The concept of ZeroEdge Casino has caused divided opinion - with the Exposure of ZeroEdge.bet we ask is it one big SCAM!
ZeroEdge created quite a storm last year with their stunning new concept in online gambling – offering gamblers the opportunity to enjoy online gambling games such as slots, roulette and blackjack, with absolutely no house edge at all.
The concept caused quite a stir throughout the industry and effectively divided public opinion into two camps – those that saw the zero house edge concept as a brilliant utopian idea that signaled a new era in online gambling, and those that saw it as nothing more than a pipe dream at best and, at worst, a total s
What is Zero Edge? A Quick Primer on the Zero Edge Concept
If you’re still in the dark about how the Zero Edge concept works, here’s a quick primer.
Every casino game in the world, whether online or in a real brick and mortar casino, contains a built-in advantage which allows the casino to make a profit on every bet – regardless of whether you win or lose that bet. This is known as the house edge, and it skews every casino game in favour of the house (casino). Think of the house edge as an unfair advantage where you accept it anyway and take your chances all the same.
House edge is always expressed as a percentage, and some casino games will have a higher house edge than others. Knowing the house edge percentage of a given game is a great way to decide which casino games to play and which to avoid. For example, in roulette, you get European roulette and American roulette. European roulette has a single zero position which results in an average house edge of around 2.7%, while American roulette has two zero’s (a single and a double zero) which give the casino a massive advantage over the player, coming in at around 5.26%. Blackjack has one of the lowest house edge percentages of any casino game and, if you use basic blackjack strategy, you can get the house edge down to very manageable 0.5%. See how this works?
How the Zero Edge Concept was Supposed to Change Everything
On paper, the Zero Edge concept sounds brilliant because the entire idea is based on cryptocurrency and its many advantages. Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), are essentially web-based currencies that are entirely decentralised. This means that no government or bank can touch them, they are not regulated by any conventional means.
So, if cryptocurrencies are not controlled and standardised by a conventional banking system, how are they safe to transact? The answer is quite simple and ingenious. All cryptocurrencies are transacted online through the means of something called a Blockchain, which is an open source ledger or record of every single transaction or exchange made with cryptos like Bitcoin or Ethereum. This way anyone has immediate access to any record within the Blockchain and each transaction needs to be witnessed and recorded by independent third parties working to create and extend the Blockchain.
Zero Edge came up with the idea to create the world’s first online casino that uses the very same Blockchain technology to create a ‘freely transparent’ means of gambling online using cryptocurrency (in this case based on the Ethereum model) and offering all users an absolute zero per cent house edge. This was their main selling point since no online casino in the world is realistically able to offer their gamblers a zero percent house edge. If they did, they would go out of business before you could say online casino.
But Zero Edge claimed to be unique in their approach since they were not going to be offering conventional currencies such as US dollars or Euros the way regular online casinos do. While regular online casinos may still be ‘set in the past’ many have at least embraced cryptos and now offer the option of both USD and Bitcoin for their players. Conversely, Zero Edge only offers play in cryptocurrency, meaning that you have to buy their Ethereum-based ‘Zero Coin’ to play their proposed zero percent house edge casino games.
Where Things Start to Get Tricky
On the surface it all sounds rather spectacular, the world’s first genuinely fair online casino, where no one gets ripped off by money hungry online casinos and their biased casino games, bankrolled by their unique special currency called Zero Coin.
According to the official Zero Edge sales pitch, “Zero Edge is a decentralised online casino and an open protocol aiming to disrupt the online gambling industry by offering players 0% house edge casino games, fee-less sports betting and an open source platform for building online games.” Clearly, this is designed to sound as incredible as possible, the realisation of a long-held dream of all online gamblers, a chance to play on a level playing field where everyone, regardless of their skill level has a 50 – 50 shot of winning their bets.
The central team behind the Zero Edge concept, led by the shadowy Adrian Casey, bolster their radical concept with some seemingly hard facts regarding laws of supply and demand. According to Casey and his cohorts, the entire Zero Edge concept hinges on something known as ‘Metcalfe’s Law’ – which is a real thing. Metcalfe’s Law originally pertains to telecommunications and states that the effect of a telecommunications network is directly proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2).
