CAP Officials Admit Involvement in CardSpike Online Poker Room

A partner in Casino Affiliate Programs (CAP), Warren Jolly, this week, admitted he was trying to "cover up" his "affiliation with CardSpike", an online poker room that had been slow paying affiliate partners for up to two months.

Gambling911.com had first reported the CardSpike/CAP relationship in late December.  Organizers in CAP, Jolly included, denied the allegations at first.

"I screwed up," Jolly confessed this week.  "There is no excuse for trying to cover up my affiliation with CardSpike, other than I knew there would be a conflict of interest. I realize that I have betrayed your trust, and all that I can ask at this point, is that you give me a chance to rebuild it," he begged his members.

Jolly went on to describe the CardSpike/CAP affiliation:

"Last year, Lou and I formed Effective Media Group, or EMG, as a completely separate company from CAP and PAP.

"We did this for two reasons. First, Lou (Fabiano) wanted to manage a company from his home base in Florida. A new company would provide the revenue stream necessary to enable that. Lou would have a separate company to grow and develop, while remaining at CAP as community administrator, while I handled the day-to-day business of CAP, PAP, and Affiliate Media's other properties from our main headquarters in California.

"Second, Lou and I were approached by a group of investors seeking our help in launching two new online properties: Absolute Slots, an online casino, and Cardspike, an online poker website. We set up EMG as a separate company though which we could offer managed consultancy operations to these clients as well as utilize EMG as a vehicle to launch our own affiliate portals - CasinoFan.com being the first - since that was our start in this business pre-2000. We did this together, as business partners."

Since news emerged of the CardSpike/CAP story, a war of words between CAP organizers and Gaming Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA) entities escalated into a physical altercation of sorts in London earlier this month.

Jolly announced he would no longer have any affiliation with Effective Media Group nor with CardSpike.

Jolly also took time to bad mouth his former partner, Fabiano.

"He has displayed unwarranted hostility towards community members and has even posted forum threads under other users' names - even under my own name."

Jolly also stated the following: "He (Lou) has chosen to circulate throughout the iGaming world a letter in which I am accused of illegally channeling Affiliate Media funds into my own personal accounts. This is absolutely untrue. The transactions in question were simply the transferring of company funds from one corporate account to another. This was done in order to limit access to these funds and protect the company and its shareholders from rash and potentially damaging actions (such as posting sensitive financial information on public message boards)."

While some CAP members have expressed a willingness to "forgive" Mr. Jolly, they also felt compelled to put him on notice.

"Of course there will be some outstanding ill will," said one member on the CAP posting forum.  "(And) to be quite frank it's likely that most people (myself included) will probably put the whole organisation very much on a trial basis," making reference to the "changes" that will need to take place in order to build back trust.

Another member posted the obvious, referring to Jolly's lack of interaction within the CAP community and at their functions.

"In all my time here I only ever saw the caring from Lou and Dom (moderator).  (It) will be an interesting time no doubt as I will watch the interaction from yourself in this place but I don't see the effort anywhere near what Lou has done in the past."

And then there was this angry response to Mr. Jolly: "By your own admission, you are just as deceitful as you CLAIM LOU is.  I was actually hoping one of you was CLEAN!  You are both liars by your own admissions.  You guys don't just screw everyone in the INDUSTRY, you SCREW yourselves too!!!!  Pathetic!

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher