THIS, is what start-ups are all about: hardship, community spirit, trips to IKEA and doing whatever we can to get hold of some cash to pay the faithful. All ideas please come forward, we will do anything and everything, before our casino opens, to feed our recruits. Last night mutts innovated chilli soup surprise (hot water and tabasco sauce and bread). Necessity is the mother of invention. Watch this space.

Our newest full-time recruit, the Wit, wasn't so happy with the last entry and wanted to add a few words to the blog. Since it was so fresh and comical, I thought why not?

'My name's Mavy, a knight-errant who has dabbled in many trades; tourism, fashion and pharmaceuticals to name a few. I've picked up knowledge along the way that will bring an added dimension to the Casino Boys venture. It's refreshing to join a group of people who are not going down the main stream...better to branch off and take some risks. In the meantime book me in for a lower bunk at the barrack hotel.'

I'd also like to welcome 3 new part-timers to the scene:

• a Northern advertising wizard who refuses to bow to the trend of wearing normal clothes in order to make the continuous transition from bed to work to pub to bed that much smoother
  
• a graphic designer with a penchant for dressing up as puss-in-boots and a flair for events management
• a lawyer intent on helping us to stop infringing the law and side-stepping it instead.
  

Our burgeoning office in One Sun Street has been steadily kitted out. The phones have now arrived (yes, we are a real office, call us on 0207 330 1160 if you want), as well as several Skype lines (the cutting edge of the digital age, just don't ask us to fix your toaster...), and a clutch of hand-me-down PCs from all over london. We also managed to pick up some screens for the new computers from the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for the Blind which were apparently surplus to their requirements (thanks to all those who helped us on this!). To sum it up, we now have 8 screens, 5 1/2-functionning workstations, 3 of them already fully-filled. So when you arrive, please bring a laptop.

Lounging on our sleek scandinavian furniture, enjoying our freshly-brewed coffees from our very own espresso machine, catered for by Messrs. Marks and Spencer's round the corner, who wouldn't want to join the "Casino Boys at the Barrack Hotel"?

First of all i want to introduce a couple of new recruits. The first is a bloke who has introduced some well needed wit into the office. We have nicknamed him "The Wit". The second has added some well needed diversity to our organisation. We've got Indian, English, Polish and now Japanese.... now all we need are a few females! Our new Oriental recruit is "Hiro". Wit = Head of Trademarks, Admin etc. Hiro = Head of Internet Vending & other cash streams. Welcome Wit and Hiro....

Carrying on...

Viz seems to get wind of lots of stuff... The next was an evening where Richard Segal (At the time, the head of Partygaming - the biggest online Gambling site world wide).

Well, me and Viz, being shy as we are managed to ask the most questions in the whole group. Then at the end personally met Richard, got a photo and asked him:

Innovator: Is it possible that a new entrant could come onto the market and steal a big chunk of your market?
Richard Segal: No......Blah blah blah...
Visionary: Who is your biggest threat?
Richard Segal: No-one...blah blah blah.


Anyway, after bigging myself up to Viz about being good at poker, i came 3rd in the hundred+ entry poker tournement, while getting tipsy.... and won my next day's clothes.

After an exhausting night, the bunks are now up in Liverpool Street. One of the best Saturday nights ever! And those extra berths are rapidly filling up with new recruits.

We've already had one new arrival this week in the form of the King of Chat to add some gift of the gab to our sales team, our software team is now in place and it's full speed ahead! It's a man's life in One Sun Street.

It wasn't always so easy though. The interviews for the team were gruelling. Our first potential candidates were two Liverpool wide-boys replete with gold lame shellsuits, five o'clock shadow and the sleep still in their eyes. NEXT!

...were a firm of Manchester City Slickers, elegantly dressed this time (proving that you don't HAVE to be badly dressed if you're northern), who were smooth, capable, on top of their game, and wanted £300,000...so they were out, too. On the other extreme were the Indian firms who promised to deliver for under a thousand pounds.

In the end, we did really well by hiring a freelancer who proved he was willing to go the extra mile by dressing up as a pizza boy to get the Innovator's attention (we're into our role-playing here...). Look out for the fruits of the relationship in June...

Visionary out.

OK everyone….

Am a little bit disappointed that some people are doubting that the blokes in the photo are actually us. Let me just tell you that if you are doubting those photo’s, then there are a couple more with far more influential people in them that we are going to disguise our faces on soon….

Let’s get back to telling you the story:

After convincing the family, finding Malta and meeting playmates we had to get the ball rolling on the software.

Options: Do it ourselves, use established piece of software and become an “affiliate" or get small Software Company to do it.

1. Do it ourselves: I’m pretty good at computers, but don’t trust myself to do something secure or totally reliable. The Visionary has assured me that he is good at many things. Software isn’t one of them. Not an option.
2. Use established piece of software – Our idea is so innovative that another piece of software just wouldn’t be able to cater for it. Also who wants to do all this work - only to give away any cash to big, rich software companies?
3. Get small software company to do it: Keep the rights to the software, start up our own affiliate schemes and give any “software money” to a small company that we get on with.

