Lock Poker A Losing Bet
June 20, 2014 4:24 pmLock Poker hit online poker’s rock bottom more than a year ago and last May online poker player Chris Moorman became the latest sponsored pro to distance himself from the beleaguered poker room. Commenting at the time, the UK poker legend had these words to say:
“I have decided not to renew my contract with Lock. I sincerely hope Lock is able to overcome its current problems and..for the sake of online poker their situation is resolved.”
No such luck has been forthcoming, however, and the site still continues to owe millions of dollars in funds to its frustrated customers, with many cash out requests dating back as far as 2012. This has led many in the industry to conclude Lock Poker is most probably insolvent, a situation not likely to improve considering its peak cash game traffic has plummeted from several thousand players in its heyday to its current level of just 50 players at any one time, according to PokerScouts ‘Online Poker Traffic Report’.
Moreover, there’s a good chance even those tortured souls wouldn’t even be gambling on Lock Poker if they didn’t have funds trapped on the site, and as John Mehaffey wrote in his article for 4flush.com:
“The cash game quality is extremely high. Chips are thrown around the tables like they are worthless. That is, of course, because they just about are. Players have been swapping Lock Poker chips for cash at a rate of about $.06-$.07 on the dollar for months. That means a player at a $200 NL table is really at a $12 or $14 game.”
In fact, the situation is so dire at Lock Poker that the Poker Players Alliance even decided to become involved and wrote the poker room a letter requesting information on a range of issues, including funds segregation and payment processing. That was back in April and several months on Lock Poker has been as quiet as a the Queen’s fart.
Not surprisingly, it now seems unlikely the site will survive in the absence of a liquidity injection, and so in the meantime the PPA’s words of warning should be heeded well by those in the poker community, namely that:
“..we encourage extreme caution when depositing on Lock Poker. We also strongly encourage affiliates to remove Lock Poker ads and positive reviews. In the current state, these are at best misleading.”