Now, that’s quite a mouthful, and most of us aren’t quite sure what it all means, which is precisely the point. Zero Edge used Metcalfe’s Law to sell their crypto currency-based concept to potential investors, the idea being that, since you had to use their ETH (Zero Coin) to play their exclusive zero house edge games, the more people that bought the coin - the more valuable the currency would become. Sounds great, and was a highly effective way to launch their pre-ICO (Initial Coin Offering) back in February 2018.
As anyone who has ever attempted to launch a crypto-based coin offering knows, getting it off the ground is a challenge requiring a considerable amount of media campaigning to drum up the needed interest relating to whatever the online venture happens to be. More often than not, new coin offerings fail, which is probably why Casey and his crew figured that they had cracked the hard nut of how to generate interest.
The online casino industry is notoriously hard to beat, from a player point of view, which is precisely why the old cliché “the house always wins” exists. By promising the moon and coming across as the saviour of the underdog (aka the player), Zero Coin gained much interest quickly. But what do you expect when your main campaign slogan is “disrupting the online casino industry” right?
Zero Edge promised a “game-changing casino model” which would offer a unique online gambling experience to those that decided to buy their pre-ICO coins and start playing some of their games. The “unique zero edge platform” would single-handedly solve all of the problems of game biased in favour of the casino, with games “publicly verifiable on the Ethereum Blockchain”. However, anyone visiting the Zero Edge website would be greeted by less than a handful of what looks like prototype games, ostensibly designed to give potential investors ‘an idea’ of what they could expect once all zero coins had been successfully distributed through the pre-ICO, as well as the currently ongoing ICO phase.
So, while the Zero Edge website looks really nice and sleek, with plenty of great looking images of happy gamblers enjoying casino games with zero percent house edge, the reality is quite the opposite, no games to actually try out and no way to know what sort of games will actually come to fruition for real money gaming. Not a great confidence builder by any stretch of the imagination!
Anyone visiting the Zero Edge casino page will be greeted by what amounts to the saddest collection of casino games in the history of online casinos. Of all games offered on the left-hand side menu, less than a handful will actually load. Now, while the team at Zero Edge may have explained this away by saying the page, along with the available games, are nothing more than a demonstration of the potential to come, the fact is that six months after the close of pre-ICO, not one single real game has been created.
The only video poker option currently available at Zero Edge is a Jacks or Better game, but take a look at where this game is sourced from:
Other zero percent house edge casino games that were listed, at least for “trial purposes” anyway, have now been completely removed. Once again, no real legitimate open source, Ethereum Blockchain verified zero edge casino games had been developed to take their place.
Games like roulette 3D, an incredibly popular online casino game, is also listed here. However, when selected, the message appears “page could not be found”, which is web-speak for “this game does not exist”. Even if we were to believe the party line of “These are merely demo games”, why list it at all? Could it be that the casino is slowly being dismantled and will speed up significantly the closer they get to their ICO target?
In the small print at the top of the ZeroEdge.bet site is a notification that informs would-be investors and gamblers that the casino will only be ‘live’ once all ‘Zerocoins’ have been distributed through their still on-going initial coin offering. Given that there are hardly any games to view, even in a ‘demo mode’, one has to wonder what happens after the ICO. Will the games magically appear. Surely a prerequisite of total 100% distribution shouldn’t affect how many games are ready to go the second the site goes live?
As it currently stands, Zero Edge’s ICO is at 96.30% complete distribution, with 161.8M out of a possible 168M Zerocoins already sold. According to their countdown clock, there are still fifteen days left for the completion of the Zero Edge ICO, enough time to turn things around and get to the bottom of what seems to be turning out to be one of the biggest ICO scams in history. With so many coins sold for a concept that, in practice would be completely unfeasible. ICO scams are certainly not unprecedented. Indeed, there have been quite a few to date, including “Hong Coin”, “Karbon”, “ToTheMoon”, “Confido” and many other ICO’s, all fake, all designed to fleece investors for everything they’ve got. The common thread in all of these instances is the creator/CEO disappearing completely once all ICO sales or “distribution” has been completed. Sound familiar yet?
