IMPORTANT - Changes at the blonde Cardroom.

[tikay]

Hi.

On Friday, BlondePoker Web Ltd received in writing 3 months notice of Termination of our Contract with Aqua/i-poker.

The document was a complex one – 15 pages long, full of equations & algorithms, but the gist of it was that, on aggregate, the blonde players are winning players. This is, it seems, not acceptable under far-reaching reorganisation plans at i-Poker.

They went on to explain, & demonstrate, that, as an example, once the new arrangements come into place, our performance in October would have resulted in a fine in the region of $30,000, based on how much our players won. The Net Rake which accrued to blonde was about $7,000 I think, so we’d be on a net loss of some $20,000+. Because our players were winning.

We are also facing Chargebacks in massive numbers, & we have no control over them. In the latest month, these were in excess of $15,000. All dead money, which we have to pay.

This needs to be seen in the context of a number of things, which I intend to set out below.

Everything we know pertaining to the issue, will be on the Thread. We will answer all questions as fully as our knowledge permits, & honestly. There is such a bewildering array of figures, I may get some of them wrong, & Kev or Tighty will qualify or correct them where necessary.

We are happy to share the 15 page Document we received, but it’s on an Adobe (PDF?) Document, & personally, I seem unable to copy it. If “interested parties” wish to see it, just  ask, & we will forward it to them via e-mail.

I will detail below the “story so far”, warts & all.

This will include plans for blonde life after i-Poker – the options available to us.

[tikay]

The Chargebacks*

More than a year ago, under a previous regime, the Terms of our Aqua deal were modified, to give us an extra 2.5% Rake. We were not aware that in exchange, responsibility for Chargebacks transferred to blondepoker. Which was unworkable, as we did not have control over who Deposited money on blonde, nor did we have any means of ensuring that Aqua exercised a Duty of Care to control these Chargebacks, or pursue them.

Each month these hit us in bigger & bigger numbers – first a few grand a month, gradually growing. We tried to plug the loopholes, by banning certain Deposits, from overseas for example, & reducing more & more the upper limit of Deposits. Eventually, every Deposit had to be approved by Kev or Tighty. But still the Chargebacks kept coming, as it would appear these can arrive as long as six months after the event.

As you can imagine, the dialogue between Aqua & ourselves was intensive, & both Parties were 100% aware of the scale of this problem. Aqua eventually conceded that there was some sort of industry-wide scam in operation, & other skins were also suffering.

Even so, given the dialogue, it was something of as shock to be told last week that another $15,000 of Chargebacks had somehow appeared, & we had to pay Aqua for these. Our ire was because we felt Aqua may have warned us that these were being incurred, instead of informing us many months later.

I believe – Kev or Tighty will confirm – that these Chargebacks exceed $40,000 in 2009.

•   Chargebacks are, in effect, the cost of fraudulent or improper Credit Card transactions.

[tikay]

We have winning Cash players. This is bad.

Flushy has been busy trying to recruit some rake-generators – big cash players. Tournament Reg Fees don’t amount to much, it’s Cash Rake that brings the income really.

He found us a cash player recently who, inadvertently & innocently, bought things to a head., by winning about $30,000 in October, & bringing his Deposited Account value up to over $50,000.

He rang Flushy last weekend (14th-15th November) to say he could not access his blonde Account. Kev get on the case, only to be told by Aqua that yes, they had locked his Account, as he had won too much…….this in turn would means fines for Aqua, which they would pass onto blonde.

We were a bit taken aback at this. This man has had his Account closed because he won money at Poker!

In a robust exchange of views with Aqua, (we have a written transcript of the MSN Convo which I have no objections to Posting on this thread) Aqua suggested it might be a good idea if we found some players who would be prepared to “lose”. (Their inverted commas).

So Flushy had to ring his man & tell him his Account had been closed. The guy was fine with it. “No prob, I’ll transfer to another i-Poker skin where I can get more rake anyway, I was only trying to help blonde”. Bizarre that he could go to another i-Poker site, and get moré rake, but we had to lose him because he helped make our aggregate player position profitable!

[tikay]

The Deposit/Withdrawal Fine System.

Put simply, if our players, in aggregate, withdraw more than they deposit (i.e., win overall) we get fined.

So, Flushy’s man had no option but to withdraw his account Balance – he had to, his Account had been closed!

But when he attempted to, he was refused. He rings Flushy, Flushy rings Kev/Tighty, da de da.

We contacted Aqua & they said yes, that’s correct. We cannot allow him to withdraw all that money as it will throw the ratios the wrong way, Aqua will get fined, & blonde will have to pay those Fines.

But…..the man has WON THAT MONEY, so he must be able to withdraw it immediately. Aqua refused, & set out a schedule whereby the guy could withdraw it drip-feed fashion, a few thou per week, to stay within the ratios. Not an easy convo for Flushy to have with his man, but again, it went OK – surprisingly, to my mind, as I’d be a “bit cross” if it were me.

Here’s what we were told…..

“…..If we release all of (Player Name) Withdrawals (approx. 57,679.94 USD) at this point, we are certain to get fined as the gap would be too big and no amount of deposits would be able to overturn this situation in a 2 weeks time frame.
We will therefore release his pending Withdrawals depending on the amount of deposits we are getting in from other Skins.
I know this is perhaps not the best of answers but again, we have no other alternative or else we will get fined. …”

[tikay]

The Meeting.
The e-Mails were now flying in all directions, really heavy stuff, respect to Kev & Tighty, it was ugly stuff.

I was in the loop via e-Mails & ‘phone calls, Rich needed  decisions from Flushy & I, & so I decided a Shareholder Meeting was needed urgently. We convened in Luton at Noon on Thursday.

