Chapter 3; pages 49-50

Even with the bright red burn I still showed up at the office, worked with the sales staff and went to my regular meetings with both Shaun and Claude. Shaun had a human side and seemed generally concerned that I was in pain but would also have a good laugh with the sales team at my expense. Claude on the other hand it was business as usual although in our first meeting back he gave me a furrowed brow incredulous look as to wonder if I knew what sun block was? That was the only emotional look I ever saw from Claude that first trip outside of ear to ear smiles he got looking at the number of sign ups posted on the chalk board inside the sales office. After that look it was back to the usual stoicism. The upcoming week everyone’s eyes would pop out staring at me or they would grab a pair of sun glasses to deflect the glow of my burnt red glowing skin. Other than the one look, Claude never really let on that he was remotely human directly towards me during our first encounter in Costa Rica. But then again that was the type of guy Claude was, very closed to most people, private, but he let everyone know that he was “The Man” with his entourage of gun toting security guards in suits surrounding him at all times or just outside of his door. And he was the man, when he walked down the hall, everyone got out of his way. When he spoke everyone would shut up and listen. When I made suggestions pertaining to advertising he would never flinch or agree just remain silent with an occasional disagreement. His silence told me I was right.

The first year NASA was my client they paid me about $8500 in cash and the other $8500 they put on a betting account. When I tried to withdraw the account money which was my money Shaun tells me I have to get approval from Claude. I ask Claude for money and he tells me that I have to deal with Shaun. After a minor run around I re-address my need to get paid and Shaun responds by telling me I have to play it many times over before I withdraw because they want an opportunity to win it back. I should have demanded the money but my eyes were on the big picture and big money in 2001 since I know I impressed them with my work in 2000. My mistake because once money goes into a BOS it just doesn’t find its way out other than the form of untraceable gold bars. I tried one more time while back in California to withdraw the money and the payouts department tells me I have to speak with Shaun and he did a good job of avoiding my calls. I would end up losing all of the money because it was available and once I start to gamble it’s an ego thing, I have to win and won’t quit till I win. The result was the usual.

I can’t count how many times Claude or Shaun would cynically laugh about a customer expecting a payout with “What’s a payout?” This was a joke that resonated throughout BOS from the sales room to the customer service room. They paid most people but would periodically get on the phone trying to negotiate with big winners to taking less of a payout and keeping money in their accounts. Allegedly sometimes the negotiations were not without conditions that the customer take some but not all or BOS will just keep all. This was amazing since the company was pulling in loads of cash every single day.

Towards the end of September I was ready to return to Los Angeles for the remainder of the football season. I had accomplished what I set out to do at BOS and then some. I got to know plenty of the personal first hand which was unique considering most agencies that solicited to the online gaming industry at the time would restrict their relationship to the phone and email. I impressed Mr. Ripner by cleaning up the advertising messes and going beyond the call of responsibility and providing exceptional information with legal interpretations to break down a barrier of acceptance with the state of Florida. I befriended the right people that would insure better tracking methods. I also got a nice sun tan that would make Southern Californians envious and made a few bucks along the way. Last but not least I briefly met a short overweight gentleman with a strange southern-like drawl who was paying his dues sitting at a desk on the 6th floor with the wager clerks from Jaguar, much like what I was doing in the 10th floor sales office. The young fellow would be laying the groundwork for one of the best offshore sports book operations of 2001 and thereafter, Mr. Chuck Bauer. I don’t remember meeting Chuck on that trip but he remembered me and that says a lot about the guy. He is great with people.


*MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson is probably best known as MacGyver, the clever and inventive nonviolent hero who solved problems in his own unique way for seven successful seasons on ABC. Not only could MacGyver invest a non-violent bomb out of string and bubble gum to escape his captors but was the heart throb for Marge Simpson’s chain cigarette smoking sisters, Patty and Selma.

Chapter 3; pages 46-48

After sitting around and drinking for a few hours I decided to take a walk down the road to a grocery mart that we passed in the night to see if I could get a couple of postcards. Manuel Antonio is a hot place of about 85 degrees which is perfect climate for the howler monkeys and iguanas that were up swinging and hanging out in the trees, respectively. Meanwhile I was sweating in the heat and humidity on my walk down the road of Manual Antonio that morning. I purchased the postcards at the grocery mart and asked the clerk jokingly if there were any postal boxes out here in the middle of nowhere. To my surprise the clerk gave me directions about a couple hundred meters away where there in the middle of the jungle sat a weather beaten wooden postal box.

Upon returning back to the hotel Tom and I packed up our beach gear and headed on down to the ocean. It was a downhill walk of about a mile and there was fun to be had. I wanted to check out the wild animal park, catch some rays, and play in the warm pacific blue ocean. Meanwhile, DD took off in a cab to Quepos where she purchased some sun block-4 and more Imperial Beer. Now Tom and DD had been in Costa Rica for some time and this was not their first trip to Manuel Antonio. Both of their skin tones are darker than mine and sunblock-4 is not quite enough they say for me. I have no fear I have gotten sun burns before and none of them really hurt but then again I was never as close as 500 miles from the equator in September when the sun was extremely intense.

We spent hours on the beach, laying out in the sun, drinking, and my favorite beach time recreation of body surfing. I love the feel of heading out about a two hundred yards as the waters descended only a couple of degrees to the point where I could barely see the shore while on my tip toes at about 6 feet of water and jumping up and down with each wave waiting to catch a big one. And I would do this for hours in the warmth of the Central American Pacific waters catching wave after wave, having a great time in the surf without a care in the world. I find peace at these moments and that is one of the reasons I moved the extra mile inland to live right on the beach when I returned to Redondo Beach, California.

The beaches of Costa Rica are beautiful. The jungle comes right up to the ocean and you can see the howler monkeys staying cool in the mid day shade while out in the surf. The sand is very flat, not fluffy probably from the steady rains that come every night. A few thatched roofed huts line the beach along with some outdoor beach bars, souvenir vendors, and restaurants constructed out of basic materials that would consist of a few 2x4’s, some plywood, and thatched roofs. A far reach from the metropolitan beach fronts along the California coastline that I am accustomed to with million dollar homes, huge harbors full of large yachts, and restaurants with strict building codes. It hit me while in the surf that I was in a relaxed world that was far from my modest upbringing.

We spent hours on the beach and a few more hours sitting at a seaside café on plastic chairs while smoking some wacky tobacco, gulping beers, having a few laughs and playing with a stray lost puppy. We got our fill of fun before deciding to head back up the hill for dinner. The walk up the hill was not nearly as pleasant as the walk down to the beach. The upgrade of the hill slope to the hotels is brutal.
We had a nice early dinner with delicious fresh seafood and plenty of alcohol amongst the howler monkeys and iguanas overlooking the jungle which was considerably more scenic than the night before in Quepos. Unfortunately the nightlife in Manuel Antonio wasn’t quite heated up during the rainy season of September. So the night concluded back at the hotel on the balcony much like the way it started just relaxing in the moment. After the intensity in the BOS sales office it was enjoyable to catch a little bit of peace and serenity in the jungle while indulging in alcohol and smoke.

The next day we would return to San Jose. En route to the bus stop that morning we stopped off in Quepos for breakfast. We all had our dosage of beach as we were all burnt out and a little food and drink was just what the doctor ordered before jumping back on the bus. We ate that morning in a seaside café in Quepos. The food in Quepos never disappoints me and the bathrooms certainly humored me. In order to save on plumbing costs neither bathroom has a sink to wash your hands but there is a communal sink on the exterior between the men’s and women’s bathrooms. Also the doors to enter into the bathrooms I believe were constructed by African pygmies. Very short people would have no problems with these low riding doors as even DD had to duck her head to get into the bathroom and at 6’4” in height I had to do a forced limbo.

That was the typical trip for the salesman at BOS. You didn’t make enough money to buy an air ticket and you could never get more than one day off a week so it was out after work, have a great night and a full day of fun, sun, and surf followed up by another great night surrounded by as much wicked indulgences as humanly possible before heading back to the big city of San Jose for the daily grind of taking calls from anxious gamblers.

By the time I got back I started to notice the glowing red of my skin. I was burnt real good. I never understood how strong the sun was till the next day in the office. I sat around the office in sheer pain while the cleaning ladies were all gathered around me a couple of times per day vacuuming up the sheets of dead burnt skin that was shedding right off my body. Luckily only two guys in the office were big enough to mess with my burn, and George had some pity for my condition but Tom was a different story. As much of a prankster as Tom was the sad truth was he was often too drunk even in the office to realize he was slapping me on the back or placing his hand or arm around my shoulder like a good buddy. Tom was a great buddy but a third degree sun burn is no time to have your back slapping buddy around even with the most neighborly of intentions.

Chapter 3; Pages 43-46

Chapter 3

The Lobster


The highlights and lowlights of my first trip to Costa Rica occurred outside of the NASA offices. Tom, DD and I took off to a place called Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Ocean. Manuel Antonio is just outside of a small town called Quepos on the west coast of Costa Rica and hidden along the hillsides with majestic views of the jungle bordering a thin strip of beach with giant rock island formations about a quarter of a mile out. The three of us ventured off one evening after work. Tom loaded up with a couple bags of potato chips, two bottles of Guaro which is the equivalent of the American farmer’s corn liquor with a brutal taste, chest burning after taste and label on par with Mad Dog 20/20. In layman’s terms, its bum’s liquor, along with a couple six packs of Imperial Beer, the local brew. The three of us then ventured through the dirty seedy areas of downtown San Jose en route to the bus stop where we were getting ready for a 4 hour trip through the mountains and down into the west coast of Costa Rica which is 20 minutes by flight but the BOS workers just were not paid enough to afford air travel.

