apprently no, which is completely unfair, because my rakeback meant a lot to me

Hello again,

First and foremost, I want to start out by saying that before we start making accusations our main priority are the player balances. 100% the player balances. This is what we're working on it.

With that out of the way, all I can tell you is more information is coming our way and it is positive. Everything we have so far is completely off the record, so obviously we are waiting for official confirmation on every piece of information we have recieved so far.

Next week things are going to happen very fast.

I can tell you what we're HEARING is that this was 100% not to do with rakeback. This is not set in stone, this is just what we are hearing.

Again, the player purses are what is most important to us. I think next week early everything will be cleared up and you will happy with the results.

Battlefield Poker

Cliff Notes:

There are basically three players involved in this, the skins (different companies: Battlefield, Royal Card Club etc), Tusk (all the skins involved dealt with Tusk for their licensing/finances) and Microgaming (the operator of the entire network, of which only part is affected by this)

On the 15th of February eCOGRA's newsletter said they were pulling "Safe and Fair" seal from a number of casinos that turned out to be owned by Tusk. (http://www.ecogra.com/news-details.aspx?OP=&NewsID=110). This announcement seems to have blown by most of the poker community, as the connection between these caninos and the MG skins was unknown to most.

Somebody on casinomeister (http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...gra-seals.html) noticed that eCOGRA was still hosting jpg images of the seals they were supposed to have revoked (http://www.ecogra.org/certificates/%...nge_Casino.jpg), a pretty blatant drop of the ball. Most of the affected casinos were reportedly still displaying them too.

There's some further discussion of how properly/improperly eCOGRA acted in the casinomeister thread linked above.

On the 27th people logged into into their poker accounts and weren't allowed deposit money or sit at any tables. Their account balances remain viewable, and for the most part withdrawals seem to cosmetically work (can somebody verify this?).

Also on the 27th MG release a press release saying that they've terminated their licensing arrangement with Tusk due to Tusk notifying them of their intention to go into liquidation (http://www.microgaming.com/pressrelease_255.php).

Skin (poker site) operators come on to 2+2 and say that they weren't informed of any of this before being cut off, and couldn't contact/get a comment from anybody at Tusk after being cut off. They eventually get in contact with management at Tusk and MG, but aren't given any new information.

MG make a further press release on the 29th, which doesn't add anything but acknowledges the frustration being experienced by players (http://www.microgaming.com/pressrelease_256.php)

The outcome of all this for the players is that their account balances are apparently in the hands of a company (Tusk) that have gone into/intend to go into liquidation. I have seen no news or estimates that give an indication of how much financial capital Tusk still has, or if it is the empty husk that people fear. MG have also given no indication of what their intentions are.



Further information:

Tusk appears to have operated its poker business as MyPokerProfit (http://www.mypokerprofit.com/) and its casino business as CasinoAction (http://www.casinoaction.com/)

Fulzgold comes forward with a letter dated the 25th allegedly sent by MG to Tusk saying they are suspending Battlefield and R9s due to rakeback policy violation (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=149)

Some food for thought posted by MLSchaff (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=252) and StellarWind (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=256).

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Update, 030908: Company Statement from Microgaming.

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Update, 032508:

On the 20th March Microgaming released a press release saying that players should expect to be contacted by the liquidator before the end of the next week (which would be Friday the 28th), although the liquidator "made it clear that [the liquidation] process may take some time".

http://www.microgaming.com/pressrelease_260.php

Also on the 20th, Rewards Affiliates announce that they have acquired all the casino (not poker) brands of Tusk and will honor all player balances.

http://www.rewardsaffiliates.com/mai...new-casinos-cr

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Update 040308.

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Edit/MH: Thank you. I've added a link to this post in the OP. Please refer people to it if they ask for the back story.

Player accounts aren't connected to PokerTime. Prima is still a great place to play. It's not like they're stealing your money, they're working on it. Don't panic.

This is good to hear. Can you stipulate that what you are hearing applies to all the skins and not just Battlefield?

I knew I recognized that name from somewhere...

+1, it's mainly the speculations in this thread that are frightening, let's all just assume where dealing with professionals until proven otherwise....
I assume, he's talking about the steps MGS is going to take next week.

@Mr. Battlefield what happens to the Rakeback we made? I made a deal at RakeTheRake.com for RedNines but does that make any difference?

Oh, and thanks for the cliffnotes Mustmuck!

Glad I only have $200 on Red nines.
Was tempted to move some of my roll there for some bigger
rakebackbonus, but signed up at Unibet instead for their great bonuses.

Even though I consider my money lost, I hope you highrollers get
at least most of your money back.

One more thing: why isn't the money held by the owner of the network,
Microgaming.

Is this the same on other networks too, f.ex. Ongame and Ipoker.
Do each skin there have the money, or are they beeing kept at the
"mothership" ?

It makes me a little concerned that RedNines hasn't been more active in this thread.

I just talked to my guy just now on the phone. He knows the owners of MSG. You guys will get your money back. They are working on it. Don't worry.

He also said some rooms are just going to join up with other rooms. They're sorting it all out now.

Thank you very much for cliffnotes mustmuck.
I have 21k stuck hope it gets sorted out.

Does that gonna have any effect on the doomswitch they putted on my RedNines account? Better ask your friend that....

i wouldn't read too much into it, they said they'd make an announcement on the site as soon as they know more, imho thats just as appropriate as commenting on 2+2

I think I can say this in the name of all affected skins. The lack of more posts here is due to lack of official statements and it should not be interpreted in any other way at this time.

With the weekend ahead more updates are likely to be offered only Monday or Tuesday.

So do we have to withdrawal or can we leave the money on the account and will be able to access it via the "new rooms"?