Everything began in autumn 1997. Reinhold Schmitt felt together with his family the decision to end his career as profi gambler. He wanted to use his 15 years experience to pass all his know how to other gamblers. He had the idea to build up a service and advertisement platform where casinos and gamblers get full information about the topic game of chance. He knew that this idea was exciting but his motto was: "nothing is impossible in the casino world because here many dreams become true”.

To this time he had contact to a student and learned by pure chance about the new media "Internet” which was generelly not well-known. Quickly he realized the unlimited possibilies which this new medium offers. So he founded in February 1998 the International Service Agentur for information of all parts of the casino world.

Then it was time to sell his idea and so he started in 1998 his "advertisement tour” through German casinos. Once he was guest in this casions, now he appeard as an entrepreneur and convinced the casino chieves from the new advertisement possibilities with the internet because this was not very popular by the end of the 90th. It was really hard for Reinhold Schmitt to distroy reservations about the internet because there were nearly no experiences. " I had to go to many firms and everyday I had to motivate myself again. Today I am happy that I had the strength to make this”, said Reinhold Schmitt at the beginning.

By the end of 1998 he won one of the oldest and most traditionally casinos as first client for his internet platform ISA-CASINOS: the Casino Baden-Baden. That was the breaktrough. The former director Ludwig Verschl was very open-minded and believed in Reinhold Schmitt's idea. He trusted in him and gave him the chance to manage this impossible project.

With the contract in his suitcase he went to Wiesbaden and talked to the director of the local casino Gerhard Schmulder. In many conversations he was able to convince him and so this famous casino became the second partner of the ISA-CASINOS.

In the first months in 1998 only 7 people visited the website of the ISA-CASINOS. In the whole year 1998 there were 150 visitors. In 1999 the number of visitors increased from 80 per months to 500 visitors monthly. Also the isa-casinos was able to close new business contracts with other casinos. This positiv development leaded to the fact that Reinhold Schmitt was able to employ his first webmaster Andre'Lohan who still works for ISA-CASINOS. The third employee Denis Jörger reached the ISA-CASINOS team in 2000 and finally Daniel Guther was empoyed in 2003.

The Team of the ISA-GUIDE f.l.t.r. Denis Jörger, Daniel Guther, André Lohan, Ulli Schmitt and Reinhold Schmitt.

Up from the millenium the internet became more and more popular and with it some competitors appeared who tried to establish themselves in the market. The Casinoland and the Casino News of Berlin convinced because of their respectable reportings. Other competitors disappeard very quickly again from the scene. Today Casinoland and ISA-CASINOS are the signs in the line of busines.

The internet became successful and the ISA-CASINOS, too. First partner became the Novomatic AG in 2000 and second partner became the Casino Austria in summer 2001. This was a clear sign for Reinhold Schmitt that the ISA-CASINOS should turn to a European platform. Original it was planed that the ISA-CASINOS should be a German platform. The first step was made.

The internet portal became more and more dynamic with every new casino partner. Together new ideas were developped. This fact leaded to better and more extensive service offers for the visitors. So in 2001 the casino event calender was created and the dispach of the daily newsletter was realized. In the same year the 1,000 newsletter subscriber could be welcomed. Then the ISA-CASINOS started to report in English and so the number of subscribers increased.

A further and important decision was felt in February 2002. The new and independent repubric "law” as introduced. Quickly a row of solicitors found themselves on the website and they created an excellent forum about the topic games of chance. With this very popular forum new readers were won e.g. from the Bundes- und Landesministerien which use now the ISA-CASINOS as an important information source.

This new service offer would not be there without help and engagement of the lawers Dr. Martin Bahr and Hans-Joachim Höxter. They accompany the ISA-CASINOS since many years and they take care of an objective and perfect reporting. Dr. Martin Bahr is also the press officer of the ISA-CASINOS since 2002.

