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July 2 - The gambling world in South African and abroad are still coming to
grips with the news that the online casino pioneer, Warren Cloud has
died. Reports say that the young businessman had a massive heart attack while on
his boat off the Mediterranean. There have been no other details released about
his death.
Warren Cloud, who was also known by the aliases Oliver Curran and
Don Fortune, was at one time Real Time Gaming's largest licensee. At the height
of his career, Cloud was making millions with his successful online casino,
although he often made the news because of his unorthodox business practices.
Cloud began his online casino career in Johannesburg with a site run by
Korean software. Many players were left unpaid as Cloud's initial businesses
failed to get off the ground and he moved from Johannesburg, to Australia, to
London and finally to Costa Rica where he linked with RTG and finally got things
running.
His online casinos, which included brand names such as American Online, Lucky
Coin Casino and Crystal Palace, were sometimes condemned for unsavory behavior,
including 'locking' customers' accounts and not redeeming bonuses.
Cloud's online casino group once made CasinoMeister's rogue list but the name
was soon removed.
Brian Bailey, who runs CasinoMeister has this to say about Warren Cloud:
"Even though we didn't see things eye to eye concerning running a casino, he had
a family and a young daughter he loved very much. My condolences go out to
them."
At one point in his career, Warren Cloud tried to float his business - then
valued at around 140 million GBP - on the London Stock Exchange however, for
reasons never publicized, this idea fell through.
According to several reports received surrounding Cloud's death, he was
traveling by boat off the coast of Ibiza, Spain when the tragedy occurred. He
leaves behind a wife and a young daughter.
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