Fortune Lounge withdrawal problem

[WRX]

I'm posting here after attempting to contact the Fortune Lounge casino rep (wim) by private message three weeks ago.

Briefly, I had a balance in my poker room account at PokerTime, which was a poker room operated by Fortune Lounge. In April 2011, the poker software suddenly informed me that my account was "locked." I contacted customer service that day, and learned that PokerTime had decided to stop serving U.S. customers. (I had no prior notice of this. I had received no offer to pay my account balance.) Following various efforts to obtain payment of my balance, I received email asserting, "[W]e currently do not have a processor to enable us to process funds to US based players I can however confirm that all players were notified a month prior to the account being permanently locked to either play through their cash balance or withdraw any money they had on their accounts. As a result, if the cash balance was not played through or withdrawn it has been forfeited. All funds that were not claimed have been handed over to the gaming commission." Further efforts to obtain satisfaction were fruitless.

PokerTime had in fact sent me NO such notice. A "forfeiture" of my money is obviously not something allowed by any agreement I entered into. I have not been informed what "gaming commission" funds were supposedly paid to.

Wim, I hope that you are monitoring this forum, and request your assistance in obtaining the return of my balance. Please refer to my private message to you for details, or send me a private message if you need that information again.

 

[vinylweatherman]

I'm posting here after attempting to contact the Fortune Lounge casino rep (wim) by private message three weeks ago.

Briefly, I had a balance in my poker room account at PokerTime, which was a poker room operated by Fortune Lounge. In April 2011, the poker software suddenly informed me that my account was "locked." I contacted customer service that day, and learned that PokerTime had decided to stop serving U.S. customers. (I had no prior notice of this. I had received no offer to pay my account balance.) Following various efforts to obtain payment of my balance, I received email asserting, "[W]e currently do not have a processor to enable us to process funds to US based players I can however confirm that all players were notified a month prior to the account being permanently locked to either play through their cash balance or withdraw any money they had on their accounts. As a result, if the cash balance was not played through or withdrawn it has been forfeited. All funds that were not claimed have been handed over to the gaming commission." Further efforts to obtain satisfaction were fruitless.

PokerTime had in fact sent me NO such notice. A "forfeiture" of my money is obviously not something allowed by any agreement I entered into. I have not been informed what "gaming commission" funds were supposedly paid to.

Wim, I hope that you are monitoring this forum, and request your assistance in obtaining the return of my balance. Please refer to my private message to you for details, or send me a private message if you need that information again.

Did you start making such efforts as soon as you found the software had locked you out?

If you had, then they cannot forefeit the balance merely because they stonewalled your efforts. You would have to have made no efforts to secure the return of your monies for at least 6 months before it was forefeit to the regulator. Legally, the money is still yours, and by making contact and receiving replies, you can show that you had not abandoned it.

The rep needs to detail to you what efforts were made to contact you to return your balance. They should also have attempted to return it via your last known details, which would have been on file had you made any previous withdrawals.

Of course they have no processor now for the US, but they DID when Microgaming pulled out of the US, and should have ensured that all balances were paid then.


You could certainly try the PAB process, and 3 weeks is too long to have heard nothing back from the rep so without further ado, proceed to the next step. Short of a formal PAB, you could send a PM to CM or Max to inform them that the FL rep has not responded for 3 weeks.

If this procedure of handing over the money to the gambling commission were genuine, you would not be having this problem as contacting them would have bourne fruit. It seems that "for safekeeping" just means that the commission pockets the money rather than the casino. It might get the casino off the hook, but makes no difference to the player.

 

[fortunelounge]

I have contacted WRX and I have informed him that we are trying to establish if it is possible to refund the deposit.

It is important to note that all players who were locked out were sent e-mails informing them of the closure of their accounts and those with account balances were urged to cash in their credits. Although WRX claims not to have received the mail, our automail system pasted a copy of the mail on his account which is our proof that it had been sent to the registered e-mail address.

Although WRX's account was closed on 8 June 2010, he only accessed his account on 24 April 2011 again and found that it had been locked. By that time it was not possible to refund his deposit as we had no processing capabilities to the USA.

I am working on getting this resolved although it will be a difficult one.

 

[ksech]

I'm just curious as to why you waited over a year to try to get your funds returned to you? As a US player, you also had to be aware that ALL MG casinos were pulling out of the US at that time. Also, why would you keep any "mentionable" amount of money in an account for 10months? Most players became leery of keeping any substantial monies in accounts after what happened with QT and ewalletxpress...