Reinhold Schmitt hold on under the stress like an sportsman the first years. He had the classic qualities: iron discipline, high stamina and an intensive believe in his idea and the success. But also other facts were very important for Reinhold Schmitt and they played an important role: "The ISA-CASINOS has profited enormous from the tireless work of the casino staff and its readers. Especially at the beginning we have daily received tipps how to improve and extend our offers. It was really a team work and I would like to thank every sponser.”

At the beginning of the year 2004 another important decision was made. The number of partners has increased and also the expenditure for advice and editing. Reinhold Schmitt started to travel more and more to events in casinos and there he reported and made interviews.

In May 2004 Reinhold Schmitt handed the business over to his son Ulli who is responsible for the commercial part of the company. From this time Reinhold Schmitt concentrated himself on his job as chief editor and contact person to the casinos: he visits Poker and Baccara tournaments in the casinos and observes evertything fromt he view of a profi. His reports about the worldwide casinos became the trademark of the ISA-CASINOS. He visited many casinos and tried to gain more partner for the platform: Also he was successfully in convincing the casino chiefes of his ideas. Today he is very proud because now there are 120 partners of all parts of the line of business and a full information service can be offered.

Reinhold Schmitt in talk with Regina Halmich

Reinhold Schmitt in talk with Poker expert Michael Keiner

2005 began the political and legal disputes concerning private sport bet offerer and agents in Germany. Private bet officed openend their doors all over Germany and offered sports bets for everybody. As a result the state-owened lottery firms started to fight against this private competitors.

The high point of this legal dispute was in March 2006 and it ended when the Bundesverfas-sungsgericht passed a judgement. The bavarian sport bet monopol was pronounced to be unconstitutional and the new regulation should be made by the end of 2007. When this was announced the server of the ISA-CASINOS break down several times because within short time 10,000 people visited the website. Today a technical equippment makes sure that this will not happen again when thousands of people vistit the website of the Isa-Casinos at the same time.

2003 at the latest the ISA-CASINOS was established well and became one of the 6,000 most visited websites in Germany. With his know how Reinhold Schmitt was often in tv and gave interviews. So the degree of fame of the ISA-CASINOS raised continuously. He met also very nice people on his business trips. His personal highlight was the interview with the founder and owner of NOVOMATIC AG, one of the biggest International groups in the game of chance wold. In June 2003 he met Prof. Johann F. Graf for the first time in Austria and both still held contact with each other. In November Reinhold Schmitt tavelled to Antigua because he was invited from Lester Bryant Bird, the former prime minister. As first foreign journalist he was allowed to make an interview with Bird. They talked about his ideas, online-casinos and his native country Antigua.

Reinhold Schmit in talk with the former prime minister of Antigua Lester Bryant Bird

In the past 10 years the logo of the ISA-CASINOS was changed often depending of the current trend. Only one was still the same: the red little man as the trademark of the ISA-CASINOS. People often asked Reinhold Schmitt about the meaning of this little red man. He never gave an answer and told everybody that he will say this after 10 years. Now it is time to honour his promise: "The little red man is me, who traveled across the world and hunt a dream which will probably not be realized.” But today the dream became true and the aim was reached. In the year 2004 the little red man and the name ISA-CASINOS were patented.

To this anniversary Reinhold Schmitt has a special wish:

I would like to welcome 1,000 more new newsletter subscriber by February 2008, so that we will exceed the magic figure of 5,000 in the new year. In the past 10 years we sent more than 30 millions newsletter and I am very proud of this because this is a perfect service for our reader. More than 5,5 million people have visited our website until now and evey day new poeple read our website. This is a clear signal that the people love the games of chances.
Even the old romans had the motto: "bread and games”. Because of this we see the development of the casino line of business very optimistic. We believe that games of chances should also become in Germany a strong part of the entertainment industry.

Together, with my team and our partners, we will work again hard to care for the image of this line of business and to optimize our service offers. We thank all partners which support us and we look forward to an exciting development in the future.”