Jao Poker Folds Hanging Players Out to Dry

Certain members of the poker community have been warning to steer clear of JaoPoker since May of 2017, and it looks as though their concerns were well founded after the unregulated US-facing poker site apparently announced its closure this month. Furthermore, all indications point to all its player funds now being lost, with the site following in the example of other failed poker rooms of the past such as Lock Poker, Pitbull Poker, JetSetPoker and Cake Poker.
In the meantime, if anyone was left in any doubt as to what they can expect when trying to retrieve their funds, one online poster on the Two Plus Two forum said that he had requested a $1,550 cashout via bitcoin on February 3, but more than two weeks later had still not heard anything back from the site. On February 20, a poster by the name of Witteles subsequently screencapped an email from Jao Poker announcing that the site had shut, stating:
“If we have any updates on Jaopoker and members poker balances we will let you know in the communitypokerchat,”
Not long later, Jao Poker rep Tam Nguyen bid goodbye to the site’s customers via Facebook, while basically letting them know that they could also kiss goodbye to their cash. As his message then explained:
“I don’t have anyone’s money. I didn’t own the site. Jao is like any other business. You do well and thrive or try to do well and still fail. For those who joined the ride it was good while it lasted.”
Jao Poker stands once more as a reminder of the benefits of playing on regulated sites, and the potential pitfalls one faces when choosing to deposit money onto an unregulated site offering no real consumer protection for its customers.
Amongst the numerous signs that raised suspicions about the site in the past was the fact it charged affiliates $250 in order to market the site, who were then paid a cut of the income generated by any referrals. This multi-level marketing strategy was seen as having all the hallmark of a Ponzi schemes, while the site’s customer services skills also lacked credibility. When one player by the name of Eric Nichols complained after being disconnected just before a $27 tournament’s bubble burst, for instance, a subsequent dispute which erupted resulted in one of Jao’s owners, Tam Nguyen, calling Nichols a “lowlife bitch” and stating “I don’t give af. I will blast you.”