 

[vinylweatherman]

I have contacted WRX and I have informed him that we are trying to establish if it is possible to refund the deposit.

It is important to note that all players who were locked out were sent e-mails informing them of the closure of their accounts and those with account balances were urged to cash in their credits. Although WRX claims not to have received the mail, our automail system pasted a copy of the mail on his account which is our proof that it had been sent to the registered e-mail address.

Although WRX's account was closed on 8 June 2010, he only accessed his account on 24 April 2011 again and found that it had been locked. By that time it was not possible to refund his deposit as we had no processing capabilities to the USA.

I am working on getting this resolved although it will be a difficult one.

This does not necessarily mean it was received. Email is notoriously unreliable, especially when it comes to online casinos. The unstoppable tide of spam from affiliates has also made it highly likely such emails end up trapped in spam filters. Unlike regular promotions, this is not the type of email players are expecting to receive. Whilst it quickly became common knowledge on forums that MGS were pulling out of the US, the withdrawal was done in a secretive manner, and was initially a "fake withdrawal" with the Microgaming product merely being exchanged for the SAME product in an unbranded and cut down version, operated by the same casino groups as the genuine MGS product still available to the rest of the world. For those who didn't take part in forums, such a move could easily have been missed or misunderstood.

Whilst gambling processors are long gone, what about "normal" payments across international boundaries. It seems odd that there is no way for a business to refund money to a customer purely because they are in the US. Surely one does not need to engage a processor for a one-off payment. A simple business check or bank transfer should suffice.

When players failed to respond to emails, there must have been other ways to contact them, such as calling them on the registered phone number, or even posting a letter to their registered address. This is information the player is obligated to provide and keep updated as a condition of registration.

I have received letters and even phonecalls from Fortune Lounge in the past, often to engage in "small talk" prior to informing me of some offer I appeared to have missed. I would consider money left behind an even MORE valid reason to call or send a letter.

It cannot be a vast amount, as since the OP didn't even notice for 9 months, they can't have been a dedicated poker player on the Microgaming network.

 

[WRX]

Wim has responded privately, and thank you, he is making an effort to help me.

As of 2010 and early 2011, I maintained several Internet poker room accounts. The fact is that I didn't play at PokerTime very often, because the site wasn't getting a great deal of play. While I now know that all Microgaming-based poker rooms stopped serving U.S. players at the same time, I didn't at the time know that Microgaming was furnishing Fortune Lounge's poker software as well as its casino software. Also, since I hadn't played at any Internet casinos for a long time prior, I didn't even learn of the Microgaming shutdown when it happened. During this period, most poker rooms remained open to U.S. customers, with relatively minor difficulties for players.

With the information that Wim furnished, I was able to check my email archives again. It still appears to me that I did not receive the message that Fortune Lounge says it sent all U.S. players. As vinylweatherman notes, not every email message gets through.

After getting the brushoff from Fortune Lounge's customer service staff, it took me a while to find a place I could turn for help. As to whether or not a "mentionable" amount of money is at stake, well, that's subjective. I'll just say that I don't like losing ANY money on deposit with a company that should repay it, so I've been known to put a great deal of time into addressing situations like this.

Anyway, I hope that Wim's efforts will resolve the matter. I really can't add anything for now. I'll be happy to report the results later. Thank you all for your interest.

 

[manstaff]

A simple way to get paid would be to find someone that you "trust" as best as that can be from another country that will accept the payment on your behalf then wire you/pay pal you/ give you the money. Even someone from this board would work if you know anyone from here well enough to trust them to send it to you.

I don't think that would be skin off of anyone's back so long as you paid the paypal fees or transfer fees from your end. I would suggest that option if there is no way for them to send you a cheque or wire from their end.

I think you picked a good group luckily for you. FL is pretty good from my experience and not trying to rip off honest players, so hopefully you get this resolved soon.

 

[fortunelounge]

We have arranged for WRX to receive his money and he will confirm once he has received it.

 

[zaalouk29]

can never understand why would a poker sites have problems with cashouts unless if suspicious of cheating...just could never understand it

 

[WRX]

Wim has resolved this matter in a prompt and conscientious fashion. All funds received. Thank you, Wim, and all others who expressed concern!