So I'll start by admitting that I did something dumb. I haven't played online poker since the days of Party Poker, when all of the major sites were shut down. I looked into a few of the sites over the past couple years, but didn't get good vibes from any of them. Enter Global Poker, which I discovered earlier this week. I signed up and blew through the free $2 bonus checking out the site. Then I signed up for another handful of accounts and played the $2 bonus for each.
No luck. So the next day, I figured I'd give it a try with enough money to actually play a table. I deposit $50 via Paypal using the first account I created. I lost the $50 and deposited another $50 via Paypal. Lost that $50. I gave it a rest for a few days and then deposited another $20 via Paypal. Since that time, I've had some better luck and grew my account to nearly $600. I figured it was time to test withdrawals, and it hasn't gone well.
I submitted my withdrawal request earlier today and shortly thereafter received the email for ID verification. I immediately sent over scans of my drivers license and electric bill, then continued playing on the site. A few hours later, I get disconnected for an extended period of time, so I logged out and then tried logging back in. That's when I get the dreaded, "Your Account has Been Blocked" message. So I email their support team asking what is going on and they reply back quickly (maybe 15 minutes), here is the reply:
Please be informed that your account has been blocked due to creation of multiple accounts.
This is discussed in item number 4 of our Terms of Use which states that:
* * 4. "Customers are only allowed to register one account with Global Poker. If discovered that multiple accounts have been registered by a customer, VGW reserves the right to terminate all such accounts at its discretion."
Please be reminded that you agreed to the said terms when you created your Global Poker account. Please feel free to refer to the entirety of our Terms of Use via
https://www.globalpoker.com/page/terms-of-use.
Please feel free to let us know if you need further assistance.
Where do I go from here? I realize it was dumb to make multiple accounts to try out the site, but frankly, I didn't really expect the site to be legit and didn't anticipate that I'd end up depositing real money and playing the site for any extended period of time. The truth is, I like the site and would like to continue playing there. Aside from my messing around the first night I discovered the site, I've only used 1 account to fund and play from. I clearly wouldn't have deposited real cash if I thought there would be no way of ever getting it out.
Can someone advise how I can fix the mess? They haven't replied to my most recent email when I asked how I can get my account unblocked. When I try logging in to the support ticket, it won't allow me to even log in to see the ticket (#940877). I would really like to resolve this and continue playing on the site. In hindsight, I did something stupid. I imagine this happens quite a bit and I really wish they would highlight the important aspects of the TOC when you first sign up at the site, so people don't get caught up in this hole. Honestly, I just wanted to demo the site and the free $2 made it easy to do that a couple times. But I'd like to keep playing here and would be satisfied if they could reinstate my account and let me play from that going forward - I'd be happy to pay a significant penalty for my stupidity, just seems that account closure takes it too far when you have so many new people finding the site that aren't familiar with their policies and how that can impact you and the real money you end up depositing with no way of ever getting back.
Is there any hope for me or should I just move on and resume my trips back to the casino?