We decided we would accelerate our plans to look somewhere other than Aqua for our Cardroom. Tighty has been trying to find somewhere for a year now, but it’s not easy. We are small, & we need a Network with Liquidity. He is currently in quite advanced talks with 2 suitable parties, though we don’t know if it will work out yet.

We also discussed alternatives. Run blonde as an Affliate Site – a bit like THM -  or forget all revenue streams & just run the Forum. The Forum is separate from the Company, & the Server Costs, about £230 per month, are paid by me. (Previously Tighty). So come what may, the Forum could continue if we or I so wished. But blonde has two Employees to pay, Kev & Rich, so an income stream is needed to pay them. And we need to try & generate operating profits, to justify Flushy’s decision to sink a bunch of money into the Company. (About £60,000 I think).

We resolved to step up our search for an alternative poker Platform, or different business Model (Affiliate Site, etc) & each of us left the Meeting on Thursday with an Action List. That Action List is…..

1)   Rich is in quite advanced talks with two parties, one of whom is someone we have worked with successfully & happily over a long-time. He is meeting one of them tomorrow (Tuesday) & will pursue the other avenue urgently

2)   Flushy is dealing with a party who may wish to purchase blonde in it’s entirety. This proposal has been around for a while, but it has increased relevance now, so we are stepping up the discussions

3)   I have been tasked with discussing a potential solution with “x”, & I will do that tomorrow.

We will get commercial offers, for sure. Whether they are viable remains to be seen. As a non-profit entity, the Forum is not really under threat as such. But a commercial solution is needed to protect the Staff, & Flushy’s investment in the Company. For complex reasons, I’d quite like to protect the value of my Shares, too, as they are, in effect, collateral for some wage debts blonde has incurred, & if the Company cannot pay those debts, I want to be able to sell my Shares to pay those debts.

[tikay]

The Aftermath.

On Friday, the letter arrived giving us 3 months notice. It came from…..

Cytech Limited
Comapny No 22500. (That is their spelling of “Company”, not mine, which I thought odd).
1934 Driftwood Bay
Belize City
Belize

It contains the very complex algorithms that I-Poker use to assess suitable – losing – Skins. The i-Poker Logo says ”i-Poker – always a full house”.

I was actually very pleased with this – problem solved. Because now our players can withdraw player Deposits without us being Fined, or Aqua saying “no you can’t” one would assume, as players will want, & have the perfect right, to withdraw, if the Room is imminently closing.

We wrote to Aqua to conform this. They replied….

“…..The balances left in the system in mid February will be returned to the players, and we will be speaking to iPoker to confirm that there will be no adverse affects from this.
I apologise if this is a little vague at the moment, but a lot how we proceed may be influenced by your requirements……”

So we don’t have a clean answer as to whether we will get Fined, because our Players will all have to withdraw, & we’ll have no Deposits, so our Deposit/Withdrawal ratio will be “bad”. But there is no risk to players Deposits whatsoever, so far as I can tell.

Rich replied to that this morning – this is all very “now”  thusly…..

“….As to our requirements, not sure yet. Depends on where we want to go and will need to advise.
 
As per Friday if you could confirm please that any withdrawals can go through unfettered from this point (given that we are being forced to leave) and also loyalty scheme payments will be paid as per normal in the few months before termination please….”

I have been poking around over the weekend to see if any players on other i-Poker skins are facing the same problems. I did hear of one who claimed he had been told he could not withdraw “on demand” (in deference to Deposit/Withdraw Ratios) but I’ve no evidence to support that.

[tikay]

So that’s where we are, really. It is what it is.

The whole thing is beyond my understanding. Why should we have to recruit losing players? Why should winning players be a bad thing?

We can see nothing in our Contract that covers this, other than “catch-all” Clauses that say they can do whatever they want, standard commercial legalese.

I think the clue is at the bottom of the letter we received, on every page.

“Registered under the laws of Belize”.

[action man]

hello tony

[GreekStein]

Wow if you hadn't only just returned I'd say aggressive things about ipoker but I'll just wish them a fast demise. Utterly ridic.

Where will the blonde cardroom be moving to?

[tikay]

hello tony

Hello Rick.

[tikay]

Wow if you hadn't only just returned I'd say aggressive things about ipoker but I'll just wish them a fast demise. Utterly ridic.

Where will the blonde cardroom be moving to?

It has yet to be decided. See notes above.

[Eck]

Is my money safe?

How much can I withdraw if it is?

Sorry to hear about this but forgive me for thinking of myself here.

[byronkincaid]

VC have kicked a bunch of winning players off their site, a couple of threads about it on 2+2

this is prob the best thing that could have happened no? they kick you off they can't fine you anymore

trouble with affliiate thing is that we are all already signed up everywhere, need new forum members/new players, also need to give RB to be competitive ldo. why not do under the table iPoker RB

GL

[Dingdell]

Is my money safe?

How much can I withdraw if it is?

Sorry to hear about this but forgive me for thinking of myself here.

I think - if I read it right - that you can withdraw and will need to but this is being allowed by i-poker whereas before they were stopping the withdrawals...I think.

[TightEnd]

Is my money safe?

How much can I withdraw if it is?

Sorry to hear about this but forgive me for thinking of myself here.

Hi Eck

There is no indication that money is anything other than safe. As you can see above the cage has indicated that all balances will return to customers as the end of the notice period

Withdrawals now, as you can also see I am urgently seeking an answer to that. I would hope no problem in withdrawing anything now but until I have it in writing that they will allow this as of course they should, then I am in the same boat as you