They got me with the 90 day inactivity rule which I knew nothing about and they make no effort to emphasize when the chips are "given" to you.

They refused to reinstate when I sent a very polite message to customer support.

Does anyone think their money is really safe here when they engage in this kind of theft?

Are their USA lawyers aware that it's illegal to arbitrarily reinstate some people and not others when they make this mistake for the first time?

Not sure about this. It's true they don't "emphasize" this part of the TOS, but they don't emphasize any parts of the TOS. They simply expect users to read and be aware of the terms they are agreeing to when they play on the site. I understand the large majority don't bother to read TOS on any site, but that's not the sites fault. And they send out email notifications prior to the 90 days of inactivity advising this will happen, and that simply logging in (you don't have to play) resets the clock.

That sucks... I personally think they should give customers a 1 time pass on this rule and reinstate with the understanding if it happens again they're SOL.

Yes, and this is not "theft". The crime of theft is defined as taking the personal property/money of another person without their permission. We give them this permission re: the 90 day rule when we agree to the terms of service.

It is not "illegal", and yes their lawyers are well versed in the laws regarding their business and their actions enforcing their TOS. Could you have a cause of action under the premise that they give some a pass/redo as a one off but didn't grant you the same courtesy? Maybe, I'm not sure. I'm not a lawyer, but my guess would be that you'd be hard pressed to establish such a cause of action as their TOS gives them the right to enforce this policy and to show discretion as they see fit.

I'm sure you have escalated this to a supervisor, and I hope they opt to give you a one time courtesy redo on this. I would discourage you from using words like "theft" and "illegal" in this discourse with them as it's neither of those things as they are defined, and they are likely to create and adversarial posture where it will be harder to get to that goal of having your balance reinstated as a one time courtesy.

They may send an email warning about it, I don't know, because they spam you so much I started to ignore their emails.

I did escalate but so far radio silence.

And I respectfully disagree that burying a clause in a ten page TOS that is unlike any other site I have ever played somehow makes this anything different than theft. It's absolutely intentional and just a more clever form of theft. And they use this lame excuse that have to do it because it is "sweepstakes" but I've never seen them share one law that says that is the case. In fact, the sweepstakes laws are controlled by each individual state which is why you can't play at all in some states. They are bald face lying when they make this excuse.

Overall, I'm not sure how anyone can read through this page and think their money is safe. They are judge, jury and executioner and if they decide to steal your money, it's gone. And any site that makes a policy like this is NOT there for the player. Burying something like this deep in TOS is a direct reflection on the culture of the company, which is to rip people off one way or another.

If they reinstate I will post here. I have zero confidence that will happen.

Why does he keep calling SC "money"?

Stupid rule but it's in the TOS and people have posted about this issue on here dozens of times and usually it's returned. I have faith in my money on here as I don't let balances sit for more than 90 days without logging in.

It’s right there in the TOS, along with a clear listing of the ways you can get free SC. Regrettable that this happened to you , but it’s right there. And choosing to ignore their email doesn’t exactly strengthen your case.

Why are we arguing with OP. Why is there a 90 day rule to begin with? Its his money and just cuz he hasn't logged in during that time frame it becomes null and void!? Seems stupid to me, I don't care if it is their TOS, WHY? People have lives outside of poker and just because he hasn't logged in that money is now gone, that is bizarre.

It’s not money. It’s Sweeps Coins. And when you accept their TOS and choose to play there, then you need to be willing to abide by then. Is it a stupid rule from our perspective? Sure. I won’t disagree with that. But that’s the rule and it’s not hard to abide by it, especially when they send you an email reminder. If OP didn’t like the rule in the TOS there was nothing forcing him to sign up and play.

They did eventually return the SC after escalation, but Jesus most of you are just ****ing morons.

I have no idea how you could defend a poker site for having a policy like this. Good luck making it through life this stupid. And enjoy reading every single TOS before you click on it.

Glad you got it sorted OP. If I were you the next thing I'd be doing is finding a safer better place to play. That 90 day rule is just friggin BS.....huh just noticed I had Global Poker in my bookmarks to check out at some point. not anymore. Deleted and forgotten about. Guess I owe you a thanks OP......thanks.


Cheers!!!

I don't understand how someone could forget to login for 90 days straight?

especially when you literally get free money just for logging in lol

they literally give you about 50 bucks if you just log in every day for those 90 days

but yea horrible unsafe site because your balance will be gone if you for some odd reason leave money on the site for 90 days without logging in, but you can then email them and theyll give it back to you lol.

I read at least one post a week about people not signing in on my twitter timeline and having their balance taken. I think it boils down to how insignificant the site is for most poker players. It’s a forgetful place other than Sundays and even Sundays are pretty weak

Wow are you dense. This is some wild projecting. You're the one that can't be bothered with TOS and can't be bothered to read their emails, even emails with attention grabbing subject lines about account balance forfeiture. But yes, we're all the stupid morons.

No one is "defending the site" beyond stating the painfully obvious... they are enforcing their TOS, and not in a secretive or shady way. They tried to warn you. You just refused to listen.


