So here's my story. I've decided to register up with party poker about three weeks ago as I've heard some good things about their rakeback structure, deposited 1k$ with my credit card and started grinding. Half an hour in I get a popup message than my account is suspended, contacted support got a response that they're investigating my deposit. Over the following two weeks I was contacting the live support multiple times a day with the usual outcome of that "we don't know, please contact email support" followed up by responses by email team that always come on 24 hr delay and usually asking to provide "just one more" document. Over the two week span I sent them:

• Picture of me holding a passport
• Picture of me holding a residence permit
• My utility bill (proof of residence)
• Picture of my card front and back
• Scanned passport copy
• Scanned residence permit copy
• Transaction statements
• Bank statement of my entire bank account
• Screenshots of my contacts in the banking system

And also uploaded alll of these a second time through account settings on their site to get my account verified. The verification went through. At the end of these two weeks a person on a live support chat told me I'm getting my deposit refunded and deposit method by card blocked (great). The reason? "Can't provide a reason due to security concerns, please use alternative deposit methods". Amazing. So I went and did a wire transfer, this time for 950$ (hoping maybe the '1000$' triggered someone up there). Now ten days in, they still haven't "found" my deposit, my bank sent me multiple confirmations that transfer is completed, I resent them to their email team, with no constructive responses as usual. It baffles me how poorly PartyPoker is being run and this is a borderline fraud, I'm thinking of taking legal action, has anyone encountered anything like this?

There are a hundred different reasons why you might be having problems.

Are you located in a "grey market" country with regulations that make depositing difficult? i.e. one that has some kind of rules against online poker?

Hurakami,

I think there's more than a 99% chance that your problems are caused by error/mistake.

I think there's a less than 1% chance that PartyPoker are deliberately trying to steal your money.

You should feel entitled to ask for escalation to a more senior staff member for them to investigate/resolve the issue. If you're still unhappy, post what country you're trying to do this from, and someone can share the details of regulators who you can complain/escalate to.

Not that I'm aware of, no. And I realize it's not the same for everyone, but at the very least I'd hope to get some information about the issue from their team , if it was competent. Instead of that I got complete blackbox for three weeks, template copy-paste email answers on 24h delay that don't address any of the questions, and live support which apparently only job is to urge people to "stay patient".

Well, everything on my end and on my bank's end was triple checked and confirmed, so if it's a mistake then it's on their end. I agree that the chance of them actually trying to steal the money is rather slim, however the chance of them having liquidity problems due to expanding too fast & trying to overtake the market from PokerStars is very real and much higher than 1%.

Based on what? I get it that your situation sucks but that's just nonsense.

The growing presence of PP is undeniable so it's not naive to think that they are investing a lot of cash into this growth. so the chance of them having less liquidity than they normally do comes as a reasonable speculation.

That's allso just nonsense. You are just upset because they lost your deposit somehow. https://www.pokernews.com/news/2018/...fers-30226.htm

I am definitely upset that they lost my deposit and I'm not denying that. The link you posted just confirms with what I wrote before - they're investing a lot and that always reduces the liquidity on the short term:
Shareholder profits don't mean they have strong liquidity. I'm sure my situation will get resolved eventually, as 1k$ is not changing anything, the sole reason I posted this is to find out if anyone else is experiencing this and maybe it's a bigger trend or am I the statistical outlier. And so far I'm happy to hear that I am the statistical outlier.

I'm happy to negotiate a (small) wager on odds of my $99 to your $1, with my position being that they are not trying to defraud you, and your position that they are.

Let me know if you want to stand by your words and put your money where your mouth is.

Hi

Can you kindly share your username - please send a PM if preferred and I will help resolve the issue with the relevant teams

Thanks

Colette

I'm happy to do that, what are your terms? When can the situation be confirmed as a fraud? Do we have a time term or some legal action? Let me know

Done

Thanks - I will feedback ASAP
Likely tomorrow late morning/afternoon

A similar situation happened with my girlfriend. She deposited $280 via wire transfer, and they claimed they never got it. She checked multiple times, and the bank said every number was correct and it went through.

