Jaopoker Shuts As Player Bid Goodbye to Funds

Home » Poker News » Jaopoker Shuts As Player Bid Goodbye to Funds

Saturday, February 24th, 2018 | Written by Stephen Smith

In the past, players depositing on unregulated poker sites such as Lock Poker, Pitbull Poker, JetSetPoker and Cake Poker soon learned that their funds were no more protected than an investment opportunity guaranteed by Bernie Madoff. Unfortunately, a continuing lack of regulatory legislation in the US and across the global industry means that other such examples are sure to emerge from time to time, with the latest site to vanish, most likely with all its customers’ money in tow, being Jao Poker. As an email sent to Jao Poker customers subsequently explained:

“We are sad to tell you all that Jaopoker has closed. If we have any update on jaopoker and members poker balances we will let you know in the community poker chat.”

Background

JaoPoker was a US-facing poker site that launched in early 2017, and claimed to be based and licensed in the Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia. The recent email sent out to its customers was subsequently signed off with the names Samoachic, Drushbag and CGCatDaddy, who are presumably the site’s owners/management team.

According to Flushdraw, “Drushbag” could refer to Larry Druschel, who has had dealings with GuruPoker and 64Spades in the past, while Samoachic seems to be an Australian player by the name of Belinda Dwyer, who has also worked at gurupoker since 2014. In addition, CGCatDaddy may be linked to a poker affiliate operator based in Ohio called Chris George, another person who is believed to have connections with the aforementioned sites.

Finally, one of the frontmen and perhaps primary owner’s of the website is Tam Nguyen, who since JaoPoker launched has done a terrible job of promoting the site, and attending to the needs of its customers. Interestingly, since the news of the site’s closure broke, Nguyen has since issued a post stating that the site is merely “down for maintenance”, providing yet another example of miscommunication and quite possibly much worse within the organization.

Suspicions Raised

From the very start, the business operated in such a way as to raise suspicions within the poker community, including implementing a multi-level marketing (MLM) approach which required an affiliate to pay $250 to market the website, after which they would receive a percentage of any income generated by their referrals.

To many, this system seemed to have all the hallmarks of a Ponzi schemes, but nonetheless JaoPoker boasted about having signed up more than a thousand players, although such claims are naturally hard to check. Nevertheless, Tam Nguyen soon attracted criticism from industry workers, such as Jonathan Brown from rakeback site ProfessionalRakeback.com, leading to a high-profile social media feud which broke out between the two.

Poor Customer Skills

Tam Nguyen has provided some of the worst examples of customer service experienced within the online poker industry, with one of the customers on the receiving end of his verbal tirade being Eric Nichols. After complaining about being disconnected in a $27 tournament just before its bubble burst, an argument erupted in which Tam Nguyen called Nichols a “lowlife bitch”, before clearing up any confusion by stating “I don’t give af. I will blast you.”

More recently, Tam Nguyen took another opportunity to say goodbye to Jaopoker’s customers via Facebook, while letting them know not to bother contacting him about any money that they might have stuck in their accounts. As his message read:

“I don’t have anyone’s money. I didn’t own the site. Jao is like any other business. You do well and thrive or try to do well and still fail. For those who joined the ride it was good while it lasted.”

Losing Customers

It is not known exactly how many players may have been affected by the site’s recent closure, but fortunately it is unlikely to be huge number as Jao Poker doesn’t even appear on Pokerscout’s Online Traffic Report. One of the site’s customers, however, claims to have unsuccessfully tried withdrawing $1,500 worth of Bitcoin at the start of the month, and despite chasing up his money has since heard nothing back from the site.

All of the successful “grey market” online poker sites servicing US-facing customers are owned and run from outside the USA, for straightforward legal reasons. While many have solid, well earned reputations within the industry, many of the smaller operations that suddenly spring up, such as Jaopoker, obviously pose significant risks for anyone prepared to give then a try. As an Op-ed piece published by Flushdraw last September called “The Curious Case of Jao Poker” subsequently warned:

“So I’ll be steering clear of this one, US-facing or not. Frankly, it’s just not worth the potential trouble.”