The three of us boarded the bus, taking the back seats where we patiently consumed beer as Tom had already chugged the Guaro before we could get on the bus. We were patient because there were no stops along the way to drain the bladder. About two hours into the trip I look over and notice Tom has downed all the beer and cannot wait any longer so he quickly ate all the potato chips than in MacGyver* like fashion used the potato chip bag as his own personal potty. Disgustingly he sprayed the rest of us inside the bus with the wind blowing his make shift potty back into the bus. That was about as unpleasant as the trip would get and really scar me on bus travel in Costa Rica. Luckily we traveled by night and I was unable to see the rickety old bridge with alligators or crocodiles hanging out below. I am not sure exactly about the differences between the two but they were big lizards in the daylight. The bridge was literally big enough to have about 3 inches of grace room on each side of the bridge before it was time to test oneself in a speed swimming contest against a gator.

We arrived in Quepos at nightfall. It is a dirty little Central American town bordered by the incredibly beautiful Manuel Antonio. We spent three hours on the bus and decided to do the last two miles on foot while sharing some wacky Costa Rican grown tobacco as we ventured through the jungle en route to our hotel up in the hills while carrying our daypacks. The night was very clear as if it had just rained and thousands of stars shown in the night through the jungle trees on the single road up to Manuel Antonio. While walking under the moonlight I never thought I would see a giant satellite dish in the middle of the jungle big enough to engulf a couple of Hummer sports utility vehicles. The whacky tobacco was certainly making me question my own vision. This was my first time in a jungle and I fell in love with it from the get go. I thought it would be really nice to see during the daylight and see what was howling and chirping.

After checking into the hotel we quickly unpacked and were ready to appease our growling stomachs. Dinner the first night was spent in Quepos where we wanted to parlay the evening with the nightlife at the nightclub inside the Holiday Inn where music could be heard blasting from blocks away and social beverages were undoubtedly flowing freely. We took a cab into Quepos and once I got out of the cab I had to step over a poor fellow who looked like Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street with a full grizzly beard and hair covering just about the rest of his body was taking a nap/passed out next to the gutter. I had to do a double take at the grizzled fellow and realized he was wearing a natural sweater of human hair. Then I had to walk across a wooden plank over the gutter as turds and piss flowed by below, not exactly the ambiance you want for a mouth watering dinner. The picture on the outside of the restaurant would never be confused with elegant or even a 2-star restaurant but the food inside was delicious and the American dollar was quite strong back in 2000 before the US dollar began to decline. The entertainment was none other than good old porn on television. Was I in romantic Paris? No this was just a simple town lost on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica that catered to the poor man’s budget. The entrée for the evening consisted of pollo (chicken) and fresh seafood accompanied by bottle after bottle of beer for 250 colones (Costa Rican currency) which was than the equivalent of about $.75 US. Later that night I spoiled myself spending about 500 colones for Coronas with loud music, dancing and socializing with the party friendly beach dwellers at the Holiday Inn. The only thing I didn’t like was all the beautiful, friendly girls in this beach community that teased my manhood to the point of frustration.

I often enjoyed the nightlife throughout my first trip to Costa Rica. And there was a lot of nightlife to be had. There were plenty of bars, nightclubs, strip bars, and the more popular tourist medical bars. The medical bars where unique where every girl in the place was ready to give you a sample of Costa Rican health care/hospitality by checking out your balls with a firm squeeze followed by some Spanish. Since I am not completely fluent in Spanish I assumed the girls were saying “Turn your head to the left and cough”, just like doctor's do back home when getting a physical. The one thing I didn’t do was take advantage of these natural pleasure resources staying true to my girlfriend back in Los Angeles. So that night in Quepos was generally a night full of cheap beer and cheap laughs with a pending hangover to commence.


Upon returning to the hotel I tried to sleep out on the balcony as the full moon shine down on the Pacific Ocean from our hotel room a couple hundred feet above the ocean surface. The hotel view at night was beautiful. I wanted to soak it all up by sleeping out on the patio in the hammock. After a nightcap and a smoke with Tom and DD, I lay down to rest in the company of the hordes of flying bugs that also seemed to enjoy the views of Manuel Antonio. After about maybe an hour of trying to sleep with buzzing going on in my ears and consistently slapping myself in a not so pleasing manner to ward off the bugs I retreated to the safety of the hotel room and crashed on the couch as Tom and DD occupied the bedroom of our suite. As I looked up at the ceiling of the darkened hotel room listening to absolute peace and quiet with the exception of a few chirping crickets and an occasional restless howler monkey, I smiled to myself knowing I was going to be in for a pleasant nights rest.

Waking up the next morning a hangover would have been justified but the beauty of Manuel Antonio was breath taking that morning offsetting anything that could be construed as throbbing cranial pain. Not to mention we were out very late and never settled in long enough for a hangover. I sparked up with Tom on the balcony while gazing out across the awe inspiring views of the Pacific blue ocean under equally clear blue skies with not a cloud in sight. The morning was perfect. I took a moderately cool shower that was offset by the intense heat that I could feel inside the open air hotel room. Then, I adjourned to the balcony with the sun crashing down against my pale off-white California skin for some much needed breakfast compliments of DD. She cooked up a healthy combination of eggs, toast, and sausage while Tom rolled joints and I mixed bloody marys and screwdrivers. The simplest breakfast was enhanced greatly by the drink and Mother Nature at her best blasting her warm rays of sunshine down on us along the hillsides of the Costa Rican Pacific coastline while the parrots and howler monkeys gawked and screeched respectively.

Chapter Two; pages 39-41

Along with the bonus program BOS really enjoyed littering mailboxes across the country with obnoxious mailers. Usually every sales representative would get a handful of calls every week where the prospective gambler or the girlfriend/wife parent of the prospective gambler would request that they be taken off of the mailer list. The first time I got one of these calls I was told to ignore it and Claude was in earshot of me when I mentioned this and said, “take down their name and address and I will make sure to increase the mailers”. This was the running joke that was taken seriously in the sales office where complaints over mailers were strictly ignored. It’s not too surprising when one of the charges against BOS and Mr. Ripner is abuse of the US postal service. It’s unfortunate but there are business owners that do not always know advertising laws, that’s why large companies should and normally do utilize professional advertising agencies or professionals from agencies.

The online gaming industry has primarily promoted within putting people in charge of advertising with no professional background in advertising that are unaware of advertising laws. This is apparent still with many companies using the likeness of professional athletes, professional sports team logos, etc. in their advertising. These are more infractions against the online gaming industry that are widespread where the US government could start cracking down on companies with regularity and both athletes and organizations would have the right to take civil action against these companies. The other day I saw one of the most despicable online gaming advertisements with the using the likeness of the recently deceased Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL and the Army Rangers who perished in Afghanistan.
As for the complaints from people about mailers, once a person says they do not want to be bothered whether via telephone or the mail the business must stop otherwise it constitutes harassment and there are penalties for this. I was aware of this and assumed Mr. Ripner knew about it also.

Ironically the two things that Claude rejected during my time with BOS were the RV luxury coaches and the taxes. Eventually he would utilize the RVs but somehow the concept got whored by greed. Allegedly monitors were used in the mobile vehicles to sign up new customers when it was just supposed to be used as an advertising tool where consumers could make up their own decisions in the privacy of their own home. The use of computers on board to sign up customers became gambling paraphernalia which cannot be transported across state lines. An overzealous employee ended up signing up and undercover law enforcement officer on the spot in what could have been construed as a set up but the fact is BOS had some problems controlling illicit activity by some employees. As the owner the responsibility falls on Claude and his Cousin Shaun didn’t help matters by drumming up laughter about illicit behavior provoking employees to be bad little representatives in public. I assume these are some of the multiple charges that he has to answer to the federal prosecutors.
Whether these are infractions of Claude or his employees I don’t know but as a business owner he has to answer to the illicit actions.

Claude didn't think he ever had to take responsibility for any actions done by representatives of BOS. Hypocritically he felt any other business owner was responsible for their employee’s mistakes. He was the guy that would work someone to death for a few bucks and I wouldn’t be surprised if he docked them pay for failing to meet a dress code or anything petty that he could find. He would eventually fine me with some costs for hiring mistakes of mine. I had no problem with that. I just had a problem when he wasn’t consistent and followed his own rules. He liked to change the rules for his benefit.

As an industry leader it’s the responsibility of that leader to set the benchmark for all others, otherwise you will not be a leader for long. In regards to taxes Claude would have nothing to do with it. I know he made millions from his business but he could have saved his free-behind by easing up on the greed and sharing the wealth. Claude didn’t like to share the wealth. Even if he didn’t like sharing the wealth he could have passed the tax dollars off onto the customers by limiting and eliminating bonuses. It might not have been a great short term idea but in the long run where would a customer rather play with? A company that is endorsed by the US government where taxes or contributions are being paid or with a company that is offering a 60% sign up bonus which in small print states to achieve that bonus you have to refer two friends, have a minimum sign up, and lose a certain amount that you will get back at the end of the football season. As a gambler I don’t think about losing. Also as a consumer I hate small print and stipulations, it reeks of double talk.

So no taxes; Claude would not pay any government and he would also shortchange everyone from the telephone man to the customer that won too much. Anything he could keep he kept. It was amazing the amount of dollars I was able to persuade out of him for his radio campaigns but then again that had a hidden “Charlie Victory” self imposed discount on the end which was the classic Ripner shortchanging based on renegotiating and the threat of default on payment.

