Lock Poker Pro Told by Angry Customer His Baby Should Have Been Stillborn
Some customers of Lock Poker angry over a new player-to-player transfer policy have resorted to attacks on the company’s elite pros including the likes of Melanie Weisner and Annette Obrestad.
One individual, according to Lock Pro Matt Stout, even resorted to telling another pro that he wished his baby would have been stillborn.
Lock Poker claims that certain individuals have engaged in fraudulent activities via its player-to-player transfer method and have since enforced a 1 time rollover requirement prior to cashing out.
Customers have also complained about slower-than-industry-norm payouts in countries outside the USA.
Stout addressed the issue:
Hi everyone, I'm Lock Pro Matt Stout.
People all over 2p2 are talking about how we, the pros, are scum for being associated with Lock and must have no no moral or ethical standards. That is far from the truth, to say the least. People I don't know have been attacking me on my own personal Facebook wall. People went after Melanie Weisner in her marketplace thread. Someone actually told another Lock Pro that his baby should have been a stillborn because he's still with the company, which is probably the worst thing I've ever heard a poker player say in all my years (and that says a lot). Questioning us via Twitter, messaging us on Facebook/email, or asking for answers on the forums is completely understandable, but the personal attacks on the pros are getting out of hand.
Melanie and I (and many of the other pros, for that matter) are highly reputable members of the high stakes tournament community and have been for years. We've each done six to seven figures of backing transactions over the years without any problems or complaints. We've built great reputations and trust with the MTTc and I can speak for all of us when I say that no one on our side is just sitting around content with things as they are while we happily collect our "checks" (payments in Lock $). Many of us have been very active behind the scenes, even if we aren't able to answer all of the questions that people want answered. Please don't think that we're all sitting idly by without a plan.
A lot of us have been with Lock for years, long before they had any type of cash out issues, and we're still bound by contract to represent the site. I signed with Lock in 2009, which was a couple years before Black Friday when Lock Poker was nothing more than a small skin on the Cake network. I was one of the first players to sign with the site and have been heavily involved with them since. As such, few people if anyone will be more disappointed and embarassed if the allegations are true and the money isn't there than I will be. That is why I will commit to paying back at least $10,000 from the pro payments I've received this year (and more if I'm able to get all of my Lock money offline) if Lock does indeed go under (which, to be clear, I still don't think it will). In the event that it does happen, I will distribute it to the players who are signed up under me based on how much each of them has on Lock.
I think that walking away and turning my back on the situation after having my friends and followers sign up for and deposit money on the site for the past four years would be a cowardly move. I owe it to them to do whatever I can to advocate for the players in this situation. It would make no sense to immediately walk away from the situation as soon as payouts slow down, especially since Skrill cash outs of $10k at a time were only taking 1-2 weeks to process until recently. That's why that I was never concerned about payouts in the US taking so long. It's easy to understand why payment processing into the US is a difficult and tedious process right now, but when the money was going out $10k at a time via Skrill for ROW players in a pretty standard timeframe there definitely didn't seem to be anything amiss, despite rampant allegations even then that seemed to be completely unfounded. I even had a long Twitter DM convo with Jon Aguiar several months ago asking for proof behind all of the allegations he was making against the site, because I would have been the first to blow the whistle if I truly believe anything was going on. Jon basically admitted then that he was basing his attack primarily on his gut instinct but refused to stop his attack on us because he told me that he'd rather be loud and wrong than quiet and right in this situation.
Please do not confuse my continued presence on the Lock Pro roster for blindly following along and promoting a site that I believe is fleecing its customers, though. I would never do such a thing in a million years. I truly do have the poker community's best interest at heart in all the actions I've taken thus far and will take in the future. Although I haven't been posting in the forums, I have been doing what I can to reply to all the tweets directed at me and have been heavily involved behind the scenes. I was given a reasonable explanation of why the delays have increased and I still remain hopeful that the owner will make good on her promise to us that Skrill cash outs will be back to normal (being paid out in 1-2 weeks max) within 3-4 weeks. If this doesn't happen I'll consider it a very bad sign and act according.
Also, some people don't seem to believe me on this, but I'll say it again: our pro payments are made into our Lock accounts, and yes, we are subject to the same cash out issues as everyone else. My Skrill cash outs used to take 1-2 weeks, just like everyone else's. My last Skrill withdrawal took around 9 weeks just like all the other ROW players I talk to. I just want all these people who think that we're hitting our instant cash out button and laughing at all of the other players to understand that we're being paid in what you claim is "monopoly money" so if it truly has no value, we aren't really being paid at all. Again, I don't believe that to be the case and will continue to do what I can to advocate for the players, ask questions that need to be asked, and come forward with any information that I'm able to give.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
