Another Case of Prima locking an Account without Evidence

[greywolf]

i make much more money at prima than any other sites, thats why i dont stop playing. I do cashout often enough so i dont have to worry about keeping a big chunk of my BR there and I would recomend everyone not to keep more than say 5-10 buyin there at most. Just for safety reason.

[TorontoCFE]

The falsely reported fraud is no doubt a common occurence.
Many times people have remorse and claim they didn't make a purchase in all kinds of businesses. I'd say this is 75-80% of the fraud cases (actually it's fraud committed by the cardholder and not a stranger).

However, in my forensic accounting work, I am starting to run into issues about how online gaming sites are becoming one of the easiest ways to launder and transfer money for criminals. There is little doubt that it happens. It's just a matter of how much and how fast it is growing.

The anonymous and offshore nature is very appealing to criminals. I know that some in law enforcement are looking at the online sites and it may be that this money laundering concern becomes a real challenge to the online gaming industry. They will have to try to keep the crime out to keep the criminals out to keep the players' trust and avoid legislation that cuts off potential players.

The real issue is whether other innocent players should be victimized. Without hard proof, the company should be eating the cost of the bad money that gets into the system through lax controls.

[1800GAMBLER]

Since my name has perked up in this i'll chime in.

I had my account (JayPee2) locked at prima twice, once for this reason and once for having 2 accounts at different casinos, each time having ~$10k in there.

Getting my account reopened was a struggle, as seen here you can't contact prima and as seen here prima take ages and release no information at all, so you sit and wait while listening to your casino tell you the same crap over and over. It took about a month both times to get my account reopened.

Since then i have put money back in and played for high stakes on prima, the reason i did is after proving my innocence twice to them and having a lot of backing from gaming club i felt safe there.

However reading how this situation has been handled and reading how little effect the casinos have over prima i wont be playing there anymore.

[NLfool]

well I'm in the process of trying to get my account unlocked for 2nd time. Now after having cashed me out hundreds of times they now for whatever reason want picture ID and utility bill. I sent that in and according to them it's 4 months and unacceptable. Sent in newer ones and they said it wasn't clear enough and need me to send more documents. But I've got to admit a few thousand being taken away seems less painful when someone else got 60k taken away. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[NoPeak]

I also had a similar problem with Prima. I used the free $10 promotion, turned it into around $160, started playing several of their freerolls. After making it to the final table once, I was never able to get back into that freeroll. Always got the registration error, knowing I played well over the amount of hands required in the 24 hrs building up to the tourney. I refuse to play at any of their sites, regardless of how juicy the promotion sounds.

[OldLearner]

[ QUOTE ]
Lets say you tilt, blow 50 grand in a sitting and wake up the next morning with a brilliant idea. Report your card stolen, get your money back.

[/ QUOTE ]

You would have to sign up and deposit from a "public" computer for this to work. This would imply that you were planning the "fraud" from the start.

You obviously could not use your credit card from your home computer, have a bad night, and report it stolen the next day.

[BradleyT]

Opened a CityPoker.com account last week. Did $500 deposit and got $100 bonus. Played a $5 or $10 SnG and some $.10/.20 NL as well as some .25/.50 limit.

Haven't been able to log in since Friday.
I called support on Friday - "We're upgrading our software that's why you can't log in"
On Saturday I still couldn't log in so I e-mailed 2 different addresses on the support page.
On Sunday after hearing no response I went the live chat route - "Hmm, I'm not sure why you can't log in, I'll have to send this off to main support and e-mail you when I get the result".
Today (Tuesday) I still can't log in so I try live chat again.

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Mary'
Mary: Welcome to CityPoker.com, How may I help you?
you: It's been 5 days now since I've been able to log in
you: I've called, e-mailed, and chatted and no one has told me why
Mary: May I have your User ID?
you: NNNN
Mary: Please give me a moment to review your account
Mary: Mr. xxx let me inform you that we are no saying that you made fraud but your account number is investigating for our fraud department
you: fraud for winning like $25? That's ridiculous
Mary: as soon as they send us the answer we will contact you back
you: Let your supervisor know I think this is one of the worst sites I've played at and I've been playing online poker for 5 years now
you: They could have at least contacted me to let me know. So I guess I'll just sit around and wait.
you: bye

Um, Prima sucks.

[Synergistic Explosions]

Bradley, what happened to you is just plain rediculous. I play alot on Prima, but after reading all this, I'm starting to have second thoughts.

It just seems not worth the risk.

[MrBatman]

Agreed... Time to withdraw all funds from account.

Does anyone know what the final words were in the Dako et. al. case?

[gusly]

Totally not worth the risk. Thankfully, I've never played at Prima. Unless they change their practices, they're going to lose a lot of business once word gets around.