Claude spent a lot of money but he was also irrationally cheap at times that made no sense. An example of Claude’s irrational penny pinching was evident with his PBX telephone systems. He would buy used PBX boxes for half the price and it showed on game day when the calls were coming in from gamblers and new sign-ups the system would often overload and break down. BOS was truly a factory with all its advertising to get people to send in money. Despite having a sizable staff of customer service people they were expected to weed out the scammers as opposed to take care of the customer. Customer retention was below average for the industry by comparison for other online gaming companies I have represented over the years.
Shaun was also a pain in the ass when it came to penny pinching. I am not sure if it was ordered from above but he would make sales guys and customer service bring in your own pens or pencils as he wanted to eliminate extra office expenses. If you didn’t have one than you had to go to supplies and sign for a $.10 Bic pen and return it at the end of the day. He also would bitch about recycling paper and check to make sure potentially useful paper with one clear side on it was not thrown in the garbage. The recycling is great but checking the garbage cans was overboard. All of my reports were printed out on the backside of re-used sign-up sheets and other reusable documents. This was certainly an oddity when going down to the VIP room which doubled as the board room. I was surprised I never gave a report and then rambled right into an individual customers deposit amount accidentally. It was also amazing that I was able to stay so organized; although I did accidentally take out a list of about 4000 gamblers which I have held onto to this day.




*Television character from 1970’s sitcom, “Three’s Company” played by Don Knotts and known for his outlandish mismatched wardrobe and lack of style.

Chapter Two; pages 35-38

Identifying the problem was advertising 101 and easy for me since I concentrated on advertising as a profession. The spots were horrible and not appropriate. The voice on the radio spot in my opinion was very dry, sorry Lee Klein (XTRA Sports 1150 Los Angeles). The ad copy was written with the intent to sell how trustworthy BOS was with their Lloyd’s of London insurance policies on each account, which was non-existent. The spots were also not appropriate as a nighttime sports talk show host in Los Angeles was doing spots on the San Diego station. At the time San Diego’s XTRA Sports 690 was the king of local radio on the west coast. It was created by media legend Chet Forte of ABC Sports and Monday Night Football and also is the station that launched the career of the top sports talk show host for what seems forever, Jim Rome. More people listened to the San Diego station with its booming 70,000 watt antenna on the hillside of Tijuana that reached the great northwest on a clear night. So having Lee Klein as the voice of the commercial made no sense. Our first choice to replace him was Arnie Spandier; although Arnie was from the Los Angeles station he was a very excitable person and spoke passionately about sports betting. Unfortunately Arnie’s services were already locked up by my good friend Robert Elkman in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles for Jaguar Sports which was cleaning up with hundreds of new accounts from radio.

The creative was non-existent in the radio commercials also. Claude had no clue on radio advertising he wanted to sell facts and figures on the air which I confirmed with the representing agency. I was convinced the spots just needed some excitement to entice the audience to call in or log onto the internet at BOS to find out about betting on a game. My analogy would prove to be correct and the pending changes made radio very successful. Claude once said if he could he would say gamble, bet, gamble, bet, wager, 888-999-BETS, and 888-999-BETS for the entire 60 second commercial if he could. After 10 seconds of that I am sure the audience would be getting a headache and turning the channel; If not 10 seconds then 30 seconds of it for sure.

I immediately restructured the radio advertising. I flew back to Los Angeles for a few days and hired a couple of enthusiastic voices and wrote a script with a couple of unknowns using a male/female dialog. I pushed a combination of humor from an excitable male voice, thank you Scott Hensley and the sultry voice of Brandy Carter. Anyways their enthusiasm was a huge hit and calls started flooding in after I put them on the air. Furthermore I adjusted the scheduling of the media to focus more on the days leading up to games as opposed to spreading out the advertising throughout the week. Weekends were also a poor time to advertise because gamblers were watching the games and not paying attention to radio unless it was a game and in-game advertising was nearly impossible to attain with NCAA and NFL contracts.

Despite the great results down the stretch Claude used the poor start as reason to not pay and release the media firm out of Cincinnati for failing to get results despite having an agreement to represent BOS. I recall Claude blasting the owner and account executive over the phone one day, then hanging up saying he wanted to put them out of business. Sometimes Claude’s expectations combined with ire got the best of him and he said things he probably should have kept to himself. That Cincinnati firm was also the bearer of bad news for defaulted payment on two great guys, David Kent of XTRA – Sports 690 in San Diego and Richard Walsh of XTRA – Sports 1150 in Los Angeles. Both guys lost their commissions and I would have to smooth them over the following year just to get back on the air. I maintained contact with the Cincinnati firm’s account executive, former NFL lineman named Joe on problems that BOS was having because it was professional courtesy; they were the agency of record and I just happened to be there in Costa Rica and was requested to clean up the mess which I assume was dictated by Claude. A couple of times I gave Joe a heads up call to let him know about problems before either Claude or Shaun got the urge to call him up and yell at him. Shaun was a real ass about that. Joe was about 6’7” and 300lbs of professional athlete that was just working on a post NFL career and Shaun had little man’s disease getting a rise out of making fun of him.

Joe still owes me a beer for those heads up calls. I am not one to steal an account or step on ones toes but at this point I was the leading candidate for landing the now open BOS account. In this case I never solicited the account and never received any commissions off of improving the radio advertising in 2000. The work was a courtesy.

One of the biggest keys to electronic advertising in the online gaming industry happened in 2000, because of the emergence of radio for BOS. The strong results came through once I cleaned up the radio. This success provoked Claude’s desire to be on sports talk radio in Miami. I immediately contacted WQAM Sports Radio in Miami and sales representative Todd Greck; he informed me that although he would love to take the advertising he couldn’t due to assumed prohibition of online gaming advertising in the state of Florida. I did some extensive research and discovered a Supreme Court Case where online gaming could benefit. The 1998 New Orleans Broadcaster’s Association vs. the United States case on gaming focused on the Central Hudson Test which stated if the business is licensed where the operation and transactions are taking place than people in the US regardless of state laws on gambling had the right to hear about the business. In this case the folks of South Carolina had the right to hear about gambling in the state of Louisiana despite local South Carolina law that forbade gambling. I would use this Supreme Court interpretation to support executives' decisions to accept online gaming advertising business in a lot of states during the upcoming years. I also used a copy of this for many prospecting calls down on the island of Curacao that January. Companies that I contacted before the 2001 ad season jumped right on board the radio bandwagon with the information I provided about the Supreme Court case on gaming and the precedence with WQAM – Miami. Florida became a hot market with most of the industry’s executives flying back and forth to the states on American Airlines through Miami and it didn't hurt that three major college football powerhouses resided in the state along with three NFL teams. When Claude was not in Costa Rica chances are he used one of his alleged fake passports to visit his doctor in Miami due to physical ailments.

During one of my in person meetings with Mr. Ripner in 2000, I found out what a sore spot is for him. Taxes! I came to him with new ideas including consolidation of companies for advertising purposes to increase the power of the dollar when locking up advertising. The proposed creative usage of excitement and humor to get the consumer response rates up. I pushed the use of celebrity personalities to promote his product. I suggested the use of large recreational luxury coaches as billboards with attractive young people to pass out t-shirts, key chains and other memorabilia to brand the BOS name. Claude didn’t say anything about the consolidation he just listened, he just listened when it came to the creative differentiation, he was against the use of the luxury coaches and supporting other people’s party habits at tail gate events and chewed me out of the office on taxes and establishing relations with government officials and charities. He was emphatic toward me about giving nothing back as his bonus programs were enough. I didn’t know it at the time but turns out he had a heart when it came to charities which Mrs. Ripner was probably more responsible for.

Taxes or contributions to programs in the country (USA) where a majority of his business came from was in my opinion essential for long term relations. Take too much money and the government will notice and they can put up obstacles to make it difficult to do business. Keep overcoming those obstacles and they can change laws that will lock you out. Tell the government how to do their business and some of the most powerful men in the world (US politicians) will start signing off on arrest warrants. So working with US politicians was the route I advocated. It wasn’t to Claude’s liking. I only brought it up twice and both times I could barely get past the words of taxes and working with politicians before Claude would erupt and send me away. He hated that idea!

The bonus programs were for new gamblers to get anywhere from 10-20% bonus on top of their initial sign up; if a gambler posted up $500 on his account he would get an additional $50-100 depending upon his bonus agreement with the sales representative. When a customer would run out of money and not bet for a while sales representatives would call the prospective gambler and entice him with bonuses to refill their accounts. It really wasn’t much of a freebie since there were stipulations to keeping the bonus to keep “bonus whores” from conning the online gaming companies; The stipulations where players had to play their deposit anywhere from 3x to 5x over before being allowed to withdraw funds. It was fair but not really any form of charity or giving back to communities that supported BOS with their patronage.

Chapter Two; pages 32-35

During the first week of a three week tour to Costa Rica I met another non-employee like myself. His name was Sting, a journalist for his own online website called www.gambling911.com. I was very cordial with Sting upon that first visit and really didn’t know anything about what he did. After years of following his website, I would have to conclude, you don’t have to like the guy cause he will print everything you say but the guy gets good press. I have followed his site, advertised on his site, and read his columns. There is no doubt in my mind that there are some online gaming companies that certainly benefited from Sting’s online media. Also over the years I have seen Sting make a few appearances on national television as a source for online gaming information and you might know him better as Christopher Costigan. Recently I consulted for an online gaming firm and the marketing director for the company did not like the way Sting wrote and refused to advertise on his site. Fact is I never really like everything top sports radio, talk show host, Jim Rome has to say but the fact is he has a loyal audience and will get results whether its Lays potato chips, Bose stereo systems, online gaming, Viagra, or any other advertiser that is male focused on his show. If adult stores were allowed to advertise blow up dolls on Rome I am convinced a few thousand more blow up dolls would be sold on a regular basis to frequent jungle dwellers.

