US Poker News: Funds Seized, Sites Closed, Scams and More
Posted by admin on 11 February 2012 in Betting Sites NewsOver the past 48 hours there have been a slew of online poker news reports involving US poker sites. The first story is the Everleaf Poker Network has banned US residents and could be facing legal challenges. Additionally, World Sports Exchange (WSEX) has closed their online poker room WSEX Poker. Finally we have added BetOnline poker issues to report, plus a couple more stories to link off to. With a lot to cover, let me get started.
Everleaf Poker No More US Players
On February 9, 2012 a professional poker player and player advocate best known as PokerAddict was the first source to post about Everleaf’s new terms and conditions. These terms required acceptance before players were allowed to access their account. It was term 18 that was the most interesting which read “18. No person who is resident in Malta, France and USA may open an account, play, or in any other way participate in the ELG offerings and/or services.” This came as a surprise because Everleaf sites (ex: Minted Poker, Luvin Poker, etc.) were the website US players concerned with fast payouts used due to the fact they paid cash outs via MoneyGram.
We’ll it turns out that Everleaf actually had funds confiscated by the United States Department of Homeland Security and was sent a cease and desist order that threatened prosecution over their violation of US gambling laws. I discovered this by visiting the best source for poker news pokerscout.com where pages of various reports by news sites and bloggers are linked. The link I found today read and was linked to: Everleaf bans US players after Homeland Security seizes funds.
The most interesting quote from this post read:
The representative stressed that all player funds, both from the US and rest of world, are “secure and ring fenced.” However, proceedings “will now commence … with Homeland Security” to see that funds “are returned to players, hopefully once agreed the cash out process will be swift, so as not to cause undue stress to the parties involved.”
Perhaps something is lost in translation here but these two statements seem to conflict. Perhaps they meant 1) secure and 2) ring fenced as two separate things. As in: some is ring fenced off to the side and the rest is obviously secure because it’s with Homeland SECURITY! Call me skeptical, but… if the ability to pay US players relies on an agreement with Homeland Security, FBI, DOJ or any US authority those funds are only borderline secure at best and far more often than not payment will not be swift. I wish these players the best of luck getting paid but I’m a cynic when it comes to this one.
WSEX Poker Closes
I have all the sympathy in the world for players wronged by former A+ rated Sportsbook WSEX.com, but this company is broke has over a million dollars in unpaid cash outs requests, some dating back two years. In order to have any chance of paying these players WSEX is finding new potential victims to slow pay. In any casem I read this brief report here stating WSEX Poker is closed. This is only semi-good-news. It would be better if they closed down all together sold whatever assets they had and let those who are owed get paid-off a smaller am mount eventually by the liquidator. More likely than not this is the eventual outcome and why it sucks to anyone waiting to get paid (myself one of those people) all that is happening here is there are new players added to the pool of those who will need to wait forever to get paid. It’s a ponzi scheme and should be shutdown.
BetOnline, BetOnline, BetOnline
If there has ever been a greater example of utter incompetence in the online poker industry than these guys, I must have amnesia. In any case, if you’re thinking about playing poker here read this post on BetOnline Serious Poker Issues before getting started. A new complaint surfaced today on forums where a player claims to have had pots he won shipped to the wrong player on three occasions. The most recent one he has gotten no help on, as the incompetent BetOnline support reps can’t understand his complaint. You can read about that in this forum thread, but here is the short version.
Omaha you can use two cards from your hand, three cards from board of community cards.
Player1 holds: 6-7-8-9
Player2 holds: 9-10-J-Q
Board: 5-5-6-7-K
Player1: uses his 8-9 to make a 5-6-7-8-9 straight.
Player2: uses his Q-J to make 5-5-K-Q-J for a pair of fives.
The above are the best possible hands either player can make. It’s being reported that BetOnline shipped the pot to Player2 even though his pair of fives was beat by Player1 who had a straight. Support has been giving Player1 the run around for days over this $400.00 pot given to the wrong player. He was first told they found no glitch (umm…lol wtf!). Now he’s being told they have to check with the software developer on this! Their software screwed up and cheated a player out of $400.00 and rather than sending him $400 ASAP and declaring a technology error Code Red to get the problem fixed, this is what happens. The support rep treats the wronged player with an attitude of “yeah someone will get back to you I’m busy staring at the clock tick while I wait for my break”.
Another new complaint about BetOnline is that buried in their rules is a notice of a 6% fee on credit card deposits. Our own traffic logs here at SBS reflect some players do not know about this and it is deceptive. Ignore the comments by the brainwashed peanut gallery while getting the news in this thread. To be clear: a player deposits $100, their account gets credited only $94, they notice and ask why and are pointed to the rules page. SBS has no issue with the fee but there should be a breakdown right on the confirm screen showing the fee. As it stands now this is not the case and the fee is only shown in the fine print which is several clicks away from the cashier.
Other Stories
Merge Cheating Scandal – click that link to read a stale OPS report on the situation. We’ve got word via affiliate forums just yesterday that hints Merge’s decision is to ignore the problem and just tell the player don’t do it again.
Note: Times are touch in the US, so if you decide (despite the warning) to play online poker on the Merge Network anyways, I suggest sticking to Carbon Poker or Lock Poker as these are the two sites with forum support.
Chuck Kidd Slaps Back – In lighter more humorous news G911 took a shot at head of payment processor Pic-Club in this post, only to see him snap back.
4,000 Friends Go on Strike – I’m not sure which comments were funnier in the chat log, the OP with 4,000 friends who look up to him, or Merge Poker rep Edwin Morris who says “we offer gambling as a leisurely habit. We do not permit the use of our site as a profession.” This would mean Lock Poker is at it again breaking the rules, and Hero Poker also is too (both having many sponsored pros). Not sure I understand those comments but the thread was funny and of course correctly locked.
Conclusion
If you’re from the US and play poker for real money online I hope you’re either a) a professional who understands the risks, or b) someone with a medical physical upcoming. If the later please ask the doctor to examine your head. US Poker is the jungle and chances are high that at some point you’re not getting paid. If you’re going to play poker online anyways at least use a poker site attached to one of the reputable online sportsbooks. Bovada is no longer looking so bad, in the meantime both www.5dimes.com and www.intertops.com offer decent games. Of course not as much traffic as some poker sites, but quite a step up in what is safe.