Funnily enough, we chose option 3.

The Visionary will probably explain how we came to the decision over the software company, and also why he didn't help me collect the bunk beds for the dorm... (ok he did help put them up.)

Viz?

We have a new starter today, the 'mini-innovator'... he has started some other lines of business to bring in some much needed extra cash to pay for the rest of you when you join us!

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Two weeks after we start, one of the two biggest gambling conventions of the year is being held in…London! Was this a good omen or what?

Of course, being a gambling exhibition, it wasn’t quite what we expected...Mutts was pretty shocked when these two Hungarian playmates asked to have their picture taken with us.

(While it is true that I didn’t have a girlfriend to tell our idea to at the time, at least I won’t have to explain this photo…)

Also, we found the perfect jurisdiction for our enterprise: Malta. Friendly people and a sunny climate on a Mediterranean island...and it seems to have been chosen by about 130 other companies like us, including some of the really big boys. Over to you mutts.

Right guys (& girls)…. just to let you know, we’re in the process of setting up a dorm for everyone who wants to work with us in London… If you know us, call us… free accommodation, and great company! Not too much money though… sorry…look at it as a career break that could lead onto massive things…

Carrying on…

My girlfriend never thinks my ideas are any good… in fact I’d go as far to say as she is purposely negative just to wind me up. So its always good to give her a call, and totally fizzle out any confidence that I had. Called her, told her…it went quiet. She couldn’t complain! Sorry bubs. At that point I knew not to tell anyone else and keep it a secret.

“The Visionary” tried to tell his girlfriend, but he didn’t have one. So I think his parents passed the idea instead.

True?

Thanks for the recent surge of support and interest. If any of you do fancy joining us btw, we are producing an option for you, more soon.

on with the story:
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It is one thing to come up with an idea in the middle of the night and start raving about it...but it is quite another for it to stand up to the scrutiny in the cold light of day...but this one of mine was worth a second look.

With mutts in his 9-5 '2nd best dream job', it fell to me to find out if the idea was legally possible. I found that in the UK you guys are able to game online, but the ancient gambling laws of this great country just cannot be applied to license the hosting of online gambling within the UK, they only cater for licensing an enclosed premises for gaming. I did suggest that the server could be kept locked on such a premises, but apparently this isn't allowed since it can be viewed anywhere. All set to change in September 2007 though, but too late for us.

So I called up most of the licensing jurisdictions around the world, posing as an heir out to make a quick £. If ever you get involved with this kind of thing, the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean sound great for a license and a laugh, up to when the hurricane hits and all your servers go down. Gibraltar is a very reputable place, and the gaming commission staff extremely helpful...but they only entertain those with at least a few $bn...the list is pretty long.

mutts?

We're going to tell you how it got to this stage. Starting with the day that I came up with the idea...

Start - 8pm - 10th January 2006..

"The Visionary" (hmmm..) had been trying to meet with me for ages...finally I relented. After a few hours of catching up, we started talking about plans. Back in school he was hard working and steady - certainly not one to break the mould but it soon became apparent that he wasn't looking forward to working in a "steady" job. He had one lined up at the time..

I, on the other hand, have grown up in a family where starting something yourself is the norm, although at that time I was working for a recruitment company as an IT Manager, which to be honest, is the best job.. short of working for myself..

We chatted. He told me a few of his ideas - but none of them stood out as unique or fun. Sorry mate! We were, however, pretty good at bouncing ideas off each other, and after a while I mentioned an idea for a casino. We found this so fun and surreal that it took about 10 seconds before we realised that the idea had true potential....

End - 6am 11th January 2006 - off to work at 8.30am.

Since I first had the idea back in January, I have completely altered the course of my life and I reflect on the events of past two months with sheer disbelief...and yet it has all seemed perfectly natural...

‘What is it like to build your own online casino?’

Frustrating, because it is a question that we cannot directly answer right now. So instead, please be happy with this blog as a window onto the world of the two entrepreneurs who are trying to break into an established multi-billion dollar industry...or are we?

We always knew we were onto something but were not quite sure how far we would get with it. Sitting in the LGA office last week (the licensing authority in Malta, ), I can tell you that it is now seriously serious. We are going to apply for a gaming license, our software is currently being built, and we already have the company and office in the heart of the city.

I guess my brother typifies the kind of reaction I receive when I say:

‘We are setting up an online casino’

…he still thinks our ‘office’ is a bedroom somewhere in London. Ok it is small, but it is now a fully-equipped and lightly-staffed office. Of course, like you, none of our staff know what we actually do.

As mutts has alluded to below, we are pretty secretive, in fact, so secretive that only 12 people in the world know what we are doing. If you do know who we are and what we are doing, don’t go leaving any comments now, let’s keep it between us, OK? I think I’d rather like my pseudonym to be…dude.

enough ‘swanning about’ (Everest base camp, Lhasa, Beijing, Nairobi, Kampala, Paris, Boston to name a few…I think it is actually a case of jealousy), I now hand you back to the self-styled innovator of the team, innovator simply because he will never be more than a dreamer without the visionary action of the ‘dashers’…

alright mutts…