You can hate a person in business but they can still get you results. You can like a person and they can be your worst liability.

The setting for BOS was filled with wonderful people, beautiful, raw, second world settings that were all brought back down to earth by the Ripner family. The latter really made for a sour experience in what was a life I enjoyed.

As for business I was brought in to bring some order to the advertising as everything was being placed by Claude and his assistant Caroline. Shaun seemed to be just getting his feet wet and needed some tutoring while he was barely able to get a handle on the print advertising. One of the major complaints that disturbed Claude during the fall of 2000 was why his radio wasn’t getting results. He had invested in excess of $500,000 and was short on results. He called me into his office and asked me to identify the problem, get my insight on what I knew about radio and to correspond more with the radio stations.

Admittedly, I was nervous the first day I dealt with Claude when he summoned me to his office to inquire what I knew about radio. I was excited, confident, and nervous because this was a big opportunity. I was sitting in the classic low chair on the other side of the desk where most people would have to look up to him; luckily my height offset this position a bit. It’s normal for most executives to have their seat higher than the ones on the other side of the desk; it gives a psychological negotiating advantage. Take notice the next time you go into a car dealership and end up in the General Sales Manager’s office. My only worry was being able to get him to understand my strategies and have the confidence to spend money which was my greatest challenge. As a professional advertiser you live advertising every day and take for granted the reasons that you do certain things and translating that to someone like Claude was difficult. He was accomplished so you it was tough to tell him there was a better way based on experience without coming right out and critiquing his methods.

There is an old saying, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach”. I could certainly do and I would eventually be summoned to teach. I tried my best but lacked patience and look where my first pupil Pete Wilson ended up? I also backed off on the teaching with Pete because too much information and BOS could replace me for cheaper labor. In advertising I have ran into a lot of businesses that try to pick your brain for free ideas and then they try to run with the plan only to end up mired in eventual problems because problem solving cannot be taught, only dealt with.

One on One Sports Radio was a major syndicated radio show that was being run and per Claude’s request I would get one of our spokesmen from the Jim Feist Group to do weekly radio interviews with Papa Joe Chevallier. As for the lack of results, there were no immediate answers as I had no idea about content or schedules of the radio campaign. I informed Claude that making improvements was a matter of me listening to the spots which he got me a recorded spot; then I dissected the problems of the media plan and ad creative.

Identifying the problem was advertising 101 and easy for me since I concentrated on advertising as a profession. The spots were horrible and not appropriate. The voice on the radio spot in my opinion was very dry, sorry Lee Klein (XTRA Sports 1150 Los Angeles). The ad copy was written with the intent to sell how trustworthy BOS was with their Lloyd’s of London insurance policies on each account, which was non-existent. The spots were also not appropriate as a nighttime sports talk show host in Los Angeles was doing spots on the San Diego station. At the time San Diego’s XTRA Sports 690 was the king of local radio on the west coast. It was created by media legend Chet Forte of ABC Sports and Monday Night Football and also is the station that launched the career of the top sports talk show host for what seems forever, Jim Rome. More people listened to the San Diego station with its booming 70,000 watt antenna on the hillside of Tijuana that reached the great northwest on a clear night. So having Lee Klein as the voice of the commercial made no sense. Our first choice to replace him was Arnie Spandier; although Arnie was from the Los Angeles station he was a very excitable person and spoke passionately about sports betting. Unfortunately Arnie’s services were already locked up by my good friend Robert Elkman in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles for Jaguar Sports which was cleaning up with hundreds of new accounts from radio.

The creative was non-existent in the radio commercials also. Claude had no clue on radio advertising he wanted to sell facts and figures on the air which I confirmed with the representing agency. I was convinced the spots just needed some excitement to entice the audience to call in or log onto the internet at BOS to find out about betting on a game. My analogy would prove to be correct and the pending changes made radio very successful. Claude once said if he could he would say gamble, bet, gamble, bet, wager, 888-999-BETS, and 888-999-BETS for the entire 60 second commercial if he could. After 10 seconds of that I am sure the audience would be getting a headache and turning the channel; If not 10 seconds then 30 seconds of it for sure.

Chapter Two; pages 30-32

A couple of my favorite characters in the sales room were the two college kids, Doogie and Max; A couple of intelligent young men that were taking time off and seeing the world, smoking weed, and surfing after graduating. I didn't need to twist their arms to spend more time at the Del Rey and other local nightspots; they were afternoon shift guys anyways that could sleep in.

Doogie was a smart-ass recent college grad. He was a tanned young surfer from Rhode Island. Doogie clowned around on the phone with the prospective gamblers and wasn't very businesslike but he did convert a higher percentage of customers that called in than most sales representatives. Doogie liked to get under people's skin in the sales office and he was successful with many people even catching the ire of George a few times. Despite being a presentable young man, Doogie was an unfinished product. As a young guy he wanted to nail every girl that moved in Costa Rica and for all of his efforts he struck out at an alarmingly high rate. To his credit, he never stopped swinging for the fences believing in his potential with every girl. I doubt he has changed either as he brought that same attitude with him to San Diego the last time I saw him. I still don’t think there is a girl out there that can destroy his confidence while he still continues to swing for the glory.

Max was exceptional on the phones. When he spoke gamblers probably thought he was the guy in charge with an answer for everything and if he didn't know the answer he would at least sound like he knew it. His ability on the phone must have caught the attention of ownership because Max was one of the few guys that could go from sales to customer service and wagering at any time. Normally the sales people never got involved with wagering and were told to not take any calls for wagering but to transfer the calls. Max was a surfer also but his real passion seemed to be potato chips and weed which made Costa Rica perfect for him. He never seemed to have any problems with the ladies either. Where Doogie was still in the evolution process Max was a smooth talking young man.

I believe the youngsters were eating some magic marijuana brownies when they gave me the nickname Hacksaw after the big burly Professional wrestler Jim “Hacksaw” Dugan who carries around a 2x4 to the ring. I am not sure why they gave me the nickname.

A couple of the other sales representatives included Peter Wilson, Tom, and DD.
Pete was a decent guy while he was in sales. He was a recovering addict of some sort often leaving for lunch to attend his support group meetings. I don’t know what it’s like to be an addict but to regularly attend support group meetings is commendable because he was trying to clean up. Pete was very businesslike on the phone and we got along real well the first year in the sales room. Once Pete moved on over to be my marketing assistant he tried too hard to be just like Claude and that has gotten him into some trouble. There was only room for one Claude at BOS and I think the company would be still up and running had others tried not to imitate him. Pete is also the last one at large that is wanted by the Federal Courts in Dallas.

Pete was a well spoken guy in his late 30’s that had been rejected by the US. Rumor has it he was accused of some trouble and rather than face the penalties of a felony he chose the out clause and flew to the Caribbean before heading to Costa Rica. Whether he was innocent or guilty he never got a chance to find out. Furthermore I heard news in Curacao and in Costa Rica that had him being booted off the island of Curacao. Now Curacao is more peaceful than Costa Rica and to be evicted from that island paradise you would definitely have to perform an act of complete social debauchery. I am no one to judge but the abuse of alcohol and drugs might have been part of the reason for his eviction as Pete hinted towards that in one of our many conversations.

Tom and DD were a nice couple from Arizona and Colorado respectively. I enjoyed their company as they invited me over for dinner frequently and we would be known to take more than a few trips to the local watering holes when I was in town and one memorable trip to the Pacific coast tourist spot of Manuel Antonio. Those two would also save me from the “Barrio Arms” as I would soon move into their three bedroom apartment which Claude paid for. BOS under Claude paid for a lot of apartments and houses around the office to lure good English speaking salesman and workers.
DD was a sweet beautiful young girl in her late twenties that many people would confuse as a local. She was great for getting “the local discounts” with her brown skin and excellent handle of the Spanish language. She got stopped at the Del Rey entrance a few times also. She was well spoken, good sense of humor, responsible drinker, and nice body. Any guy would be lucky to have DD as a girl friend.

Opposites attract as in the case of Tom and DD. Tom was a car salesman. He was a top guy in the BOS sales office. He had no problem converting one call after another into a new customer. Tom was a big burly guy a bit shorter than me with a left hand that George called the mule kick due to its intense power which he enjoyed unleashing playfully into your shoulder. Guys would be flying when they were hit by the mule kick and it had an intense sounding thud to boot. Tom was about 45 years old and his face and body showed the wear and tear of hard drinking and age. Tom was a funny guy, quite sociable and extremely personable. Most everyone liked Tom unless you were on his wrong side of humor; he was great to be around. The last report on Tom had him back to selling cars in Prescott, Arizona. Unfortunately Tom had a short life in Costa Rica as the combination of his love for liquor, the nightlife, and the cheap prices were an ugly combination. His desire to party wasn't bad enough to keep Tom from showing up every morning at 6am, ready to take sales calls which he turned into hundreds of customers a week.