Since you can't be bothered with any terms of service, this is not a surprising bad take. Every site has an inactivity clause like this. They have to have some method in place in their TOS to deal with inactive accounts, as this is a frequent issue sites deal with. Someone may pass away and the account is never accessed again. More commonly, players may lose and leave, never to return, with a few pennies or dollars in their account. This can add up to a lot of accounting over time if there's no agreed upon method to terminate the account and zero the balance. The terms differ from site to site, but this is a very common clause with gambling sites. They can't reasonably be expected to keep an inactive accounts balance intact until the end of time.

That being said, Global's 90 days term is extremely aggressive. I've said that here before in the past. Before global I don't think I'd heard of one less than a year (not just poker sites, but sports books, etc. as well). I am not a fan of this aggressive a timeline, in fact I think it's pretty crappy. But the broader policy itself is not out of line, even if the the timeline of 90 days is way more aggressive than the industry standards.

With a quick google search, it took me about 5 minutes to find these terms from 4 other poker sites (in no particular order, I just clicked through the first 4 that came up for me). The terms are much less aggressive than 90 days, but the over arching theory is the same here... if your account goes inactive, eventually they zero it out.

WSOP.com:

8.4 If You do not access Your Account by 'logging on' to Your Account using Your Account name and password for any consecutive period of twelve months Your account will be considered a "dormant account". The user will be notified periodically via email of their inactivity and remaining funds. Once an account falls into the "dormant account" status, a user can no longer log in with their account name and password. The user must contact support and ask for the account restriction to be removed. The twelve-month period will run from the date of Your last login to Your account. In the case of a dormant account, the Company will levy a monthly administration fee at a rate of USD $4.99 per month commencing on the date that it became dormant. The administration fee shall be deducted from the dormant account commencing from the last day of the twelfth month in which the account is inactive and on a monthly basis thereafter, until the balance of the account has reached zero. In the event that You login to Your account during the period during which the administration fee is levied, the Company will cease to levy the administration fee but shall not be obligated to return to You any monies already deducted from the account at such time.

Ignition:

3.7. Your Account will be marked as dormant if you have not made a deposit, a withdrawal or engaged in any gaming activity for a period of 18 months. At 17 months of inactivity, we will send an email notice to the email address on file, advising that your Account balance will be set to zero, 30 days after the notice. If the Account still remains unused following this notice the account balance will be zeroed out.

Pokerstars Michigan:

4.8
You acknowledge and agree that, if your Gaming Account is "active" (i.e. you have logged into your Gaming Account at any time during the prior consecutive 36 month period), monies deposited by you in your Gaming Account are held in a trust account on your behalf and are considered to be User's deposits. In the event that your Gaming Account is "inactive" (i.e. you have not logged into your Gaming Account for a consecutive 36 month period), Provider will be entitled to deactivate your Gaming Account, and you will forfeit the entire outstanding balance and any pending wagers and such balance, once forfeited, will not be returned.

ACR:

9. DORMANT or INACTIVE ACCOUNTS/ACCESS FEE: On or after the last day each calendar month, ACR shall be entitled to suspend any User account which has not had any log in activity or game play for the prior 12-month period. In such event, the balance of any funds balance in said account(s) shall be retained by ACR in a pooled segregated suspense account and maintained for a period of 60 days thereafter. ACR shall give notice to the User that his/her account has been inactive for more than 12 months. Such notice shall be conclusively presumed to have been received by the User if sent by ACR by email to the email address of record provided by the User for said account. In the event that a User has opted-out from receiving emails from Americas Cardroom, the User shall be deemed to have waived any and all notice hereunder. In the event that a User shall validly claim said balance of suspense account funds within the 60-day holding period, ACR shall verify the identity and entitlement of said claimant (if any), may require an account holder to execute a written acknowledgement of any deposits funded by credit cards, and, thereafter shall pay the portion of the suspense account due to such User. At the expiration of the 60 Day Holding Period, all such balance amounts which remain unclaimed in the suspense account without an active log-in for another period of 3 months shall escheat to ACR as an Access Fee and compensation for account maintenance and having provided User access to the Games during the 12 months prior to the Holding Period.

You are definitely a mouth breather who lives in his moms basement

Love the nut riders who defend this stupid rule like it should exist.

Love people who can't follow rules for sites no one made them join.. and then complain "the man" has it in for them...

you voluntarily bought Gold Coins - which are (nearly) worthless virtual tokens - which have rules tied to them.


no one forced you...

Didn't see anyone defending it, most people say it's stupid. Of all the **** we can argue about on a ~Global Poker subforum on 2p2 lol~ the fact this rule is stupid is probably the one thing you'll get the most agreement on across the board.

90 days vs 12 months/18months/36 months...

Does seem engineered to take SC from players. Which is kinda nonsensical, since they're just numbers on a spreadsheet.

It's been said before by a Global Rep,
they're "legally bound/obligated" by sweepstakes law,
to expire inactive accounts after 90 days.

In order for them to be sweepstakes "legal," they're REQUIRED TO DO THIS.

congrats on OP getting his $70 back.