I have almost 600K on this site. I've already got my lawyer looking into it.

I'm with bigt2k4 on this one. If they survive this crisis with flying colours in a reasonable amount of time it would really show me that these guys and this brand had passed their trial through fire and show that they are really looking out for us.

Let's say we get our cash back within a few weeks and then they tell us exactly what their new financial setup is and would show us exactly why a problem like this would never happen again (I would need a pokerstars type of policy in place most likely).... Then I'd feel that my money was more secure at Prima than at many 'unproven' sites.

Of course this is the most optimistic of prediction but the one that I'm hoping will come to true!

Lol @ the guy saying 2 days is a reasonable time frame. You're not getting the money in 2 days, unless nothing short of a miracle happens. I very much doubt you'll get your rakeback either.

I really hope some updates come out on Monday/Tuesday though, the lack of info about this at the moment is incredibly annoying.

Rakeupdate is working again and updated their message of the day, coincides(is that a word?) with what battlefield poker rep posted in this thread:

"UPDATE:Unofficial news for Battlefield is very good.
Things should progress rapidly next week and hope things are back to normal within a week.

Please note that we have been told that your money within Battlefield is secure.
We encourage you to be patient with this situation.
In the mean time, feel free to sign up at any other site, while the situation unfolds. "

Please let us know if there is any info you can share that comes of this. I don't have enough $ on there (only 10K) to warrant paying lawyers at this stage, but I would guess that others with $100K+ might be willing to split some legal costs with you.


Also, I hope that anyone seeking any kind of legal action at this point does so prudently and not in a way that is going to delay everything and reduce our chances of being paid in full. I'm not saying retaining a lawyer is bad - I'd do it if I had 600K at stake - but seeking injunctions, etc., might not be the best course of action. I think the best thing any attorneys involved at this point can do is press for information from MGS and Tusk, and perhaps push for any Tusk funds to be placed in trust.

I Can't believe about this.
In january we must open wih DGS that fail prior to open. Loose thousand of money.

Then we have decide to join a bigger network to avoid this problem, we have open in 5th feb. 2008 and spend some thousand of money and now we are closed.

We have no notice and news prior of 28 feb. I think is not right. However EuroPokerDream "personally" grant all the funds for player account.

EuroPokerDream

Not quite sure what this means, can someone translate? Although from what I gather it sucks for you.

No. The vast majority of their customers only run Microgaming casino and/or poker software.

It happens all the time. Customer lists or accounts are valuable.

They're a lot larger than you assume. They're near the top of the heap in online casinos, and in the lower middle in poker. They may not be as big as Stars or Bodog, but they're bigger than, for example, Cryptologic (in both casinos and poker). Crypto is a public company, unlike MG, so we can see their financials. Crypto had almost $100 million in net current assets as of yearend 2006, the last financial I saw in Yahoo Finance's summary information.

Tusk sold for $19.3 million AUD pre-UIGEA, but I gather they were hurt badly by the UIGEA. I have no doubt that Microgaming could buy and sell Tusk many times over.

I think the best evidence is that in 14 years no one has lost their balance from playing on a Microgaming skin that went under. You can't say the same for, say, Ongame.

But the people talking about two weeks are being overly optimistic I'd guess. Just think of the administrative work that has to be done if, say, they sold the player accounts to other skins and transferred the balances. I'd be amazed if they could get that amount of work done in that short a time. Have patience.

I see a lot of people calling the Microgaming Poker Network Prima. For those of you that don't know, Prima Poker was a brand name that Microgaming used through May 2006. At that point they changed the network's name to Microgaming Poker Network.

Hey Self Made, are you affiliated with Micro Gaming in any way? or whats the reasoning behind the repeated unwavering allegiance?

No, I'm not affiliated with them.

People generally don't understand their own motivations, let alone others,' so I'd just be speculating on the "reasoning behind." I will say, however, that I see a lot of irrationality on 2+2 all the time, but don't usually speak up. I do have greater knowledge of/interest in this area than most, however, so perhaps I just chose to be leader (or maybe active follower) in this particular thread.

Someone named "Funnymunny" is listed as the Prima Poker rep at Casinomeister and very recently posted there as a rep. Why is it that someone with the same name is posting in this thread and not helping? Are they the same person? If so why are so many assumptions and accusations being posted by them and not something official that would help players? The same person also posted promoting Prima's new software in the zoo a month ago.

Time to come clean.

yet another twist in this messed up story

Saying that two weeks is even optimistic gives MGS to much rope imo, it might just be a button microgaming has to press or copy the playerdatabases from one company to another.... whtvr it is, lets just wait for the verdict and not **** ourselfs up to much.

Judging from the recent responses of 'insiders' today I am very hopeful that this will be all resolved next week. The sooner that we get our money back, the better it is for everyone include microgaming.