Tom was also the reason for George’s sales office rules which were quite simple yet hilariously effective. Rules of the sales office, “how you show up is how you have to stay, if you’re drunk, stay drunk. If you’re high, stay high. If you’re sober, stay sober”. These rules were adopted after Tom got the shakes so bad he dropped his phone during a sales call. After he dropped the phone he was sent down stairs into the Mall San Pablo for a small vodka bottle and he was just fine after that churning out customers more customers than anyone else in the office. I think Max approved of these rules too cause he was always high. Max always had a high number of sign-ups so the rules were extremely effective. Between Tom and Max they would have been terrible subjects for the study of how weed and alcohol effects office production.

Chapter Two; pages 27-29

Roy bragged a lot, yapping about his athletic exploits, specifically his 46 inch vertical leap in basketball. I think George heard enough and took a handful of giggling sales guys and Roy out to the basketball court with a tape measure. He promptly measured off 46 inches on the basketball hoop pole and put up a piece of tape at the 46 inch mark on the pole than called the short, bald, Jersey boy on his claims.

The look on Roy’s face was priceless. He was staring at the reality of 46 inches straight in the eye, almost, as the tape came up to his chest. He was now very confused and wondering up in that simple brain of his, “how would anyone dare call him out”, after all he was a tough Squirrel from the Royal New Jersey Navy and the world full of Arizona desert yokels, baby faced college boys, and one California sunshine softy presumably would never call out his street toughness. Maybe measuring sticks were not universal and varied between Costa Rica and New Jersey. Roy was backed into a corner like a defenseless mole on rock based ground surrounded by a bunch of laughing hyenas mocking him to scurry away on his stubby little legs. He defended himself as best as he could with dull buck mole teeth to no avail.

Initially, he refused to take a leap of shame by stating that it was stupid, he didn’t need to prove anything to anyone, and it had been a long time since he had jumped. These words of “mole threat” were targeted towards each and every salesman if they didn’t back off. There was no escaping this challenge with George, his immediate superior pressing. Roy looked up into the heavens for either a little help from above or a sudden raging typhoon to save his scrawny self from embarrassment. The little mole was left with only one choice by the laughing hyenas that wanted to see a leap and he took to his first attempt at 46 inches. His first leap was a little bit short of the Spud Webb (former Atlanta Hawk and NBA slam dunk champion at 5’6” in height) exaggerations as he peaked out at a meek 13 inches amidst a mild bunch of snickering onlookers. Guys were laughing as Roy would have tripped over a John Holmes erection. Not to be completely embarrassed Roy started making excuses about stretching and getting a running start. George, although smiling was trying to keep a straight face while offering to help Roy out with his stretches while heckling and laughing was getting into full gear from the hyena like salesmen. After enough egging on the pack of laughing salesmen convinced Roy he needed to take another shot and would be vindicated if he came close. The second leap was significantly greater but a real tear jerker at 19 inches as Roy tried to bend and tuck his knees up under his ass hoping to somehow squeeze out another 33 inches of vertical leap. The laughter was so hard that guys were crying as Roy’s face turned beet red while George lambasted him for trying to cheat his leap by tucking and bending his legs.

Needless to say Roy was soon out of the sales office as he self-deported himself to customer service rather than face a sales staff on a daily basis that was ready to call out any of his other claims as bullshit.

George was great to be around and I figure to maintain contact with him throughout the rest of my life. In a recent meeting at a local watering hole in Costa Rica he shared with me his opinion that the best years for online sports betting were behind us along with other stories of the Costa Rican online gaming lifestyle. Fact is the industry and the lure of Costa Rica brought many celebrities down to BOS over the years. Three prominent members from the cast of “That 70's Show” appeared for the grand opening of the VIP facilities, former “Bay Watch Babe”, Tracey Bingham showed up for the party also. Not that they were gamblers but there were many famous names that bet online with BOS. One celebrity, a prominent world boxing champion partook in one of George’s barbecues and was kind enough to pose for a picture of the big guy (George) knocking him to the ground with a posed right hook. That was some of the high profile fun of Costa Rica but in reality the wild excitement of the early years was behind but the day for turning online gaming into legitimate business will make it greater than before.

Legitimizing the industry means giving back and taxing. I predict than online gaming can be enjoyed by all and it will create programs that will benefit people by giving back some of the profits. I am a firm believer that all business has a responsibility and that responsibility is respect for the consumer. Business is not all about take; you have to or should give back.

George introduced me to one of the most well known night spots in Costa Rica. The Del Rey Hotel a modest hotel with some of the warmest friendliest women you would ever want to meet for a few dollars. I know George will not get into any trouble for me mentioning his venturing over to the local brothel because his girlfriend Lorraine accompanied us to the lovely house of competitive females in their tight provocative clothing, manicured nails, lip gloss, make-up, and more. The funny thing about the Hotel Del Rey is they don’t like letting non-working girls in the door; there were ladies that would accompany us to the Del Rey that were checked for their health cards at the door which kept them at the front door just long enough to convince security that they were not unhealthy evening entertainment but just casual drinkers that were joining their male mates.

Any and every night could be a fun night in Costa Rica which really made the online gaming industry exciting. It was great for socializing too outside of the office with other executives, employees and sales people.

I always wanted to get as much information as possible beyond my personal knowledge on the gaming industry plus just buying a sales guy drinks all night was a great motivator for them to get me the information I needed in regards to getting a good feel for the customers. The information I needed most in the sales room was tracking customers. There was no science to it but basic information about magazines, radio, internet, etc. could lead me in the right direction of what was working and the method used in most call centers was just asking the customer where they heard about BOS. The trick was not to lose the potential gambler with too many questions on the phone because the gambler just wants to set up a betting account he has a game in mind that he wants to jump on immediately and will say anything to get to the part where he deposits money. I understood this and didn’t want to lose a single customer. So a quick answer of magazine, radio, etc. might be the only information a sales representative can get from the in-a-hurry customer that was all too anxious to sign up but didn't have the time to chit chat and give the exact specific about where he heard about BOS. Signing up gamblers for an offshore gaming company was like shooting fish in a barrel for a sales person but the sales person did need to know who he could rush through the sign up and who he could take his time with to get vital information. The sales reps knew that if they got me basic enough information I could figure out enough to know what advertising was working.

Chapter Two; pages 24-26

As for the customer service room they were really active when the phones were ringing off the hooks with new prospects and gamblers looking to bet as they took the overflow calls from wagering. I am not sure what they did with customer service other than being told to be on the alert for scammers and making sure not to mention any key phrases like “Would you like a payout today sir?” Unfortunately gamblers attract scammers because gamblers sometimes have the money spent before they bet and in the world of offshore gambling they get a bonus when signing up. Some would be so obvious that they would sign up make a few bets and try to cash out which was stated in policy that when getting a bonus one had to play a minimum amount of bets. This was fair otherwise the gamblers could deposit a $1000 leave it at the sports book for a day and withdraw the next day with 10-20% interest. I have always thought that the sports books should dismiss the bonuses and pay that 10-20% in taxes because a government guarantee would carry a lot more weight with customer trust for the foreign businesses.

BOS rarely fired anyone but people might end up never being seen again should a payout be brought up in subject. This is more of a joke than truth because gamblers usually run out of money before they can take a payout combined with BOS never wanting to do a payout, but then again were they really much different from a lot of operations. In the end BOS would neglect payouts and that is what they are rightfully known for by the public.

BOS security was always monitoring the phones. In the words of Claude, “I don't trust anyone”. Even the sales people would be occasionally monitored and guys would be reprimanded for not asking certain questions from the prospects. Fact is more often than not new gamblers wanted to get signed up ASAP to get some money down on a pending game. If you bugged them with too many questions they would get irate and hang up the phone. On the weekends in 2000 the sales office would sign up more than a 1000 people per day with the sales guys never taking breaks going from one phone call to the next like machines. This business was just over the phone sign-ups. More gamblers were signing up over the web. BOS certainly was and exciting and booming with business in 2000.

The two people I dealt with on a daily basis were Shaun K and Claude for marketing. Shaun really didn’t know much about sports like his older cousin and I was rightfully skeptical about the Marketing Director title. Turns out he really didn't know much about advertising and marketing either. He asked a lot of questions and listened which I will admit the Ripner family consisted of excellent listeners but they consistently, and conveniently forgot about payments. Ask any of them for a payment and they would look at you like you were speaking a mixture of the multiple languages of Nigeria. Both Shaun and Claude occasionally jumped on the telephones in the sales room to sign up new customers, where I spent considerable time during my first trip to Costa Rica. Claude loved each and every customer that signed up with his company. What owner wouldn’t? The company was his baby and as a business owner you appreciate everyone that contributes to your project or should. Problem was Claude was terrible on the phone with customers and the sales manager Big George would have to let him know that it wasn’t in his best interest to be in the sales office. The only one worse on the phones was Cousin Shaun.

That first trip to Costa Rica, Shaun would usually be seen running around trying to look busy while it was apparent he was trying to find himself while wearing his standard faded blue jeans, button up un-tucked shirt which was a poor excuse for concealing his belly, and sneakers. Claude meanwhile would be suit and tie from Monday through Friday and would dress down on the weekends. These were the pioneer days of online gaming and the dress code isn’t nearly as professional as it is today with the suits which BOS executives started wearing in 2001.

Shaun seemed to be a regular guy but would be a victim of power. In the early days he would occasionally be seen with the staff out having a drink or carousing at one of the local casinos. I enjoyed being around him although we did have our occasional run in. He was good about picking up checks and for years I harbored a lot of hatred towards Shaun for saying some vicious things to me in lieu of my mother’s eventual death as a reason to not pay me. I assume he was just ordered to do so by the dictatorial cousin, while others tell me he bragged about fucking me over. I’ll still punch him in the mouth if I ever see him before I act cordial.

