Subject: Poker Reports
Online poker site, Subject: Poker, has cited through their own sources that the US Attorney in Maryland is planning on seizing money and other company belongings from a payment processor who was said to have worked with Merge Gaming Network. Subject: Poker’s report is not clear and it does not give specifics as far as what processor(s) are being targeted and whether or not the government will be handing out indictments. Also not stated is whether or not domain names will be seized.
When Black Friday originally dawned on the American poker industry Merge was one of the few networks able to avoid catching any heat. And as bewildering as it was that they were still able to operate, Merge and its affiliates kept running. Finally, in an attempt to cooperate with the American government even further Merge stopped accepting new US-based sign-ups, but continued letting players who were already signed up continue playing.
This is a little of what the article on Subject: Poker looked like:
“ If the DOJ does follow through on its reported plan on roughly the same timeline, it is unlikely that customers would be able to withdraw before seizures occur because withdrawals on Merge currently take over a month to reach customers. Indeed, since payment processors are reportedly being targeted, a withdrawal could potentially move a player’s money into the reach of the DoJ.
If Merge and its payment processors begin to move funds in an attempt to avoid potential DOJ action,” Subject: Poker continues, “this could lead to further processing delays and possibly even bounced checks. Again, because of the slow withdrawals on the Merge Network, it is unlikely that players withdrawing now would be able to avoid such problems; they may instead simply be subject to delays and possible failed transactions.”
The biggest question is whether Merge keeps the money set aside for player funds seperate from their business funds or not. That is what killed Full Tilt a few months back, they did not seperate the two. PokerStars, on the other hand, did seperate these two accounts which is why they were able to pay players back so quickly. They paid back a total of $150 million to players to date.
Posted in Online Poker Site News, Poker Industry News, Uncategorized
