I have noticed several times lightlord's unresponsive and payment delay. All time there is issue I think the issue arises when the site make loss and cant afford the payment of hunters and/or gamblers. The issue of hotwallet might be true but it is difficult to trust as this type of staying offline as well as payment delay is usual fact.
I don't know what is the status of lightlord nowadays sometimes he is online but no update from him I think he is not feeling well until now.
I am one of those members in bitvest last August and the delay of payment almost 2 months which is too much delay. But I am hoping that he is under-recovery now if he has an illness came back here in forum and continue what he started.
The point is that he wrote over a month ago that his health is improving. Now, despite the fact that he logs into Bitcointalk every now and then, the situation, unfortunately, does not change.
Whatever the case, he should write something to reassure users, if he doesn't, he will lose everyone's trust, and later it will be very difficult to rebuild it.