No business across any industry gets shielded from controversy or allegation. Whether true or false, these allegations can cause a thriving business to go under very quickly. However, for some businesses, controversy is an opportunity for them to learn and grow from their mistakes. One of those businesses swamped with controversy at one time was the online gambling site BetOnline. While it was a struggling time for them, they were able to come out on the other end of the controversy with the business intact and their reputation recovering.
Below we will look at the scandal that hit BetOnline and how it overcame this challenge to remain one of the more desired online gambling sites.
Backstory
The controversy’s origins come from an online video in 2017 where a Youtube video recorded by blackjack player Micheal Morgenstern seems to show a dealer during a live casino show doing a “second-dealing.” It’s called a second dealing when the second card of a deck is dealt instead of the top card. Of course, a dealer would do something like this only if they knew what the second card was, which they should not.
This results in the dealer winning the hand over the other player, cheating the player out of what would have been a win if everything went according to plan.
This video immediately leads to outrage amongst the general public. The common assumption was that this was either a rogue dealer who didn’t want to lose or a dealer trained to do this trick in certain circumstances. BetOnline hired this dealer through a third party, so there is a chance they did not know the dealer’s tactics. But they hired the company simultaneously, and the criticism still came. In any sense, the backlash was immediate, and BetOnline was slow to respond. They cut ties with the third party they were working with who sent over the dealer but trust in playing on their site diminished, and no one wanted to be the next victim of cheating.
An investigation occurred against the dealer in which they did not disclose much helpful information. The dealer was eventually fired and sent back to his home country, but no further action occurred.
How did BetOnline recover from the scandal?
Of course, the first necessary course of action was for BetOnline to sever ties with the third party they contracted the dealer from. That action was the first step in gaining the public’s trust back. The next step was properly screening all dealers who work for them regardless of where they are hiring. Then a lesson they learned was to be upfront and honest with the public from the jump. One criticism they suffered as they were too slow to respond to the controversy, which only shows they may have something to hide. Giving the public an immediate apology and plan for course correction is something they learned from this experience. Although they most likely would want to avoid this situation again.
Current day BetOnline
As mentioned in the intro, despite the controversy, BetOnline remains one of the top online betting sites for poker, casino, and sports. They retained this position by providing excellent user experience on their site and putting in proper roadblocks to ensure this controversy does not happen again.
Some people believe time heals all one, so the fact that it happened six years ago and has not happened again is good for any company looking to resurrect its reputation. So a combination of an overall good user experience on their site, emphasis on customer service, no follow-up controversies, and severing ties with controversial companies has allowed BetOnline to continue operating and remain at the top of the league regarding online betting.
Mistakes do happen and one of the most important things is to learn from them, so if you’re looking to see how the overall experience is now, the best thing to do is sign up and try it out for yourself. But be sure to claim the sign-up bonus being offered on this list of the top 10 online cash poker sites so you can get more value from your cash deposit.
Conclusion
You expect to be treated fairly and not cheat when you do anything. You expect a fair game even in a casino where everyone knows they need to make money. So to see a live event where a dealer hired by the company hosting the event egregiously side-swiped the players, it is easy to imagine a world where that business is no longer in service. Lucky for BetOnline, they were able to make the necessary changes to their company from a structural standpoint, and from an online experience standpoint, they were able to recover. Unfortunately, everyone’s eyes may still be on them, looking for another cheating scandal. Still, as long as they remain on the course they are currently traveling down; then they should be able to maintain their business and reputation in the long run.