The sales room was where the personalities resided; Guys that could talk. There were two women that worked in the sales room. The rest of the women that walked through were there to flirt with the men with money. The sales guys were making around $400 - $600 per week based on a grueling six day work schedule which was a good 2-5x more than what the hard working customer service girls were making. The girls from customer service worked real hard on landing a guy in sales that could take them out for a hot meal and night on the town. Heck even Navy Squirrel Roy got lucky from the customer service girls although he would eventually be demoted to customer service himself.

I really liked the sales guys. The sales manager, Big George was a real joy; A big guy with a colorful past where he was a sales manager for a large Arizona car dealership prior to taking time off to relax in Costa Rica. I could see where George had been successful with sales in the past. He made sure you were comfortable from the get go and was very approachable yet knew when and how to take a stand if you were not taking care of your responsibilities. George would come out and socialize every now and then but for the most part he relegated his social life outside of the office to hosting some of the best damn barbecues in Costa Rica along with his blond girlfriend, Lorraine. To this day I make my hamburgers with chopped onion grilled right in the meat!

Lorraine was an extremely sociable stateside transplant to Costa Rica. She didn’t care much for Costa Rica, as I heard her curse the culture more than a few times and longed for her life back in Texas but stood alongside George. She occasionally worked in the sales office lending support to an office that needed more people, especially over the weekend when thousands of calls would be coming in one after another. She appeared to be around 40 and a beautiful woman. Although very classy Lorraine could have a rough Texas edge to her if someone got on her bad side. I was the victim of the bad side once but mostly I enjoyed her stares and verbal lashings as just an onlooker.

George was around 50. Some say he was in his mid-50’s while he claimed late 40’s. Anyway I would go to the gym with George on most mornings and he was probably in better physical shape than anyone at BOS. I would also see him routinely running with his golden Labrador Jake through the smoggy streets of Costa Rica which means he had to have some decent lungs to run in that thick nasty inner city air. He certainly knew his way around a grill and enjoyed sports just as much as myself. That is probably why we got along so well plus he had a great sense of humor and was the first to call Navy Squirrel Roy on his bullshit.

Chapter Two pages 21-23

Based on Claude’s actions one would assume he was a mobster. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are it’s a duck. Claude had the body guards, the money, and allegedly enough fake passports to get anywhere in the world. He had his goons, ran a sports book and dabbled in pharmaceuticals with a call center in Trinidad. Rumor had it he also had numerous girls on the side but by the way he worked I just don’t see where he could find the time. In my opinion he was a mobster because he didn't just look the part. It’s who he is! Then again I could be wrong, I didn’t see everything and Claude certainly didn’t show everything, he was exceptionally private.

The word and signature of Claude was worthless as renegotiating was part of his every day diction, upon one of my first phone conversations with Mr. Ripner he said “he had never, not paid anyone that he owed”. I think the double negative in that statement gave Claude the idea that he was true to his words. I am not sure if he was Claude or one of his many aliases that included “C”, Clyde Rose, or Charlie Victory when he made that ridiculous statement. Fact is he paid a lot of people what he owed them but would also neglect on a number of large debts. The standard practice of negotiating on a large debt which I heard from Shaun K. was “How about if we send you $10,000? It's $10,000 more than what you had when you were introduced to BOS”. That's a nice thought but the problem is when debts are $40,000, $150,000, and $500,000 the offer wasn't too nice so most people owed were not happy with that negotiation, so than BOS would give you the alternative, which was nothing. It’s tough to negotiate with a company that hides behind international borders to default on payments.

Everything I admired about Claude seemed to be an illusion and what you thought was commendable, ultimately you would have to question. He wasn’t an easy man to figure out and he wanted it that way. His admirable qualities also had limitations and stipulations that you never would be aware of until after the fact. He worked hard. Indeed he worked like 10 men but he worked hard on not paying me and was he doing that to others? He was an innovative marketer. The only thing innovative about Claude’s marketing prowess was how he was the first to put his name on other people’s ideas that he promised to pay. Before I got to BOS, they were head and shoulders above the competition in the world of print advertising, I wonder if he took anyone there for a ride? He took a lot of risks with his money that paid off in marketing. Again he would never give anyone the full amount and would use the excuse of the media not working for him to default on payment. Clear Channel in Los Angeles and San Diego were victimized by non-payment of approximately $100,000 in 2000. Claude was a great negotiator. This one is almost true; as mentioned he would use international borders to back out of a deal once the deal was agreed so he knew he had nothing to lose. He was a great listener. I knew I would find something definitive if I thought long enough. He was an excellent listener, although he would never admit that at times when he would say he didn’t hear you request payment for services. His ears performed a biological shutdown when you mentioned a date for deadline and payment. I know he was a great listener because he listened intently to many of my ideas which he would enact. Only problem with my ideas was……. they were my ideas. So usually within 24 hours of hearing a good idea he would put the Claude Ripner stamp of originality on an idea as his own. I didn’t care as long as I was to be paid.

Other parts of the tour included the wagering room which was a great white room with white tiles, white ceiling, white floor, white cubicle desks and black chairs for the betting clerks. Talk about bland. If nothing else it kept the workforce focused on just taking bets. I didn’t venture into the betting room too often but when I did, there were a few managers all over the workers. A lot of the managers were US rejects that enjoyed the power trip of getting to tell shy little young girls and boys what to do. The only thing I would have added to this room would have been padded walls with optional strait jackets for the wager clerks once they entered the room. Just give them a phone headset to speak broken English to the customers and a pencil they could hold with their teeth for pushing buttons on the computers to log into players accounts and input their betting action. The BOS betting room was the room for no individualism.

Claude would later comment to me that he paid his workers better than the average Costa Rican. This was true but he was comparing apples to oranges when comparing his workers to fast food burger flippers as he paid less than his competition. With the millions he was making the workers were lucky to get around $3 an hour while competitors in the same building were getting $5 per hour. The wagering clerks seemed to take on the look of the owner. No smiles, just businesslike, expressionless faces staring at their monitors and being watched upon like little children should they make too much conversation when they were to be sitting and waiting for the next sports bet. I would later compare this to the wager clerks in Curacao that were happy jovial people. It was a positive atmosphere in Curacao and the clerks were getting around $10 per hour. Same could be said for the operation down on the 6th floor at Infinity Sports Book and Casino where the very professional upbeat, best damn owner in the offshore gaming industry! Chuck Bauer took great care of his workers.

Unlike most wagering rooms that I have visited over the years BOS needed to restrict the idle conversation because it was so large with a few hundred wager clerks on duty during busy times. Too much idle chat and the wager clerks would have undoubtedly made more mistakes with an individual’s bets that would be rectified but would irritate the anxious gambler who usually calls in just seconds before his game is about to get started.

The next room was the customer service office and this was a little bit more upbeat room with boys and girls flirting amongst each other led by the customer service manager, Keith. I was impartial with Keith and upon formally meeting with him I noticed he was the reserved fellow on the elevator I met while first entering the BOS offices who had very little to say. I didn't trust him. I socialized with him and on the lighter side I believe he took cheap to a new level. I could safely assume he made his local Costa Rican dates making $3 an hour go Dutch on dates. I also suspected Keith of having a casting couch somewhere in the Mall San Pablo because he always seemed to be with the new female employees while going out on the town. Not sure if it was easier for him to meet women when he was there direct superior or if it was just a cost savings because I never saw him in any of the cat houses. I rarely hung out with him socially but when I did he was nowhere to be found when it was his turn to buy the round or he would just stare blankly hoping no one would notice him while he became the invisible drinker.

Chapter Two; pages 18-21

My first roommate, Roy was a wonderful bullshitter from the get go, within the first 15 minutes of meeting, this clown informed me that he played minor league baseball in Puerto Rico after a standout career as a shortstop in college before managing to squeeze in some time to be a Navy Seal. I played enough baseball to start asking specific questions that Roy realized avoiding me would be in his best interest to cover up his tracks of re-inventing his life. Also there are no minor league baseball teams in Puerto Rico, plus you have to have some athletic ability to play it’s a bit more complex then get your mother’s permission from his assumed Little League playing days. I figured BOS owed someone a favor, or this was one screwed up company bringing aboard the poster child for the offspring of women that perform in the Tijuana donkey shows. Roy was a short, bald, stocky guy, in mid-twenties with a thick New Jersey accent. He would try to bust my balls for his lack of height saying if he was 6’4” instead of 5’5” (with platform heels) he would be playing NBA basketball with his 46 inch vertical leap. Out of respect for the NBA, Roy lacked height, brains, and talent. Our relationship was much like a Chihuahua and a St. Bernard, I rarely ever acknowledged his yapping but would occasionally show some teeth, letting him know to steer clear before I lift my leg to cool him off. Poor Roy would find out that the rest of the sales offices wasn't impressed by his stories either and would call him out on his bullshit and be the butt of a lot of jokes in sales. I enjoyed the hilarious manner which only a bunch of salesmen with too much time on their hands in a foreign country could devise.

Well a couple of days after hanging out in that smelly roach infested apartment, Navy Seal, sports jock extraordinaire Roy got robbed by petty thieves in Costa Rica. I don’t mean to demean Ticos (name for Costa Rican males) but they are generally rather short and skinny in stature. I am befuddled on how they overpowered the finest that the US Navy has to offer. So from here on out I must refer to the newest Naval program which I think Roy meant, The Navy Squirrels. I think it was also the New Jersey Pond Navy where Roy was all by himself in a floating tub like Beaver Cleaver and Whitey constructed in the 1960’s sitcom “Leave it to Beaver”.

