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Lock Poker recently came under fire for cracking down on some player to player transfers. The problem, according to Lock, some players are abusing the process.
Case in point: One supposed “affiliate” repeatedly asked why his referrals were unable to cash out faster. The Lock Poker affiliate manager became suspicious of this “affiliate”. Through extensive security protocol that cannot be revealed here for obvious reasons, Lock was able to determine that this “affiliate” had actually created the multiple suspect accounts. The initial investigation revealed a large group of accounts directly connected to these initial accounts, further investigations then uncovered even more accounts linked to the same group.
“They were buying all funds for as cheap as they could get them at around 50 cents on the dollar,” explained Lock Poker rep, who spoke to Gambling911.com via the phone. “They were buying across the site from as many people as they can for cheap so they could, then passing them through another account before passing them down and cashing out as the "affiliate" profit double every single time. In the worst of these cases the mule accounts weren't even logging in to use the software they were just trying to wash the transfers before sending them on."
Essentially this equates to money laundering, which is a crime in the real world.
“It’s not just that the funds in question were being bought cheap,” the company rep told Gambling911.com. “The group were using their "affiliate" status to request multiple priority cashouts, all the while posing as individual cashouts that in reality were part of a syndicate. The “affiliate” was basically pushing legitimate players to the back of the queue, resulting in longer wait times for valued Lock Poker customers.”
Those transferring funds to other players must adhere to a one time play through of their funds. This policy is typically waived for affiliates as they often send a large volume of new customers to the online poker room. This particular “affiliate” was, in essence, attempting to circumvent the procedure.
As many Internet poker rooms are well aware, player to player transfers involve a substantial amount of fraud that is often perpetrated by credit card rings. It should be noted that Lock has not accused this particular individual of being part of such a ring.
The Lock rep tells G911 that their company pretty much follows the same policy of the world’s largest real money online poker room, PokerStars. You cannot cash out transferred funds at Stars. With Lock you have the ability to do so, however, such requests are excruciatingly reviewed by Lock’s security team. Affiliates can still cash out at Lock without a problem, provided of course that they are real affiliates.
“We are not trying to punish legitimate players or affiliates,” the rep said. “We are just trying to stamp out those abusing the system, those trying to commit fraud.”
Ultimately, such policies are likely to spread across the board and we could soon see player to player transfers eliminated entirely industry wide.
Case in point, the majority of online sportsbooks have stopped offering player-to-player transfers, citing fraud, scamming and bitching on public message boards. Sportsbooks eventually began sharing information about suspect players amongst themselves, which helped significantly reduce fraud industry wide.
Lock would like to continue offering the player to player cash transfer option, however, Gambling911.com predicts that such transfers will ultimately become extinct like the dodo bird should public outcry grow more vocal.
It is interesting to note that, one week after Lock started their new player-to-player policy, the iPoker network halted all transfers.
This trend is bound to continue thanks to four or five bad apples ruining things for everyone else.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
