I would argue that we ought to give Bet21 a bit of a break. And I'll explain why...
First: a little bit about Bet21 from my perspective. I think the best way to think of them is as another "brand name" of UltimateBet, much like how "The Gap" owns Banana Republic and Old Navy or Hilton owns Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn. They represent different markets that the company is shooting for. So, in UltimateBet's case, they decided to spinoff a blackjack-centric site, even though they use the same technology and pool of players. If you notice, the Bet21 pros are essentially all UB pros (especially the poker players) and mostly the same software. It doesn't mean that the two sites don't have different stakeholders, different management or different profit numbers, but they share a lot and are ultimately owned by the same group. (At least, this is my best guess from what I know).
Now my point: Think about things from a business prospective from Bet21 and Ultimatebet. At some point in the past, UltimateBet decided to spend a large amount of their capital to develop a sister site, called Bet21 to try to capture a new market of player. They spent a lot on R&D to create tournament software, and spent a lot of marketing money to sponsor the UBT (almost entirely). As they are preparing to launch the software, the House of Reps pass the UIGEA. Within 2 months of launching the site, the Senate also passes the bill and the whole market goes haywire. CEOs are getting arrested and Netteller is getting shut down.
The point is that Bet21 was created with a business plan and a growth plan all based on it growing and eventually paying for all the money that UB put into it. That business plan is now shot to hell. It's virtually impossible to get the sites to market to people who don't already gamble online, and I would guess that most players are now hunkering down and playing the websites they already have money in. Certainly, Bet21 is making some money, but not what they had planned for, and who knows if it's enough to cover their expenses.
So, since the marketing isn't really gonna work and the player growth isn't there, the company is going to act like any other company and cut expenses. They will lay off customer service reps and keep on a skeleton crew that's probably overwhelmed. They don't have an R&D budget to spend, so the project of implementing bonus points on their BJ games drops to a low priority (a double whammy, since once they get it to work, they will immediately lose all the money they've promised but haven't given away yet).
In a truly open market, we'd all leave and support the site that does all this better. But, at this point, this is essentially a black market. As such, we have as much invested in keeping Bet21 alive as they do in keeping us as customers. Keep in mind that they are still losing money on the majority of their "Guaranteed" Tournaments. In supporting Bet21, we ensure that the games we enjoy playing stick around, as well as making sure the site doesn't go belly-up, taking our money with them. There's nothing but reputation and the hope of continued revenue that requires them to pay us, so I don't think it's in our best interest to threaten that.
So my point is...they know we're upset about the bonus system. They know what the score is. As long as we know what the score is also, we can do what's in our best interest.
Note: I am not affiliated with UB or Bet21 in any way, nor do I have any actual inside knowledge of their business plan. Most of this is simply speculation and logic.