So far not a very good impression for a self proclaimed first class organization but I stuck it out since I was envisioning the bigger picture of presenting the strategies I drew up in 1999 of revolutionizing the way online gaming advertises through consolidation and BOS was the heavyweight champ of all online sports books in 2000.

After taking my nap at the “Barrio Arms” where I rarely slept, my first official impression of BetOnSports was a bunch of non-social unhappy employees (with the exception of the sales office) on the 9th and 10th floors of the Mall San Pablo in San Jose, Costa Rica. BOS was a huge operation with a couple thousand employees that drove plenty of revenue into the mall and supported jobs of more than just the employees. The mall business was nicely subsidized by the workers of the 6th through 10th floors which were full of sports book employees. The tour of the top two floors led off with going through the security door and past the armed guards with sawed off shot guns. Talk about tough looking. Scary part was the guys with he shot guns probably didn’t even know how to use them other than to just hold them. I imagine they weren’t loaded or at least hope they wouldn’t be. After the armed guards the tour included executive offices, the VIP room, wager room, customer service room, sales office, and Claude’s office. His first office was a dimly lit large corner office with fine furniture, a beautiful grand mahogany desk, bathroom off to the side and burgundy painted walls. Behind his black leather chair was a view of the lush green Costa Rican mountains and a framed poster of “Poverty Sucks” to his right with a gentleman sipping a martini. It was a beautiful office. The type of office reserved for the very successful. The VIP room/board room one floor down where Claude spent a lot of time was equally impressive with more beautiful mountain views, fine furniture and occasional Ripner family members with Claude’s son and daughter running around. Just like any other father he loved his children and they got special treatment with toys lying around both offices. The toys lying around were rather humorous I thought. It’s too bad because for all of Claude’s greed those children might have to grow up without a father around.

Claude had an image. He looked like a gangster, a big stocky man, over 6 feet tall with the receding hairline, strong handshake, square jaw, serious scowl and a thick New York accent with bodyguards accompanying him everywhere. A lot of guys said that Claude was one guy they would not want to tangle with. I on the other hand believe the bodyguards were for his own protection because in retrospect I believe he stole a lot from others that wanted redemption. Rumor had it, before I showed up a syndicate beat Claude for over a million dollars and rather than pay up he made up some new rules that prohibited professional players from playing. The syndicate, not being too happy sent a few guys down to Costa Rica to collect and Claude’s body guards threw them a beating dumping them out in the fields outside the mall in a bloody mess. Guys like Claude need to protect themselves cause there is always going to be someone that is going to come looking for them when you continually steal, default on a contract, or make up a new rules for his customers that benefited him after the fact. He was vicious and didn’t care who he stepped on!
On the flip side Claude was a damn good business man or thief, I am not quite sure which one though. He's the 2nd greatest thief I have ever known. Biggest thief for sure considering the mass of wealth he accumulated. The greatest thief I know retired before turning 40 and went into legitimate business. I think that is the key to being a good thief. Amass your wealth than do everything you can to go legitimate because you’re flirting with time when it comes to stealing. Claude just never could get enough and went well into his 40's stealing as if he would never get caught.

Chapter Two; pages 16-18/150

Chapter Two
Costa Rica


I showed up at the San Jose International Airport compliments of a coach flight which I upgraded to first class during August of 2000. After dealing with a relatively short line at customs I grabbed my bags and walked outside where I was met by a young, local, BOS employee holding up a placard with my name on it. The local kid appearing to be in his early 20's assisted me with my bags, escorting me to a tiny little red Toyota. It wasn't exactly limousine service to the offices of BOS but who was I to complain? This wasn't my country and most of the cars appeared to be small, red Toyotas anyway. I tried to make conversation with the driver on this drizzling day as he drove me down a simplistic highway system winding through lush green hills with giant billboard advertisements, and numerous brown skinned locals along the side of the highway that lasted for about 5 miles. Once the highway ended we continued through more residential neighborhoods with pot hole filled streets where we seemed to hit every other one. The ride was bumpy and the weather was rather gloomy that morning and all I wanted to do was take a nap after flying all night from Los Angeles with a pit stop in Houston. The driver was very courteous asking if I wanted to grab anything to eat. Since I had never been to Costa Rica before I asked him what was good and he rattled the names off of numerous fast food American places from Burger King to Subway which was not too exciting to me. We finally pulled up onto a very narrow street. Once I got out of the car I was quickly side swiped in the arm by the rear view mirror of a passing car. It was immediately apparent to me that the pedestrian does not have the right of way in Costa Rica and would notice more than the normal amount of people missing and arm from hanging it out the window of a car which is not advisable.

From the car we walked across a rather busy 6 lane street with a divider in the middle past a bunch of exhaust pumping buses to a giant mall, The Mall San Pablo. That day it seemed a little bit dangerous after being side swiped by a car but over the course of the years to follow, I have crossed that street with relative ease. It's just a matter of getting used to the locals and their non-nonchalant use of brakes.

My first visit to BOS was very brief and uneventful with a slow ride up an elevator that seemed to take forever. Up to the 10th floor I went in the Mall San Pablo and waited in the glass enclosed lobby outside of three elevators with the BetOnSports logo nicely painted on the glass. Inside the lobby, three beautiful young receptionists greeted me as if I were a plague when I requested to see Shaun Kelly or Shaun K. as he was referred to. Not quite sure these beauties understood the importance of me walking into those offices. But then again when you’re making $2-3 an hour, doing your nails is probably a higher priority and my first impression probably wasn't all that great after flying all night in my relaxed wardrobe. My flight wardrobe consisted of a purple warm-up suit fitted for Bruce Smith of the Buffalo Bills. Or at least that is what I was told when a good buddy of mine who worked for Smith's agent in Southern California gave them to me as a gift. Finally Shaun came out to get me. Shaun was a short frumpy man with a boyish face and a voice so dry that one had to wonder if the guy ever drank water. His wardrobe was worse than mine with a pair of faded blue jeans, sneakers, and a button down shirt that looked like it just came from the Ralph Furley collection*. I had done 90% of my correspondence with BOS since Caroline had called me that spring through Shaun, and he was the “Marketing Director”. I would also find out that nepotism existed as he was Claude’s cousin.

Over time I would find out that Shaun was a devious virus who seemed desperate to impress his older cousin, making unwise decisions including making numerous braggart statements of how he “fucked over people”. His leadership sent the message to others in the company that the malicious treatment of others was ok. This type of behavior is very unsettling for an industry that is trying to gain trust with the public that it depends upon.

Shaun welcomed me to Costa Rica and suggested I take my bags to a very nice apartment they had set up for me and then return to the offices and he would give me the tour of the place.

I thought it was very nice of BOS to try to make me feel at home. I didn't know I was going through a time warp, back to my early 20's with a roommate and an apartment with third hand furniture just like the early college years. That's right; the biggest and most well known offshore sports book in the industry back in 2000 spared no expenses for their advertising representative in the states and put me up at “Barrio Terrace”. This was certainly different from any business trip I had ever taken before; if the company offered to bring you to their location they paid for first class accommodations not a pink stucco, roach infested apartment with barbed wire on top of the iron gated fence. To this day outside of Costa Rica I have only seen one other residence similar to this one that is located just off of the northbound 110 Harbor Freeway at the Normandy exit right down the street from where the 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted. I also found out very soon that I was on the roommate plan with a lost soul for a roommate. I would find out later from another ad guy that BOS provided these accommodations for everyone they invited down to Costa Rica. When BOS said it was classy they were right, too bad it was 3rd class.

Chapter One pages 11-14/150

I left the Patton Marketing Firm that winter due to my mother’s battle with cancer. I really needed to be closer to her in New Mexico. After all you only have one mother and there were other places to work. I moved out west and was living with the parents temporarily when I decided to start up my own advertising agency. My plan was to do the same things I had done in Michigan with a focus on this relatively new and unknown industry of offshore/online gaming that appeared to have an abundance of disposable cash and not many agencies were familiar with the industry. That made picking up new accounts much easier too. My first account I landed for my own firm was Royal Sports and the marketing director of the time Marty Monroe taught me some very valuable basic lessons on the industry.

1. Gambling is the 2nd oldest profession known to humankind. There is a big piece of pie out there; No sense getting greedy just enjoy your share. He also lightheartedly threw in a joke about pie and the oldest profession known to mankind. Marty has an enjoyable great sense of humor.

2. Be Honest, because the industry was too easy since gaming is a proven form of generating revenue and you are in it for the long haul.

I follow these fundamentals today with regards to advertising for online gaming; although I did have to make some adjustments. Because the industry is so young it has or had a responsibility of being a good citizen, which means pay your bills on time! Obey the rules of advertising and give back to the communities that support you, which means, making donations to various programs/charities in the markets that we targeted to benefit people. Royal was great about charities and sponsored a world champion Little League Team among other programs on the island of Curacao.
Literally a couple of days after landing the account with Royal Sports I got a call from Claude’s assistant Caroline. She requested that I get BOS into about 7 publications that they were having difficulty with. I had a good way with people and out of the seven magazines that had rejected BOS I got agreements with 3 of them to take the advertising. The publications included Men’s Health, Esquire and Departures magazine. One thing about Claude he was a brutal negotiator and paid bottom dollar for every publication that took BOS advertising. He ended up balking at Esquire and Departures because they would not budge off of their rate card discounts.

