LGA Statement on Everleaf Poker: Affiliates Posing as ‘Fake’ Players
One of the smaller, seedier online poker rooms to run into trouble in recent times, Everleaf Poker, continues to be the subject of investigation by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA), which has just released a statement on the matter.
The latest statement by the LGA actually doesn’t talk much about Everleaf, but instead claims that some of the supposed “players” who filed complaints about the tiny site were in fact Everleaf affiliates who were lying to the press about the real nature of their publicizing Everleaf’s problems. Here’s the complete statement… and it isn’t much:
Press Statement on Everleaf
Towards the beginning of 2013, the LGA reported that Everleaf was under scrutiny due to slow payment of players. LGA intervened directly with Everleaf in order to rectify such slow payments.
Notwithstanding, the LGA continued to receive further complaints, which were all investigated. It resulted that a number of complaints that were also being indicated to the media, were complaints stemming from non-genuine players. The non-genuine complaints were also investigated, where it transpired that such complaints were coming from affiliates disguising themselves as players. Notwithstanding, the LGA was and still is systematically contacting all players with genuine complaints to process their cases.
As Everleaf is currently under investigation, it would not be prudent to disclose any further information at this stage.
It’s a bit of a shuck, which should be of no surprise to anyone that understands the nature of Malta’s LGA, which is about as rubber-stampy as rubber-stamp, pseudo-regulators can get. The LGA has a long track record of failing to intervene in or even properly investigate problems at online gambling sites it claims to oversee, with last year’s demise of Purple Lounge, at one time a well-regarded, mid-level Euro site, just one of several examples.
The LGA’s statement regarding Everleaf belies some of the deep problems at the tiny network, which fortunately for the online-poker world has never garnered more than a trickle of traffic. One of the most recent developments at Everleaf was the decision of prominent skin Minted Poker to block its players from wagering on the Everleaf Network, for fear that winnings would not be honored or able to be cashed out.
Early last month, Minted even issued a statement with instructions on how players could file complaints regarding Everleaf with the LGA, though given the LGA’s previous non-responsiveness, those complaints probably won’t produce much. Meanwhile, Minted, at last report, continues to search for a new poker home.
As for the LGA, whether or not some affiliates may have “posed as players” — honestly, who knew that affiliates weren’t allowed to play?!? — seems a ludicrous point to raise, in light of some of the other Everleaf shenanigans.
When Everleaf chose to exit the US last year, it did so without arranging any reasonable way for Americans to cash out their balances. Everleaf had roughly $27,000 seized in February of 2012 by US authorities from an account it held in the name of Causash Establishment, and decided to leave the US market after that.
However, Everleaf did so by insisting that Americans either open accounts at e-wallets NETeller or Moneybookers, or find a way to open an international bank account on their own. Since neither NETeller nor Moneybookers is currently open to the US, and since most Americans had no real way of opening up a foreign account, the net effect was Everleaf seizing virtually of Everleaf’s remaining US-player balances.
The LGA’s reaction to the complaints from players: stone silence. Now comes this latest, a further indication that the LGA really doesn’t give a damn about players, and will instead do everything it can to avoid finding problems with the sites it purports to regulate.
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