For 8 freaking weeks she kept getting back cookie cutter responses saying it would be forwarded to some 'team' to look into it. She couldn't talk to anyone on the phone, and couldn't contact anyone on whatever team was handing it. She could only talk to general support.

8 weeks in she filed a complaint with eCOGRA, providing correspondence between her bank and her, between party poker and her, and how bad they handled it, etc. How partypoker kept saying a team would handle it, and then not responding. 72 hours later eCOGRA handled it I guess, because she had her money. They offered a free $20 in slot play that you had to wager a ridiculous amount to cash out in exchange for doing nothing for 2 months lmao.

They have to follow government regulations and they have customer funds segregated from operating expenses as required by the UK Gambling Commission, so investing money has nothing to do with player funds.

Thank you! I will take a look at this.

Note this clause:

https://www.ecogra.org/srs/policies_procedures.php

5. We ask that you do not place posts regarding the complaint on any forums nor should you seek assistance from another third party service while we work your case. Either of these will result in the immediate termination of our assistance.

This is an A-grade, 100%, douchebag clause to put in a policies and procedures document.

This demonstrates that ecogra is not a serious body - keep in mind that they used to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of varioous online gambling companies, and went through some sort of management buyout. I imagine that their income continues to be from the same online gambling companies.

ecogra isn't a legitimate organisation, it isn't a player advocacy or independent regulator, it's an inside job set up that should not be taken credibly by players.

I haven't been around in years, but that's what I thought as well. Guess she just got lucky she didn't have an actual dispute with the site.

An update on my case:
Yesterday received an email from PP stating that my deposit was found and has been refunded back into my bank (what?). I've been in contact with my bank since then and they're claiming no such refund has been issued. The mystery continues. On a positive note in the same email they're claiming I passed their KYC regulations and will now be able to deposit with my credit card once more. Somehow after all this I'm thinking I'd better not take my chances.

Thanks for pointing this out, it does look really shady. Do they charge anything for investigating complaints? Otherwise I still might just take a chance with them if this situation is not going to resolve itself.

I don't *think* they charge for complaints - although, it would be better if they did in some ways because then they would not be so beholden to their primary funding source: the gaming companies.

I suggest ignoring ecogra, and going straight to the relevant regulator. If you post what country you are in, anyone (including me) can easily share the contact details for the regulator.

That would be great if you could share it. I am a EU resident, if that changes anything. I just got of another long chat with their support team, long story short the bank needs some reference number or document of transaction to locate the refund the PP is claiming to have made, as usual the PP is refusing to provide any information claiming this kind of information is for "internal use only". Also, within the same chat I was told "Thanks for holding. The deposit ID 15325218855567080 has not been refunded, it is still pending. The email you have received is for an older deposit" which suggest they just sent the email for the refund of credit card transaction of several weeks ago, then a bit later in the same chat I got "I am sorry for the confusion, there was a mix up in communication with the other team. A refund has been issued". Feels to me like they don't really know what they're doing. Also it's a pretty ridiculous situation when keeping in mind that none of these refunds were asked for and they just decided to do it for the heck of it. I can provide the whole chatlog for those interested.

No, it doesn't

What country are you playing from?


Come on, this is now the third time I've asked this question. It shouldn't be so hard.

Lithuania.

Quoted from their TOS
I suggest you just email gamblingcommissioner@gibraltar.gov.gib


Also, PartyPoker, if you're reading this - there's a typo in the preamble to your TOS. It says in part: "In the event that You have any complaints, claims or disputes with regard to any outcome regarding the Facilities or any other activity performed by Us, You should in the first instance contact Us in accordance with Section 22 below." (my emphasis)

The reference to Section 22 should be a reference to Section 21.