Amsterdam Part 1: CAC- quality not quantity

Ok, ok, so maybe CAC Amsterdam was quiet, perhaps the affiliates were far and few between, its true there were very few sponsored parties, and worst of all, the nightlife in Amsterdam is non-existent on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, the three nights of the conference. Sounds awful, doesn't it? Not exactly. From a Casino City, GPWA and APCW business point of view, our time at CAC was a success due to quality meetings we had with the operators who had made the trip for the "operators meeting". From a social and networking point of view, we made our own fun with some of the industries finest and most famous personalities, many of which you will read about below. I will be so bold as to say, my five days at CAC Amsterdam were some of the most enjoyable ever. Thank you Marc Lesnik and bring on AAC!

Partners in crime reunite
I love Gambling 911's Jenny Woo (along with the rest of the world's male population). What fun we had together in this European city of sin, although I must admit, I outlasted the infamous Woo every single night we were out. Yep. Innocent Catholic girl stays out later than the industry's hottest reporter!! Who ever thought we'd see the day? You know what else blows my mind? After several nights out with the gang, GPWA's Steven has managed to work his way to the top of Jenny's list. Michael Caselli, time to move over- you have officially been replaced.

A night at the Supperclub with PKR, GPWA and PAL
Thank you Margaret and PKR for treating 30 GPWA and PAL affiliates to such a fabulous meal and experience! This artistic, modern, and creative venue seats guests on white "beds" which line the walls of this small and intimate restaurant. Courses are served on plates to be held on your lap while a live DJ and funky lighting provide the ambiance for one hell of an entertaining evening...a very male dominated evening of 46 men and just four women, Jenny, Margaret, Tamara and I. This is not a lie or exaggeration- ask anyone who was there, I'm sure they noticed.

Red light District- slightly horrifying, yet always enjoyable
I have been to Amsterdam six times and the vast variety of hookers posing in windows will never cease to amaze me...the hookers AND the sex shops, the sex shows, the peep shows, the Banana Bar (yes it is what you think it is), the seedy characters on the street pushing the drug of your choice, the countless coffee shops where patrons freely purchase and smoke cannabis, the shops full of french fries and chocolate covered waffles, and intoxicated young male tourists stumbling around everywhere. All of this indulgence is counterbalanced by beautiful architecture, lovely canals and cobblestone streets- I would have to say the Red Light conjures up somewhat of a surreal, twilight zone type feeling. Or maybe I should just lay off the cannabis. Anyway. I highly recommend it.

Unibet's Erik and Gustav, the industry sex symbols
Thank you Oral, dear affiliate, for bringing this discovery to my attention! I knew there was a reason why Unibet's Snygg Erik and Gustav make an appearance at every. Single. Online. Gambling. Event. They are the online gambling industry sex symbols!! I should have realized. Marilyn Monroe, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Redford, Pamela Anderson, Don Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and now Unibet's Erik Hellqvist and Gustav Lipcsey. Obvious! Add Jenny Woo and now the list is complete. Would not be the same without you, boys.

Karim's night of Teppanyaki moves to Amsterdam
Here we go again. Karim initiates dinner for 16, we choose Teppanyaki, the dinner balloons into 30, we get really, really, really drunk, RaketheRake.com picks up the bill and we head to a popular club in a partial black out. Problem this time was that Amsterdam's nightlife is dead for the first part of the week...that is, except for the Players Sports Bar, conveniently located about one block from the conference hotel. The entire Teppanyaki crew walked into this place around midnight and was pleasantly surprised to find the rest of the Casino Affiliate Convention inside. Surprise!

Sweetbreads, cow knuckles and quail eggs, the ultimate delicacies
The Casino Coins and CasinoBlasters teams kindly treated Eric and I to dinner at the very fancy Ciel Bleu Restaurant in the Okura Hotel. We're talking "no cell phones allowed" fancy which is not that easy for me, as I'm sure you can imagine. We agreed to try the chef tasting menu, a series of delicacies which are served to the table over the course of many, many, many, many hours. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first one to love extravagant and long dinners, but a certain individual in attendance (Fred), was about to jump out the 23rd floor window after hour number three. There was a common theme of "sweetbreads" in just about all of our courses, a delicacy that I could do without. To define, "Sweetbreads are the thymus and pancreas glands of lamb, beef or pork. Although both are edible, the heart thymus gland is generally favored because of its delicate flavor and texture, and is thus more expensive". Right. No thank you.

A night at Jimmy Woos...FINALLY!
No, no, not Jenny Woos, JIMMY Woos. Nice coincidence though, huh? At the first three CAC Amsterdams I attended, I was denied entry into Jimmy Woos because our group was not "on the list". Place was probably empty anyway! The fourth time around I had the help of guess who- you'll never guess- Aleksi from Pokerisivut.com who was kind enough to get my name on the coveted list. I show up with five people, they have my name on the list, we all enter- no problem. Once inside we pushed our way through the sea of underage Dutch boys and located our online gambling crew who, in proper online gambling fashion, had already ordered bottles and taken over the entire VIP table section.

Chillin' with Ice Cube, E-40 and his posse
Would it be a proper online gambling conference without a token celeb shot? Of course not! How about two celeb shots? This was an easy mission in Amsterdam considering none of the Europeans had a clue who these "gigantic black gangstahs" were. E-40 and his crew actually joined us at the Euro Pub every afternoon for free post conference drinks, compliments of iGaming Business, PAL and us-blackjack.com. Rumor has it that Bob Rains snuck off with these big black men for some coffee shop fun after the free bar, but I just can't seem to believe it. Best of all, during my last day in Amsterdam, and I had the pleasure of bumping into Ice Cube in the Krasnapolsky lobby- big thanks goes out to his bodyguard for taking such a lovely picture of the two of us together.

Dutch poker playing affiliates, your ticket to secret late night spots
Or maybe not. Sven, the Dutch poker playing affiliate, decided to make a CAC appearance and joined us for one last night of Amsterdam fun. After closing down one bar and coffee shop after the next, at 3am Sven decided to use his Dutch and talk our way into the one place that was still open, The San Francisco Bar. This place seemed ok, minus the scary bouncer and creepy clientele, but hey, we had fun. Out of curiosity, I decided to google this nightspot after our experience, and here is what I found: "The doorman will give you a once-over with a bloodshot, suspicious eye, but don't mention that he looks like a cross between a baboon and a pit-bull terrier if you value your facial features...the crowd consists of transgendered prostitutes looking for a customer and backpackers who are too stoned to notice a prominent Adam's apple". Eeeek!