I think a lot of the targeting and suspicion of Jamie Larson (?) and his real estate company may be misguided or at least a waste of energy. I personally believe there likely to be some sort of connection and whatnot. However, the witch-hunt bred by nothing more than thin at best circumstantial evidence has in my opinion done nothing but make this issue seem less serious. People are taking very little facts and making humongous leaps to conclusions. If anything I feel like trying to make that connection hurts the credibility of the real issue, which is the theft of millions of dollars. We're not super sleuths and for a long while - and to some extent continues to be - this thread and others were filled with calls for harassment and the seeking of prosecution of a person we're not 100% sure is involved in Lock Poker. Look, I understand the frustration and the desire to put a face to this horrible theft. I just feel everyone would be better served sticking to facts that we know are 100% true, instead of wasting energy and resources on what perhaps is not a relevant pursuit. We're dealing with a massive theft against poker players, we do more harm to ourselves by not getting all of our facts right than is done by slandering a potential innocent (although likely guilty) man. As it stands now there is no actual evidence connecting Jamie Larson to Lock Poker. Sure he may have familial connections to Jenifer Larson, or to website design company that worked with both Lock Poker and his real estate company. There might even be some other loose connections. However, just because he is the most (only) possible connection to Lock Poker, it doesn't mean we should continue to bother with that low hanging fruit.
The focus should be on finding Jenifer Larson and Shane Bridges and making them publicly answer for what has gone on with Lock Poker. The goal should be to force those people to give a statement of some sort to the poker community and hopefully than devise a plan for repayment. We should push for the shutdown of the Lock Poker client/site so that no future people are scammed as well.
The power of our community should not continue to be wasted on discussing Jamie Larson. It's gotten nobody answers and has not to my knowledge provided any new information about Lock Poker. Instead I suggest we direct our attention towards the following people:
Chris Costigan. -
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/members/313677/ - He worked for a somewhat reputable gambling news website and was blatantly shilling for Lock Poker on these forums. Most importantly, he may be the only person to have ever interviewed Jenifer Larson.
http://www.gambling911.com/poker/gam...ew-051213.html --
http://www.gambling911.com/poker/int...ii-051313.html . We should attempt to convince Chris Costigan into helping us get in touch with Jenifer Larson or at the very least to return to 2p2 himself and provide insight into Lock Poker from when he was shilling for them. This is a person who worked in poker media and likely works in a similar field now (perhaps covering a different topic besides poker). He should care about his reputation and how he was a willing part in a scam that defrauded poker players out of millions of dollars. Let's try and get a fresh statement from him about Lock Poker.
Shane Bridges -
http://au.linkedin.com/in/shanegrahambridges -
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/members/273982/ - Shane was complicit in the ongoing fraud of poker players. He intentionally deceived posters on this forum and went out of his way to help keep up the lie that Lock Poker pays out players. As arguably the most visible employee of Lock Poker, let's try and get a fresh statement from him about Lock Poker. If that's not possible, he should continue to be branded a criminal by our community and hopefully at the very least we can make it difficult for him to ever find future employment and hopefully legal prosecution. You look at all the great work posters on this forum do to out scammers within our own community and shaming them until they attempt to make good, why hasn't that type of energy been put onto Shane Bridges. Where is the ShaneBridgesIsAThief.com website?
Gaming Control Board Curacao. This is supposed to be a regulator and a licensing body. We need to force a statement from them regarding Lock Poker and why the haven't revoked their license.
Jenifer Larson. The woman is a ghost. There isn't even a picture of her on the internet let alone any contact information. So how can we attempt to bring this woman to justice? The answer is by continuing to "call out Lock Pros" as well as anyone who has been associated with Lock Poker, including affiliates and gaming media companies who may have had contact with Jenifer Larson.
It's not enough for most of the Lock Pros to have cut ties with the company. Not a single one of them provided any help afterwards to the community. Why hasn't any of them provided contact information to the community for Lock Employees. The only connection the community has to Jenifer Larson is through our own members who shilled for her, yet, they've washed their hands and remained silent. Eric Rizen, Annette Obrestad, Bryan Pellegrino, Melanie Weisner, and many others - should be turning over any information they have about Lock Poker to the rest of the community. I bet they have phone numbers, email addresses, or some means of contacting Jenifer Larson or other employees of Lock Poker. It's absurd they never provided this material to the poker community so that we can attempt to seek a resolution. I call for a revitalization of the "Call out Lock Pros" thread and a demand they provide all the information they have about the company. We're talking about millions of dollars stolen from a community they once were a part of, it's disgusting they have done nothing to help find answers.
Affiliates and gaming media sites, should be called on to source all the contact information they had for Lock Poker and pass it along to the poker community so that we may hope to get in contact with Lock Employees and seek a resolution and so that we may also pass that information along to authorities and seek prosecution.
Finally, we need to find realistic way to seek justice. I know with the grey area surrounding online gambling it's almost impossible. However, Lock Poker got their software from someone, they use some company for their banking, their website is hosted by someone, they paid people in the past for marketing and promotion, etc, etc. We should seek to find links between Lock Poker and companies that appear to be reputable that still work in gaming. We should then look to put pressure on those reputable companies that worked with Lock Poker and hope they can help us gain more information about Lock Poker. Jenifer Larson and Lock Poker didn't turn into a large poker site capable of scamming millions of dollars overnight, we should look through all their old business relationships and hope those companies can provide new insight.
Overall, as a community we need to gather more accurate and fresh information on Lock Poker if anyone ever hopes to see a resolution and see the site shut down so no new people get scammed. The best way to get new information is to take a closer look at old information and hope to find a new source to talk to.
EDIT: I posted this same post in the Internet Poker thread as well.
