The furore around Lock Poker’s ban on some player-to-player fund transfers (see previous report) has prompted the Revolution Network skin to explain the reasons behind the decision.
The operator claims that a minority of players have been abusing the service, creating false accounts and trying to buy up other players’ account balances for as low as fifty cents in the dollar.
In one case cited by the operator it is alleged that a player posing as an affiliate was traced back to a large number of suspicious accounts linked to a syndicate.
The dangers of this sort of activity being perceived as money laundering, provoking enforcement action, are clear.
The “affiliate” tried to leverage his position to avoid the usual compulsory 1x play-through requirement and prioritise his withdrawals over those of legitimate players, the operator disclosed.
Apparently Lock Poker allows transferred funds to be cashed out, but only after rigorous inspection.
The operator has stressed that its motive is to curtail fraudulent and abusive player-to-player transfers in the interests of everyone involved. The fraudulent abuse of the facility is a potential danger to a service that is convenient and useful to ordinary, honest players in the industry, the operator points out.
In other sectors – notably sports betting – of the online gambling industry, many operators have already banned player-to-player transfers due to fraudsters and scammers taking advantage of the practice.
Playtech’s iPoker Network recently instituted a ban (see previous reports).