First draft of letter--probably needs a lot of work. I haven't followed this thread as closely as others, so I cribbed a bunch of stuff from the Cliff notes and tried to piece together as much as I could into a coherent narrative. Please modify/ edit as you see fit and we'll try to get something into sendable form:
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am writing to you concerning a very troubling situation that has arisen on the Microgaming network. A large number of players have had a significant amount of money (approximately $6,000,000 as best as we can tell) frozen, and possibly stolen. The summary of the events is as follows:
On February 15th, the certifying authority eCOGRA announced that it was pulling its "Safe and Fair" seal from a number of online casinos owned by the Tusk group. Despite this, eCOGRA was still hosting jpg images of the seals they were supposed to have revoked (
http://www.ecogra.org/certificates/%...nge_Casino.jpg). Most of the affected casinos were reportedly still displaying the seals too.
On February 27th, Microgaming announced that it was terminating its relationship with Tusk due to Tusk's decision to go into liquidation (
http://www.microgaming.com/pressrelease_255.php). Twenty eight (28) different poker sites on the Microgaming network use Tusk as a payment processor. Players at those 28 sites (skins) have been unable to deposit, withdraw, or play with their funds at these sites. The owners and operators of the skins have stated that they were not made aware of Tusk's liquidation, the removal of their sites from the Microgaming network, or the freezing of player funds prior to this date.
As the situation now stands, a number of poker players have a large amount of money stranded, apparently in the hands of a company that is insolvent and going into liquidation. We are unaware whether this money actually exists and will at some point be recoverable, or is gone. This has proven very distressing for all players with funds at these sites, as well as the operators of the various skins.
It appears as though the primary malfeasant in this debacle is Tusk. However, based on how the situation has played out, Microgaming and eCOGRA appear to bear a large degree of responsibility as well. Firstly, Microgaming allowed Tusk to operate the 28 poker rooms and various casinos using its software. Microgaming still advertises on its website that poker on the Microgaming network is "an extremely safe game to play. ...[P]layers in the poker network are automatically protected by Fraud Control Systems and client server encryption." Microgaming had a duty to continuously oversee the financial situation of all rooms on its network to ensure the safety of player funds.
Secondly, Microgaming and eCOGRA's regulatory actions in this instance have been insufficient to protect player interests. When eCOGRA removed its "Safe and Fair" seal from various casinos, it did not clarify that the Tusk group was insolvent and days away from going into total liquidation, nor did it advise users that their funds were in immediate jeopardy and should be withdrawn as quickly as possible. (Even if it had done so, this might not have been sufficient, since Tusk was obviously on the brink of insolvency already and would likely have been unable to honor a run on funds at that time.) Nor did Microgaming issue any sort of alert to its players. This would have been especially useful for those of us with funds on the poker sites, since at the time the relationship between Tusk and the various poker skins was generally unknown at that time. The removal of the eCOGRA seal of approval (even if it had been done completely properly) was inadequate warning to protect player interests.
Finally, Microgaming has been extremely secretive in its handling of this matter. Its three press releases have revealed virtually nothing to the public. It has refused to communicate with the skin owners, who have described themselves as "blindsided" by this turn of events, and have been repeatedly promised information on certain dates only to hear further silence. Microgaming also allegedly sent a letter to two of the skins on February 25th suspending them for rakeback violations (
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=149), which was made known to us only through a leak by an anonymous insider. The relationship between this letter, the alleged rakeback violations, and the Tusk insolvency is still unclear.
In summary, Microgaming and eCOGRA have failed miserably to protect player interests. Many players have tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars that they may never see again. This is egregious misconduct, constituting at the very least gross negligence and possibly outright fraud. We request a full investigation into both Microgaming and eCOGRA, as well as whatever regulatory or punitive action gives us the best chance of recovering our frozen monies as fast as possible. Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,
Bunch of angry 2+2'ers.
