Originally Posted by Kanuck
I strongly doubt that anyone, us residents or otherwise, will be able to withdraw money from their accounts. I thought some of these points would have been obvious to anybody with some business sense, but perhaps not...
When you make a deposit at a branch of your bank, say for $1000, do you think the bank keeps your money in a vault or something so that you can ask for it anytime you want? Do you think they do that for all their customers? Obviously not. You make the deposit, and your balance is updated electronically. But the bank does not keep your money, waiting for you to take it out. That money gets invested, is lent out to other individuals and businesses, pays for bank expenses and salaries, etc. etc. The point is, your balance becomes a number "on paper". So is everyone else's. If every customer were to all of a sudden go to their branch and ask to withdraw all the money from their account at the same time, the bank wouldn't be able to do this because it just doesn't have the money on hand. The balance only exists as a number on paper or on a computer.
Your balance on a poker site is also just a number. There is no regulation that requires that the full balance of what is currently sitting in your "account" be set aside somewhere that you can access instantaneously. And why would they even do that (allow billions of dollars to just sit in account as cash) from a business perspective? Certainly, they would not expect to have to pay out significant sums of money at any given time. They might keep a certain amount in reserve for payouts for cash-flow purposes, but this will probably be just a fraction of the balances currently held by all the players. The rest of the money is already gone and spent... To run the business, pay out salaries, pay the owners, make investments (non-liquid) etc.
My point is that those players who expect that they can simply make a withdraw request and that their account balance should magically appear in their own personal bank accounts are simply fooling themselves. The money has to come from somewhere. They can write you a cheque from their account, but if there isn't money in that account, it will bounce. Even if it temporarily shows up in your own personal account, if the bank isn't able to clear the cheque, the deposit will be reversed. They can approve a wire to your account, and tell you that this has been done, but until someone actually initiates the wire transfer and the transaction clears (assuming they even have the money to wire), you will not get your money.
They will tell you to keep playing and not to worry... Because until you actually try to withdraw money, all they need to do is update your balance electronically. They don't actually have to pay anything out. They will tell you, at least if you are not a us resident, that you can take your money out at any time... What I'm saying is that people need to be realistic and accept the fact that the money may not exist to be given back to you anymore. And even if it is in account, if the bank is told to hold it or risk being liable for any amounts that it allows to be transferred out to players, do you think the banks are going to jump on the request and have the money sent to you?
Eventually, if things go back to normal, you may be able to get your money back. But for now, i think you should recognize that the balance in your "account" is really, just a number on someone's books... And that you aren't going to see it anytime soon... No matter what they are telling you.[/LIST]
