Online Poker Complaints Declining
April 27, 2009
The number of disputes involving online casinos is declining according to early figures released by the eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) group.
First quarter figures released by the regulation group show that official complaints and disputes are down on last year. Tex Rees, the fair gaming lawyer with eCOGRA investigated a total of 145 disputes in the first quarter of 2009, down from 171 the same time last year.
In all a total of 197 complaints were made via the eCOGRA online channel but 25 were rejected under the grounds of being abusive or non-specific in nature or as involving non-eCOGRA accredited operations.
Of the remaining 145 disputes, more than half (73) involved cash-ins. Locked accounts made up 21 % of the disputes (30), while 19 % were complaints about bonus issues (27). There were 15 grievances regarding miscellaneous issues.
Interestingly were the results of these complaints after the investigation. Rees ruled 59 of the 145 cases in favor of the player. Rees reported that the total number of disputes handled in 2008 (743) were down from the total number in 2007 (783). At the current pace that number would dip to 580 in 2009.
I have to complain about Poker Stars “technical issues” closing down a tournament tonight (10,000 players) with 1014 of us left and offering no reward for our time and efforts. I was already set for the next round waiting for 14 other tables to close. Winner of each table advances to next round. Here is the email from them:
PokerStars Tournament #159606359, No Limit Hold’emFreeroll Super Satellite10000 playersTarget Tournament #159606292 10 tickets to the target tournament Tournament started 2009/05/04 20:00:00 ET Dear contrabroker, Tournament #159606359 has been cancelled due to technical reasons. When a tournament is cancelled before players are in the money, we refund each player their tournament fee, and then divide up the prize pool based on the following formula: – 50% of the award pool distributed evenly between remaining players- 50% of the award pool distributed proportionally according to the chip count At the time of cancellation there were 1014 players remaining, and your chip count was 15,000.00. Total chips in play were 15,000,000.00. Prize pool to be divided equally: $0.00 / 2 = $0.00Prize pool to be divided based on chip count: $0.00 / 2 = $0.00 Your share in money equally divided: $0.00 / 1014 = $0.00Your share based on chip count: $0.00 * (15,000.00 / 15,000,000.00) = $0.00Your entry fee refunded: $0.00Total money refunded to your account: $0.00 We apologize for the inconvenience. The PokerStars Team