So, Who is Behind ZeroEdge.bet?
On the surface, Zero Edge is led by what seems to be an impressive team of movers and shakers within the IT world, cryptocurrency creators, Blockchain professionals, marketers, web analysts and many other experts in various fields. Once again, this is designed to create the "illusion of legitimacy" to the would-be investor. After all, when scrolling through the extensive list of team members and external advisors, the average Joe would most certainly be impressed enough to feel safe in spending a few dollars to buy some brand new Zero Coin.
Who is Adrian Casey?
The driving force behind ZeroEdge.bet is a somewhat mysterious man named Adrian Casey, who seems to have appeared out of thin air with almost no social media presence save for a barely breathing Facebook profile page and a sketchy LinkedIn profile page.
According to his website bio, Adrian Casey is there to “play a critical role in shaping and supervising the development of the company” which, for a CEO, is rather like stating the obvious. It is worth noting at this stage that, while Adrian Casey did pass the ICObench KYC (along with two other associates), he has since disappeared, falling off the radar and failing to communicate with most of the members of his team and, perhaps even more importantly, his investors. Interestingly, his main ICO is still ongoing, which means that even though he has chosen to ‘go underground’ and not communicate with team members or investors, he and his closest associates (if they even exist) are still trying to dupe would-be investors in the Zero Edge scheme.
This hastily created Facebook page is not in use at all and only serves to add to a thin shell of superficial legitimacy. Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that Adrian Casey claims to have previously been under the employ of very well-established and highly respected online betting sites including William Hill and CentreBet. However, as it turns out, neither of these two companies have any record of Adrian Casey working for them.
According to his bio info, which includes an email address as well as a LinkedIn profile address, a search revealed these to be completely fake, which can be seen in the following screenshots taken after a Google search of the details above.
Both a Linkedin profile as well as an email address links provided are a dead end.
What’s even more worrying, is that the email address provided, AdrianCasey99@gmail.com reveals this profile:
Evidently, this is not the same person that can be seen in the original Zero Edge profile photograph. There’s an old saying that, if it moves like a duck, and sounds like a duck – it probably is (a duck)! So, if everything so far points to a false identity and a fake product, the chances are that investors need to be concerned.
But what about other key members of the Zero Edge team?
Surely one bad apple shouldn’t determine the overall quality of the barrel? Well, let’s take a look at some of the other team members listed alongside Adrian Casey on the Zero Edge info site.
Another key member that is right at the top of the Zero Edge food chain, right alongside Adrian Casey, is another obscure character by the name of Simon Bastide.
Not a whole lot of information about this person on the web either, although he does claim to have worked with and for some big names in the industry, none of which are verified. Google search Simon Bastide and you will find a link to a LinkedIn profile which, surprise surprise, is unavailable.
There is what seems to be a pretty new Twitter account with the name of this person, although no profile picture to see and very few tweets.
Of course, this doesn’t in and of itself mean that he doesn’t exist, or that is this person part of the Zero Edge scam; it still doesn’t look good all the same. He is listed on several ICO sites including FoundICO and TrackICO, although neither features much in-depth information to go on.
Here’s the rather skinny TrackICO page for Simon Bastide:
Other key members of the Zero Edge team include a woman named Zoe Golan, who appears to be Zero Bet’s Chief Financial Officer.
As predicted there is not much information available about this person either, and the Facebook page under her name appears to be a fake, judging by the actual URL of the page. You may notice at the top; the URL appears to be someone else’s name altogether, a ‘Milton Gordon’. Rather curious to say the least.
The same can be said for another key team member, supposed ‘web analyst’ Marissa Pearce.
Here’s her Facebook profile page, which also seems to have the same rather curious, different URL issue. This time it seems to be belonging to a profile by the name of Tracie Lopez.