That left my only remaining agreement with the western regional sales manager Richard Beach, for Men’s Health Magazine. With the verbal approval of Shaun Kelly, the marketing director and Claude’s signature, the Men's Health deal was signed for $85,000 per issue. At the time I had moved permanently back to Los Angeles and was taking full advantage of the media professionals in the city. Men’s Health would not go smooth at all. It was just a bad business decision to run 3 spreads and after the first month when results were not coming in BOS defaulted on the 3rd payment as the 2nd issue had already been printed and paid for. Ironically, the spread in Men's Health cost the same as Sports Illustrated, only difference was the shelf life as readers of both magazines tended to spend the same amount of time per each issue. I also notice Claude lacked understanding of the branding process which was necessary for Men’s Health to succeed for his company. Claude wanted immediate responses like most impatient business owners and Men’s Health was not the right media. Claude really wasn’t too different then most business owners in this respect that they want quick responses but he was different in that he ran a giant company which had grown very fast. For Men’s Health to succeed there needed to be a long term commitment. Personally I was never big on Men’s Health or print for that matter for online gaming but sometimes you just have to appease the man with the money and I had yet to prove myself. My preference for media at the time was radio. Radio was more proactive and better for direct response but the magazines were easier to comprehend for BOS ownership. Part of the deal for getting into the Men’s Health was BOS wanted to fly me down to Costa Rica during August of 2000 so I could familiarize myself with their operations. I ended up volunteering to work in the sales office to get familiar with the operations and my knowledge of electronic media caught Claude’s attention as we would soon revolutionize the focus for BOS from print to electronic media.

Chapter One pages 10-13/150

Claude built an impressive sports gambling empire that covered over 200,000 square feet of office space and facilities to cater to gamblers throughout the world. He used the media and media professionals like me to induce gamblers to log onto his site BetOnSports and many other sites that he was partnered with and held ownership. The majority of people that gambled through BetOnSports were treated fairly but along the way enough people were robbed of time, services, and money by BetOnSports and ultimately the owner is responsible which turns out to be Claude. Claude might have gone too far when greed got the best of him and he allegedly stole from investors after selling his company in a public offering on the European Stock Exchange. The sale apparently wasn’t a clean sell with excessive fudging of numbers by his CEO and puppet Mr. Jay Gaynor a scrawny man that seemed more appropriate in an accountant’s office as opposed to running a multi-million dollar corporation. Claude’s luck ran-out when he was nabbed by international law enforcement officials while vacationing off the coast of Venezuela for numerous violations ranging from tax evasion to money laundering. Now he sits in that steamy hot Dallas jail cell waiting to do battle with federal prosecutors in the battle of his life. The man has plenty of money; some say more than a hundred million and will be able to get the best in legal counsel. Rumor has it his attorneys have influential contacts in allied governments that can influence the case.

I know I will never be selected for jury duty because I was one of many theft victims by Mr. Ripner’s company. I was robbed for over $300,000 worth of services. I provided professional consulting and media for Claude on a regular basis in Costa Rica and as a representative in the US. Ironically all of Claude’s troubles could have been avoided had he listened to me about building relationships and paying taxes to the US government but Claude wanted it all, no amount of money was enough for him, he had a sickness for greed. Rather than establish good relations with the US which produced most of his customers he preferred to establish relations with European investors and then promptly took his investors for an Enron joy ride.
Some people thought Claude was a marketing genius but working with him over the course of two years and watching him from afar a few more years, I know that not to be true. As an amateur marketer he was no different than a big time car dealer that is good and needs to feed his ego by winning the battles of negotiation. Claude could negotiate but run a top notch advertising campaign; He could not. He depended on others. He was human and being a great business owner takes considerable dedication and hours. Prior to my presence I thought Claude was brilliant also. I read numerous magazines and saw the illusion of brilliance with massive amounts of advertising in regular magazines. This would overshadow my skepticism about periodicals that were mailed for free to my address because they all ranked the same 5 sports books in their top 5. I also questioned the internet advertising. There were self-proclaimed watchdog organizations which I had never heard of before. Companies like the International Gaming Association and the Offshore Gaming Council. Who were these organizations? What gave them credibility? All I could see was a logo.

I believe Claude stole more ideas then he actually produced. He would promise to pay someone for their consultation but then neglect payment hiding behind international borderlines for protection. Once Claude neglected a payment the chances of contacting him via telephone or internet were less than a junior college football team winning the Rose Bowl. If the opportunity was there to neglect payment he chose not to pay. I could safely presume that Claude’s single goal was to win at all cost and amass a fortune in the process with no regard for who he stepped on. He amassed his fortune and in his wake lie a lot of people holding onto bills that were unpaid by Mr. Ripner and his company. Fact is Claude was BetOnSports. He was a major hands on owner. No money was sent out without his approval. No decisions were made without his approval. If you made a decision and Claude wasn't part of it or if he didn't choose to remember being part of it he would stick you with the bill or use the decision of an employee or contracted professional to default on a payment. He seemed immune to responsibility. When it came to getting freebies Claude was right between the Pope and the US President. Problem is most people and companies never realized they were giving Claude a complimentary service until after the fact.

I first found out about BetOnSports and Claude Ripner, the iron fisted owner while working as a partner with Doug Patton, my great mentor and teacher along with gambling buddy at the Patton Marketing Firm just outside of Detroit, MI. BOS an abbreviation for BetOnSports was a new client that was referred to us through one of Doug's buddies, Mr. Mark Wolf, a land developer that had recently taken on a large project in Costa Rica where he met up with Claude Ripner, the owner of BOS. I wagered through Mark who was a questionable character himself known to fill the pockets of prominent athletes at the local University. Mark let me use his log in name and password to gamble at BetOnSports. Mark had a substantial amount of money in the account which I would later find out was just a $100,000 line of credit, which is a violation of US law.

While not gambling Doug and me placed media for cable television in various Midwestern markets for BOS. During that fall we proposed numerous other opportunities including advertising with Sports Illustrated and Time Warner. After a long hard negotiation on behalf of BOS with Sports Illustrated we finally had a deal that Claude had pre-approved. We were to run a full page ad in Sports Illustrated during the fall of 1999. Doug faxed the contract to Claude and we got no response. Finally after making numerous phone calls to Costa Rica, Claude’s assistant Caroline informed us that Claude had no idea Sports Illustrated was a weekly magazine and the minimal shelf life was his reason to back out of the deal. She also told us that Sports Illustrated was too expensive at $85,000 an issue and Mr. Ripner thought that would be too much to spend for a week. The Account Executive at Time Warner/Sports Illustrated was pissed! He made considerable concessions to get BOS into the magazine even going to the highest offices of Time Warner to get approval which included legal time spent to analyze the business.

This waste of time by Claude was extremely unprofessional and Doug wanted nothing more to do with BOS or online gaming saying they were just shopping for deals which was a sign the client would undercut an agency given the chance. Doug proved to be very prophetic. Time Warner was equally annoyed and would ban the industry for nearly 7 years before a relatively unknown company in 1999 would break down the Sports Illustrated barrier with their intelligent use of marketing strategies.
This move by Ripner who was now nicknamed “The Ripper” by Doug and I was hideous considering he was such a supporter of print advertising and to back out of arguably the best publication in sports where he could reach the greatest masses of his target market made zero sense. The idea that a one week shelf life made any difference showed his lack of understanding advertising because Sports Illustrated readers tend to spend the same amount of time on each magazine as other monthly magazines due to its superior quality. This decision was an early clue for me that Claude needed help. I would later find out that Sports Illustrated was less than double of what he was paying in Maxim Magazine at the time with almost 3x the audience, not to mention Sports Illustrated subscribers are sports maniacs, sports gamblers, and sports fans compared to the guys that are looking for a nice trendy shirt or “what's going on at the Frat House” crowd that subscribes to Maxim. This was Claude; I don’t believe he was a marketing genius. He was more like an arm chair quarterback when it came to advertising that liked to take credit for other's ideas. He wasn’t too different in marketing than many business owners who have egos. Everything had to be Claude’s idea. If he liked something he would never tell you on the spot but would bring it up in a meeting soon after it had been presented, as his idea. As opposed to a marketing genius, I would describe him more as a thief of other people’s ideas because he didn’t pay for those ideas despite promises. Had he paid for the ideas than he would be a brilliant business owner in my eyes. Simple truth the more I got to know Claude the less he understood about advertising. Ironically as a sports book owner he really didn’t know squat when it came to sports either. I doubt if he could name 5 starting quarterbacks in the National Football league without doing his research. Fortunately to run a sports book you don’t need to know about sports. Just be good a good businessman and that was Claude up until the day he got caught for legal violations.

While at the Patton Marketing Firm I put together a plan to go after the offshore gaming companies. It was a young industry, they had plenty of money, I figure they were bound to grow and were dependent upon good advertising for their growth. The problem with most of the offshore sports books were they didn't have big enough budgets to really brand their industry to the masses. I wrote up a plan to start consolidating dollars of competitors to get more bang for their buck. Fact is the industry was probably getting less than 5% of the sports bettors in the US and if the industry consolidated some ad dollars to raise industry awareness and focus on the entire market; in simple math terms 20% of 5% is less than 10% of 50%. Unfortunately my partner, Doug wasn't sold on going after the industry as he preferred to have local accounts due to the non-payment of a Dominican sports book we were dealing with and the waste of time by BOS that appeared to have embarrassed the seasoned advertising executive.