Cursed Treasure

What is Cursed Treasure?

For so long, CalvinAyre.com has been a beacon in the poker reporting landscape but as the outgoing incumbent of this position of privilege, I haven’t been at the centre of this role for so long as to claim anywhere near all the credit.  

A huge thanks for his outstanding reporting on this site should go to Lee Davy, who for many years, brought poker to life on Calvin Ayre. I personally owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lee for the efforts he made in not only making me feel so well prepared to take up the mantle when he moved on to pastures new, but in establishing the Calvin Ayre brand so well for so many years within the poker world.

Ours is a niche industry, but it is a wonderful and welcoming one, and Calvin Ayre has been a huge part of the poker industry in my time, too. The name has opened doors, helped me speak to some of the biggest and best poker players from around the globe.  

How to play Cursed Treasure

This reliance places many high-value players at risk of “silent churn”, where VIP players become inactive without warning, posing a significant challenge for operators.

The report, titled The State of VIP Operations, was compiled by The Playa in collaboration with Gaming Operations Academy and WarriorLab.

Conducted in 2026, it surveyed 70 professionals actively engaged in VIP management, including VIP account managers, heads of VIP and consultants, with 64% employed directly by gambling operators. 

About Cursed Treasure

“What is striking here is the level of activity that apparently failed to trigger effective intervention,” Williams says. “These were obvious indicators requiring further scrutiny, and it is difficult to understand why they did not result in more effective intervention.”

He adds that the recurring weakness is often not an absence of policies but a failure to ensure “technology, algorithms and operational processes actually work in practice”. Some of the QuinnBet issues followed a platform migration, underlining the need to retest controls whenever systems change.

As QuinnBet is also licensed in Gibraltar, Williams expects its regulator to consider the UK’s findings under the jurisdiction’s strengthened Gambling Act 2025. That would not necessarily require a second sanction, but Gibraltar must satisfy itself that any underlying weaknesses have been addressed, he says.