Weekly Roundup April 24 2015
Lock Poker Finally Closes
After more than one year of accepting deposits from players and not paying anyone, Lock Poker finally closed its scam poker site. The poker and casino servers have been down for more than one week.
The site stopped paying most players late in 2012. For the next two and a half years it lured unsuspecting players in through rogue affiliates and shady advertising campaigns. It seems the list of victims finally dried up. Lock Poker stole about $15 million from the online poker community. These funds are lost forever.
Merge Gaming Withdrawals Still Slow
The Merge Gaming cashier services Carbon Poker, PlayersOnly, Sportsbook.ag and SuperBook. This group has been late on payments for the past few months. The current cashout time frame is about two months. This is the slowest of all U.S.-facing networks. We will continue to keep an eye on the situation. We recommend choosing other U.S.-facing networks at this time that pay players quickly.
California Online Poker Hearing Set
A hearing is set for April 27 at 1:30pm to debate online poker in California. The Assembly Governmental Organization Committee will hear testimony from players, potential site operators, and opponents. This is the first of four hearings in California where online poker will be the topic. Players can find their lawmakers here to voice their concern.
Potential operators in California have been unable to agree on terms of regulation. Many tribes do not want PokerStars to be included. These tribes also feel that racetracks should not be allowed to offer online poker. This has caused division among the advocates.