Unravelling a Scam
I’m sure if we kept going down the list of team members, at least half would be fakes, added to create a sense of security and trust in the brand and the product (aka pipe dream) that they are trying to sell to you.
Ultimately, we suspect that Zero Edge is nothing more than a scam, designed to get as much money out of unsuspecting ICO investors and hopeful online gamblers as possible. It is important to note that none of the key members mentioned above has been in contact with their investors or with their team members, either via the site itself or via the community Telegram group that was set up to ensure constant communication throughout the various stages of the project. You have to ask yourself if these guys were legit, why have they suddenly stopped communicating with their own team members? Why can no one track them down via the usual social media platforms?
What is most worrying, is that the ICO is still in full swing, with close to a 100% goal achievement status reported on their site, which mind you, has been ongoing for months. But what are people really buying here? Where are the so-called ‘Zerocoins’ and, since there are no new casino games developed, what on earth will the Zerocoins be worth, given that their sole purpose is to fund Zero Edge casino games?
There are, quite frankly, far too many unanswered questions regarding virtually every aspect of the Zero Edge model and, if no one in the team can get hold of the leading personalities involved in the project, its little wonder that we are now seeing a significant number of resignations of team members from the project. I’ve posted the list of team members here, along with their individual response in the wake of the most recent developments with Zero Edge.
Team members / Advisors and their reactions to date:
ADVISORS
Cedric Morris - resigned
Shihaam Isaacs - resigned
Daniel Demchak - resigned
MEMBERS
Roger Crook – resigned
Jim Preissler – resigned
Stephen Drew – resigned
Justin Jovanovic - was never an advisor to the project
Mark Kreimerman – resigned
Sydney Ifergan – resigned
Jacob Salvador - resigned
Cecilia PaolinoUboldi - resigned
Matt Howard - resigned
Peter Zhalov - resigned
Augusto Arce - was never an advisor to the project
As you can see, when compared to the list of team members and advisors advertised on the Zero Edge website, the above list represents a significant vote of no confidence in the project as well as in the product. The other team members and advisors are yet to react, but the safe money is on resignation all the way through.
Perhaps one of the most damning pieces of evidence against Casey and his crew comes from a former Zero Edge/Zerocoin community manager, Cedric Morris, who posted the following on Icobench.com:
“In recent weeks, I noticed irregularities in the management of the ICO zero-edge Casino. The principal and most active project members Adrian Casey (CEO), Simon Bastide (COO) and Marissa Pearce (Web Analyst) have ceased their activities and showed no evidence of any work done on the casino games that they promised for months. I stopped working with this project, and I have created a group on telegram dedicated to investors.”
Anyone that has invested in the Zero Edge scheme, and has experienced either an official ban from the Zeroedge Telegram group, or has been ignored by Casey, Pearce, or Bastide, can join Cedric Morris’s Zeroedge support group, which already contains over one hundred investors
Another blow and perhaps the final nail in the coffin of Zero Edge comes from Dr Rex Yeap, a significant figure in ICO and cryptocurrency. Dr Yeap is a noted IP Blockchain inventor, Serial ICT inventor, Angel Investor, Quant, Educator, and Icobench contributor. Based on the most recent events surrounding Zero Edge, Dr Yeap has dropped his rating for Zero Edge from a total rating of 4 4 2 down to 1 1 1. This rating applies to points for Team, Vision and Product respectively. Fellow contributor and managing partner, Stephen Drew, concurred with an identicle rating of 1 1 1 overall for Zero Edge.
All the evidence appears to suggest that things have gone terribly wrong with Zero Edge and, what started out as a somewhat idealistic attempt at changing what many perceive to be an unfair online gambling industry, has ironically, turned out to be itself a scam. With close to 100% of its ICO sales achieved and "an ongoing fifteen" days to go to its closing, there is still time to undo the damage done, track down Adrian Casey and his co-conspirators, return funds to Zero Edge investors and pay their resigned staff for work completed.
