Poker News

EVERLEAF POKER CRISIS DRAGS ON

Source: bluffed.net


Players still owed by yet another Malta-licensed online poker company

Almost eclipsing the ongoing Purple Lounge - Media Corp debacle this week (see previous reports) is the long-running saga of similarly LGA-licensed Everleaf Gaming, a small network comprising a number of mainly anonymous skins that has been accused of slow-pay behaviour generally, and leaving US players in particular in the lurch.

It's now been months since Everleaf, which elected to risk operating in the US market, withdrew after a Homeland Security warning to cease and desist, preceded by an enforcement raid on the Causash processor which saw the loss of an unknown amount of Everleaf funds.

Yet US players remain unpaid, with the company perceived as doing little to resolve the issue beyond advising players to open e-processor accounts with two companies that in any case do not service the US market, or the impractical alternative of travelling outside the US to open a non-US bank account.

Additionally frustrating players, the LGA as the licensing authority has again been accused of being uncommunicative and less than informative in its relationship with the players in the Everleaf affair, where it apparently found some unspecified 'non-compliances" serious enough for it to apply undetailed "sanctions", and a bland assurance that Everleaf was "addressing" said non-compliances.

It appears that nowhere, however, has this regulator specifically addressed Everleaf's failure to create viable payment options for all affected Americans following its departure from that market.

The respected online poker information site Pokerfuse this week published a full recap and update on the Everleaf affair, written by experienced online poker and investigative journalist Haley Hintze, who notes that US players are still trying to recover their account balances months after Everleaf retreated from the US market back in February.

"Following Everleaf's departure, disrupted players waited for news of an alternate payment method to refund their payrolls," Hintze writes. In a March press release, Everleaf assured players that funds were ring-fenced and refunds would soon commence: 'Everleaf reiterates and wants to reassure all the effected [sic] players that all the funds will be refunded in full and the effected parties will be contacted in a short while accordingly,'" Hintze recalls.

The article also notes that "the entire network has also been hit with withdrawal slowdowns, with processing time moving from hours or days to several weeks, regardless of country."

Pointing out that the Malta regulator has not specifically addressed Everleaf's failure to create viable channels through which owed US players can be paid, Hintze notes that: Three months in, Everleaf shows little inclination to do anything other than allow American players to absorb the costs for its own risk-taking.

Options available to the company could include issuing money orders or cheques drawn on an international bank (but payable in US funds).

Questioning the preparedness of the regulator to assist players on the issue, Hintze writes: "As for the LGA, its minimal response to recent player complaints leaves little expectation it can proactively move Everleaf toward a prompt payment resolution."

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Related News Tags: Malta, USA, Purple Lounge