PPA Demands Answers From Lock Poker

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Monday, April 28th, 2014 | Written by Shane Larson

Back in 2012 Lock Poker had already attracted the attention of online poker players around the world with interest in the poker room at an all-time high. By 2013, however, poker players started suspecting something was not quite right with the site and this year many in the poker community are starting suspect Lock Poker’s time is officially up.

As well as a cheating scandal uncovered against its top sponsored golden boy at the time José ‘Girah’ Macedo, and a recent exodus of high-profile LockPRO ELITE members from the site, of chief concern for Lock Poker’s army of beleaguered customers is the site’s seriously slow cash out process, with many players having to wait up to a year before receiving cash out requests, if at all. Currently it is estimated that more than 350 Lock Poker customers are still owned around $1 million.

The situation has degraded so far, in fact, that the USA’s main online poker lobbying group, The Poker Players Alliance, has now sent a letter to Lock Poker demanding answers concerning the site’s restrictive cash out times.

Substantial number of complaints

The PPA letter written by the Board of Directors was signed by Executive Director John Pappas, Vice President of Player Relations Rich Muny, and Litigation Support Director Patrick Skallagrim Fleming, and drew attention to the “substantial number of complaints” made about the site from PPA members.

“We have been informed that Lock Poker is taking an unreasonable time in fulfilling its customers’ requests for return of their funds. In some cases, the reports are of significant delays; in others, we see reports of requests for payment having languished over a year with no progress,” the letter read.

The PPA letter subsequently highlights the fact that Lock Poker makes no mention of its lengthy withdrawal times anywhere on its website, while at the same time continuing to accept deposits from its hapless customers. Concerned depositors who later contact Lock Poker support are then told to expect withdrawal requests to take between 8-10 weeks, while “getting little or no information regarding why such a state of affairs exists.”

PPA questions site’s financial solvency

Furthermore, player cash out times have been far beyond the time frames promised and as a result of Lock Poker’s lack of transparency, some players have felt forced to “sell their funds on Lock Poker on the secondary market for substantially less than the face value.”

This had lead The Poker Players Alliance to questions Lock Poker’s financial solvency, but before taking further action the PPA has first given the site an opportunity to explain its policies and situation by answering the following four questions as reported on the PPA’s website:

1: Does Lock Poker keep players’ funds segregated from operating funds? If so, what mechanism is used to accomplish this separation?

2: Does Lock Poker have, or will it be implementing, a system to organize its payment processing so that those who have been waiting the longest will be given priority in future payments?

3: Does Lock Poker have a timeline of its plan to pay its players in full?

4: Will Lock Poker immediately provide open, accurate, up-to-date information regarding time required to process customer withdrawal requests?

While noting the legal difficulties faced by Lock Poker in processing payments to American players, the organization said it would not ignore a situation in which a significant portion of the online poker community’s money was at risk. Consequently, the PPA said it would aggressively act to protect and facilitate the return of Lock Poker player funds, and also issued the following stern warning to the poker community:

“In the meantime, we encourage extreme caution when depositing on Lock Poker. We also strongly encourage affiliates to remove Lock Poker ads and positive reviews. In the current state, these are at best misleading.”

Lock Poker a notable disaster for online poker

The latest incident is just one in a long line of troubles to beset the poker room, highlighted by the fact a number of high-profile sponsored pros have quit the site, such as Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Paul Volpe, Brett “Gank” Jungblutt, and Chris Moorman. As the UK online poker legend commented following his departure:

“I have decided not to renew my contract with Lock. I sincerely hope Lock is able to overcome its current problems and..for the sake of online poker their situation is resolved.”

In October 2013, Lock Poker subsequently moved its operation from the Revolution Gaming Network to its own platform without first notifying its customers, leading to a great deal of confusion as they were temporarily unable to access their accounts. Meanwhile, Revolution Gaming cited ongoing financial issues as the cause of the split.

On its own proprietary software platform, Lock Poker then launched a new online site called Superwins.EU, which shares the very same player pool as Lock. Alarm bells soon rang out in the poker community, however, many of whom saw the move as an attempt by a severely tarnished brand to trick new players into depositing money with them via its new skin. At the time there was a backlash from the poker community, one 2+2 poster called The Woodsman, stating:

“Is the Poker Players’ Alliance aware of what is going on with Lock? Are they trying to do anything about it? I mean what is the point of having an organization like that if a scam like this can go on in plain sight?”

Looks like the PPA has finally decided to heed those warnings and get involved.