After months of uncommunicative procrastination, and several attempts to short-change players on what they were owed the saga of PurePoker.com may at last be coming to an end.
PurePoker.com, a Futurebet-powered licensee abruptly closed without a by-your-leave, allegedly because the original owner had done a bunk. Players were left pretty much in the dark for weeks as behind-the-scenes negotiations between another licensee and Futurbet took place. Eventually a rather hard-ass businessman known only as *Pino* started telephoning players and offering them “settlements” for considerably less than they were owed. Not surprisingly, many turned this not-so-generous offer down and the issue escalated to the watchdog forums and continued to drag on.
This week InfoPowa and others received assurances from *Pino* that in private discussions all owed players had accepted unspecified payments subject to 4 conditions, which were not disclosed. This presumably means that Pino now operates PurePoker and that he has on board a happy and contented roll of players despite the unseemly time this mess has taken to sort out, and the regrettable attempts that were made to knock player demands southward.
Pino says that any player who has not been recompensed is welcome to email him at Pino@Purepoker.com. The following recent post is the only public statement to be issued:
“Notice to PurePoker.com customers.Pino has stepped in to help out all Purepoker customers. If you have an outstanding balance and have not yet been contacted send an email to Pino@purepoker.com. All players that had signed up and deposited funds prior to February 7th, 2006 may withdrawal at anytime. Players that signed up between February 7th and 17th will be paid out over the next 4 months with few conditions. Players that signed up after February 17th can also withdraw anytime.This agreement was only possible with help and co-operation of Futurebet Gaming Systems (the software provider). Futurebet has made a huge effort to get his issue resolved to everyones satisfaction.”
Without knowing what the *few conditions* are pertaining to the withdrawals (which presumably cover all monies in player accounts) it is difficult to assess the fairness of this offer, and the 4months of instalments will not appeal to everyone.
If Futurebet and Pino have met all the PurePoker obligations to the legitimately owed players (and time will soon enough tell if this is true) then the matter is clearly resolved, although the delays and attempts to bargain players down from what was owed to them will inevitably have damaged the PurePoker brand, and by association that of Futurebet too in our view.
That is purely the fault of management in not bringing this matter to a fair conclusion in a reasonable amount of time and with efficient and open communication.
Instead, we had players subjected to the stress of ignored emails, telephoned “take it or leave it” offers and attempts to reduce monies owed, all over many weeks without direct communication. That does little for trust, and trust is very important from a player perspective.
If the new ownership of PurePoker is smart, it will look after the remaining players and operate in an efficient and honest manner with timely payouts, solid communications and respect for the players.
If not….we wouldn’t bet on PurePoker’s chances of surviving too much longer.