I meant YOUR reasoning behind defending Microgaming every time. An obvious pattern is developing.

I think I've already laid out my reasoning. E.g.:

They have a good reputation that goes back to before they had a poker product.

Nice job as usual PA. Hopefully he will come clean now.

Selection bias often? Somehow you missed this more recent post. (In Eurolinx's defense, read this too.)

Dont think he will i doubth hes allowed to say anything

I just found the first two posts that I came across and they look suspicious to me so I posted them. Others can form their own opinions.

Long time reader, first time poster.

Some posters think Ecogra is where it started. In fact, it started after Ecogra. Ecogra pulled their seal from the group after the on site checks failed.

Meaning, in previous years Tusk passed their on site checks, and maintained their licenses, but the last one failed. Why? The company recently changed hands (casinomeister thread) and moved offices.

The Ecogra seal isn't easy to get, you have to have the right standard of office, door, building security, access to servers and terminals must be swipe card access, as well as a whole host of other requirements. Moving to a new office, I would say they failed some of these on site standards resulting in their seal being pulled.

I also struggling to comprehend why MGS let a group of this size implode on itself, without taking any action to save one of its oldest licensees which maintains 7-8 licenses. Did it even know?

Are there any audits done to ensure that player balances, and holds are maintained? Tusk is an old gaming company, but when it changed hands, MGS needed to be in the know, and monitor.

I also don't think any of the rooms were aware what was about to happen. For 28 rooms, meaning 28 different owners to be shut down, like it did, you'd expect there to be at a least a whisper of "we were prepared for this" ... instead everyone, players, affiliates, and poker room operators have been waiting for information from Tusk and MGS - and MGS tells us... we're still waiting for information from Tusk. Did MGS jump the gun then?

I also don't believe it is due to rakeback. To take down 6 established casino, and 28 poker rooms due to rakeback infringements. Especially with MGS stating twice that the licences were pulled due to Tusk informing them they were to liquidate. If you are liquidating... lets be realistic here, it means you have no more money.

Unpaid MGS Fees, Player balances and hold eaten up to keep afloat, and who knows what else.

My view is that TUSK don't know what MGS is going to do, if they will pay the player balances or not, and as a precaution have instead shifted the blame onto 2 very unlikely candidates - battlefield and red9's. I don't believe that reputable and established operators would push their luck too far with rakeback, especially with MGS - and why would MGS say battlefield and red9's.. what about other bigger prima groups? Just doesnt make sense.

In the end, its in MGS's best interest to look after its players, the affiliates, and its white label operators. MGS gave out a gaming license to a company which obviously has failed to operate successfully after it changed hands a number of times, and MGS shows that no audit checks were in place to ensure that Tusk was struggling - resulting in a larger and prolonged loss for players, affiliates and white label operators who filled MGS's coffers.

So scared of being outed that you had my post deleted?

Can you explain to me then how you know so much about tusk/mypokerprofit and how you seem to make a favorative post for microgaming in any thread that involves them? (save the story about them opening the first online casino blah blah blah)

You are obviously involved with tusk or microgaming and I can't see how a single negative post against a single microgaming room counteracts the multiple posts you have made supporting microgaming in general. Hence my opinion that you are a shill.

"Audit checks" are a matter of degree, not a yes or no. Say MG's agreement allows them to see audited financial statements once a year. In that case they might not have seen one since early 2007, for 2006. A licensee's condition could deteriorate a lot in that time. If it turns out that Tusk was insolvent and MG didn't know about it till it was too late, more regular monitoring of licensees' financial condition would be a reasonable improvement to make, however.

I believe BetHoldem are an example? I don't know the story here, so perhaps you can relate it, but I from what I understand Bodog bought them (this is obviously a good thing, but we can't give credit to Microgaming). Are there examples of MG coming to the aid of failing skins? I read an article that stated that there were two times that MG bailed out bankrupt skins, bit it didn't cite any sources.

All player balances were paid in the BetHoldem debacle. I was one of them.

True, we can't "give credit" to MGS for BetHoldem, but you can't say that MGS wouldn't have covered balances if it came to that. It never reached that point because Betcorp (owner of Betholdem, Poker 123 (another prima skin - I may not be 100% correct on the name) and BetWWTS sportsbook) negotiated for Bodog to buy the whole thing. It took 2 months for players to get their money, which occured immediately after the sale to Bodog was completed. As I recall, a large part of the delay was because Betcorp was a public company and shareholder meetings were required, which must be scheduled some number of weeks in advance. The tentative deal with Bodog actually occurred rather quickly, so there was nothing for MGS to do.

I don't understand why people are attacking others in this thread. Everything in this thread is opinion and speculation. Why can't people have differing ideas? Why is someone a "shill" if they speak favorably of MGS? And why does it matter?