Rogue Poker Rooms???

[anthonylew]

Firstly i'd like to say hi to everyone, glad to see this place still around, haven't been here since the early days.
Well i'm into poker now ( in a big way ) and I wondered if you were going to start a poker room rogue list as with the casinos.
I know this may sound strange to some as you will probably feel the same way I first did, I didn't believe it could be possible or worthwhile for a poker room to be "rogue" as they make enough money with the tourney fee's and rake etc..
But...and there is always a but i've recently seen quite a few claims in different forums that players are having accounts locked, forfeiting their winnings etc..sound familiar? This is what brought me back to here, I thought if anyone knows about rogue poker rooms it's going to be casinomeister.
I've now read the post about the ACR skins and that concerns me a little too.
Now the only advice i've seen given to these players who have had accounts locked is someone posting saying complain to the gaming commission but wasn't there a question mark over those too? I know there was something big about something like a gaming commission that wasn't all that as it was casino owners which started it up or am I barking up the wrong tree there?
Anyway I have two questions for you Bryan (or anyone else who might know
) Will you be posting a "rogue" poker room section ( with proof of course )
And if someone is having problems with a poker room where should they go for help? Do you still act as a mediator in some cases? ( oops sorry that's 3 questions,lol )
Anyway good to be back, you'll see me in the poker section rather than the casino section now ( that's if you even remember me ).
Good luck still a great place here.

Tony

 

[mary]

Good point Tony. Some poker rooms are sister sites to specific online casinos or sportsbooks. It owuld make sense to rogue the poker room along with the casino and vice versa, don't you think?

 

[The Dude]

Hi anthonylew, and welcome back.

I don't differentiate between poker rooms and casinos - if they are rogue they are rogue. In many cases if the casino is running a crooked operation, it spills over to the poker side of things. Now I may not recommend a casino, but recommend their sister poker room site - it just depends on the situation. If you have a specific concern about a poker room, point it out.

 

[anthonylew]

Thanks for the reply

Hi all,
Thanks for the reply meister, although i'm not a professional poker player I've felt that i'm in a position to give advice and tips to newbies on playing poker and strategies etc...which i've been doing for a while now.
The only advice I can't seem to give anyone is where to go when they do have a problem regarding cashouts or players that have had their accounts locked.
I know firstly they should contact the poker room via telephone first but if they can't get the matter resolved where should they go then?
It worries me that i'm seeing more and more posts from poker rooms locking accounts and not paying winnings that I would like to be able to comment on these posts but I really don't know what advice to give them. Will the gaming commission help these players?
I also realise that a portion of such posts could be just players that have been caught cheating but i've seen too many to just dismiss all of them.
Your help is appreciated and thanks for the welcome back.
Tony

 

[The Dude]

What to do when there is a problem:

Step 1. Contact support - not satisfied? Ask for manager/supervisor.
Step 2. Contact webmaster that directed you to the pokerroom. Ask for assistance.
Step 3. Contact associated mediation service. Pokerroom.com is the only poker room that I know of that has this service (eCOGRA).
Step 4. Come here to PAB
Step 5. Post the complaint on high profile message boards not as a "bitch" (unless you've really been really screwed over), but as a request for guidance. If you start slamming a poker room's customer service in public, chances are the operators may go into a counter-offensive mode or clam up.
Step 6. Contact licensing entity and their government officials.
Step 7. Contact main stream media.
Step 8. Say the hell with it.

Will the gaming commission help these players?

What gaming commission? It's still the wild west out there. Yeee haw!

Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges...

 

[anthonylew]

Thanks again

Hi all,
Thanks for the replies meister, appreciate it. In short, not a great deal they can do about it on their own, I think if quite a few have a problem with the same poker room then there is probably more chance going the "name & shame" approach, myself I probably wouldnt worry about it too much, there are plenty of poker rooms which do pay.
I'll give the advice you've posted and recommend that they stick with the ones we all know pay without fail.
Thanks again

Tony

 

[kfellmy]

My two cents:

I think all Dobosoft poker rooms should be rougued. These would be all the rooms associated with Poker World. Software is terrible and trying to get your money out is horrible. If you deposit and decide not to play, you will be charged a fee (like 10%). So you have to play 100 raked hands before cashing out. Man I hate those sites.

Recently many sites have changed over to IPN...skins of Poker Room. So those particular sites aren't so bad now.

 

[pokeraddict]

As Kfellmy states many of the ACR skins joined Pokerroom.com so I would not worry about them. ACR made some terrible CS decisions in their past but towards the end of their stand alone existance IMO they did a great job. I would not worry about any room a part of Pokerroom.com. The ones that are still with Dobrosoft I would use caution but in no way consider rogue.

One thing I have noticed is that there are very very few questionable poker rooms, esppecially compared to the number of rogue casinos. Maybe it is the explosion of poker that operators see the potential profits or maybe poker just attracts better operators. Even casinos that are questionable that run poker rooms often run skins on large poker networks. These skins are often banked by the main poker room on the skin leaving even less to worry about.

 

[dominique]

One thing I have noticed is that there are very very few questionable poker rooms, esppecially compared to the number of rogue casinos.

I agree with this. Part of the reason for this is the youth of the industry, partly they have hopefully learned something from watching casinos.

There are a lot more unscrupulous poker affiliates than there are unscrupulous poker rooms.

 

[pokeraddict]

There are a lot more unscrupulous poker affiliates than there are unscrupulous poker rooms.

There are several extremely rogue poker affiliates, the issue is that the rogue ones create 10 websites and throw another one at you every month. Often the websites look similar and are even registered to the same person so they are easy to catch. From listing affiliates I can tell you most of the rejected poker affiliate advertising comes from rogue affiliates creating a clone and trying to get listed again. In the last 2 months I only removed one listing and he copied someone's doorway website word for word, something I will not tolerate. I have had my site ripped off and cannot stand it when I see others doing the same. When word gets out about xyzpokeraffiliate.com being rogue he shuts that down and creates zyxpokeraffiliate.com and tries to dupe more unsuspecting players. Of course when I publicly discuss the names of them they get very angry and threatening which I hate but I feel it is my duty to do so. Unfortunately one of these rogue affiliates is the site that copied mine so it looks like a vendetta when in fact the whole group is questionable at best and creates a new skin every few weeks.

 

[dominique]

Site copying is a real problem. So are site scrapers.

Used to be the worst thing affiliates did was put up banner farms without real content. It has gotten a lot more sinister than that these days.

 

[jetset]

This sounds like an interesting topic, and I for one would like to better understand how poker affiliates rogue the system?

In fact, the more I think about it in light of these posts, and especially the comments of a respected expert like pokeraddict, the more I think this issue should be made more public and names named so that operators are aware of the less reputable and professional poker affiliates, thus providing better player protection by not using them.

What about a layman-friendly editorial piece on the subject, guys?

 

[pokeraddict]

I will elaborate in a few days. I am very backed up the last 2 days and first 2 days of the month.

 

[dominique]

It's not just poker affiliates - there are a handful of casino affiliates who are single handedly and under the protection of some unscrupulous casinos ruining the search engine results and making the industry look very shoddy and sinister indeed.

 

[Freudian]

I agree with this. Part of the reason for this is the youth of the industry, partly they have hopefully learned something from watching casinos.

There are a lot more unscrupulous poker affiliates than there are unscrupulous poker rooms.

I think the by far most important factor for poker rooms behaving compared to casinos is that when a player wins in poker, the poker room doesn't lose. They make their money no matter what happens. When it comes to casinos they can gain money by screwing players over.