Linx Media Group Bankruptcy Puts Players' Funds At Risk

Last Friday’s announcement that the Linx Media Group was insolvent has sent shock waves through the micro gaming industry leaving many member’s unable to access their account money.
The Linx Media Group, which owns both Eurolinx and BetonBet poker, were  subsequently dissolved and the company released this message to the public:
“The Linx Media Group has today announced that it is seeking to put its businesses into liquidation and will cease trading with immediate effect. As yet, the Linx Media Group does not know how long this process will take, but it will provide updates on the situation as and when information becomes available and when liquidators are appointed.”
The sites ran on the The Microgaming Network,who promptly announced they had  “terminated its software license agreements with the Linx Media Group.” The company’s demise comes as additional bad news to the poker network provider who have seen their traffic decline by 25% in recent months, as well as losing 30 skins to liquidation.
Pokerscout’s Dan Stewart explained: “Microgaming has seen its market share decline, but then again so have a lot of sites, which have been losing share to PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. The Microgaming Network still has a healthy amount of traffic and we don’t know how much business the individual licensees are doing”.
The Microgaming Network is currently the eighth biggest in the world and includes Betway, Gnuf, Intertops, PokerTime, Unibet with Ladbrokes and Stan James their most notable customers.
The fall out from the insolvencies has resulted in many players unable to access their funds and facing long drawn out retrieval procedure. Forums have seen affected players venting their frustrations with claims that Eurolinx have $140,000 of players money frozen, and another player claiming he had waited since April to receive $7,700 from his account which never materialised.
Dan Goldman, formerly a Vice President at PokerStars, that in order to protect consumers from such damaging situations going forward player’s deposits should be better protected. He explained: “Online sites have the same responsibility to their players as banks have to their depositors. All too often, they treat player bankrolls like their own money. A good first step is the segregation of player funds into entirely separate, externally audit-able accounts. This is a simple step that, in addition to bolstering confidence in the site, helps to avoid the temptation to use player funds for operations.”