources believe Dimebetting.com might be going through a decisive time of financial hardship and we strongly recommend that you do not send them any funds until this situation has been solved. Although we cannot confirm this is the case here, in the past many operations offered their most attractive bonus packages right before folding. Players need to use extreme caution in this situation.

SCAM ALERT: SportsCrew.com issues warning on CompuSportsbook.com, run by the IGS/PlayerCenter. This 'service platform' claims they only provide turnkey services for different operators. In the past, there have been operations run from this platform that closed their doors stealing players' funds shamelessly. Among the cases reviewed by SportsCrew.com, we saw a player lose over $40,000 when he got stiffed by PlanetCasino.com; operation that closed down stealing at least $80,000 altogether. ProsBet.com was the name of their latest service vanishing into the night with players' funds. Do NOT send your hard-earned cash any of the operations under the IGS/Playercenter umbrella, as many of them have forged a reputation of being 'stiff joints'.