It is no secret that Lock Poker has been in the news recently over its cash-out policies, or lack thereof, some might say. The online poker site has been under heat for many months now over its long wait period when it comes to sending cash-outs to its players. In some cases, the wait has been as much as five months for some US players. To make matters worse, the site has offered little in way of explaining itself.
As if that were not enough, in April, the site put into place a new cash-out policy that forbids players from taking cash-outs if they have transferred money to other players or received money from other players. The site went so far as to cancel pending withdrawal requests, even those that had been in the process for months.
Lock Poker sent out a short, and not at all helpful, email telling their customers that winnings derived from transfers are no longer eligible for payout. That was the jist of it and nothing else.
As one might imagine, this caused an uproar with the site’s players as well as the site’s professionals who are members of the Lock Poker Elite Pro team. These pros represent the site at both live tournaments and online events. Some of these pros have been drawn into the fray when rumors went out that they were getting huge salaries that were being paid by monies that were suppose to be used for cash-outs. Because of this, Paul Volpe, along with several other Lock Poker Elite Pros put out recently that they, too, have been having to wait for their pay. They were not given any priority when it came to payments.
Other speculation is that the site has become insolvent, but that it is still taking deposits from new and old players. So far, the company is hesitant to make comments about the allegations.
Recently, Paul Volpe and Chris Moorman decided that they were not going to renew their contracts with Lock Poker. This, of course, means that these two will no longer be sponsors or players on the Lock Poker Elite Pro team.
Even though Volpe and Moorman plan to leave the site’s association, others have elected to stay. Some of Lock Poker Elite Pro members who will stay have put out statements of their own which can be found online. These include Matt Stout, Melanie Weisner, and Brett Jungblut. Each has spent time addressing the site’s issues and generally saying that they had no knowledge of the site’s financial woes or knowledge of its payment processing problems.
It is not entirely clear at this time what will happen in the near or far future in terms of players getting their cash-puts or whether or not the site can weather this very ominous storm that it has found itself in. One thing is sure, however, this is one of those gambling issues that will not go away on its own. Further details will be reported as they come out.