Betholdem won't give back your money [Archive]

KAT21

10-13-2006, 08:06 PM

There was a statement before that betholdem was staying. Now that statement is gone and they won't allow any withdrawals. Here is the chat excerpt.

Shenell Roberts: Welcome to Live Chat Support, I am your Customer Service Representative, how may I assist you?
ME: I am unable to withdraw my funds?
Shenell Roberts: This means that, until further notice, it will not be possible for US residents to place wagers or make deposits on, or make withdrawals from, any website owned or operated by any company in the Betcorp group. This account freeze will remain in place until such time as Betcorp has fully assessed its legal position.
ME: They knew this was going to happen and said nothing would change, now they are stealing my money because I trusted them?
Shenell Roberts: Kevin the bill was sign unknowing to us sir.

What???????

brendanb438

10-13-2006, 08:12 PM

They arent stealing shiat. Calm down and deep breaths... BetCorp is just doing what SportingBet PLC and some other sites did, they are selling their US clients to a private firm to continue business as usual. 3 groups are looking into buying this. The law was signed after normal London Banking hours so they can't offical finish a sale until Monday. This will be back to normal Monday.

-Brendan

KAT21

10-13-2006, 08:19 PM

What makes you think this. And if that were true why would they stop people from withdrawing? This is going to lose more customers in my opinion.

brendanb438

10-13-2006, 08:25 PM

Sure gonna upset and lose some customers. Do a search and you will see this is what is going on. They are a publically traded company and they had to freeze accounts until the US portion can be turned back into a private company. They have a committment to their shareholders which includes running what they see as a legal business. They are blocking withdraws because of the way their servers are setup and with us going into a weekend. Would you rather they let you request a cashout while all hell is breaking lose and this get lost or sent to the wrong place, or wait for things to settle down Monday and get your cashout correctly processed?

-Brendan

Zele

10-13-2006, 08:27 PM

I agree this approach is really bad customer relations. I doubt they have any intention of stealing anyone's money, but they should know that players are going to freak out if there's any ambiguity, and the withdrawal freeze combined with the crypic messages people are getting are causing about as much ambiguity as possible.

ASmith84

10-13-2006, 08:42 PM

[censored].. I put in a withdrawal request on WEDNESDAY and somehow I got hit by this even though all of my past withdrawals have taken ~24 hours.

ericicecream

10-13-2006, 08:51 PM

StellarWind

10-13-2006, 09:42 PM

[ QUOTE ]
And if that were true why would they stop people from withdrawing?

[/ QUOTE ]
Perhaps they are technically unable to prevent deposits while allowing withdrawals. They seem to have changed plans very abruptly. It's hardly a secret that their cashier software is not the most sophisticated in the world.

I'm not happy at all about this, but this is a troubled time for everyone. I'll give them a few days grace before I get upset about not being able to withdraw.

Your Mom

10-13-2006, 10:11 PM

I am letting their live chat guy have it right now. I'll post it in a bit.

bcubed72

10-13-2006, 10:29 PM

[ QUOTE ]
They are a publically traded company and they had to freeze accounts until the US portion can be turned back into a private company. They have a committment to their shareholders which includes running what they see as a legal business.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because of the fact that all the sites willing to stick it out seem to be privately held...is it possible that institutional investors (IRAs, pension funds and the like) have a proviso that they cannot invest in companies that are in violation of law? Could that be a possible reason why they shut off US business? Maybe all thier big investors bailing out at once is scarier than losing the majority of their business?

StellarWind

10-13-2006, 11:52 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe all thier big investors bailing out at once is scarier than losing the majority of their business?

[/ QUOTE ]
The only thing a big investor (aka "stockholder") can do is sell his shares to someone else. Not exactly reason for panic IMO.

Institutions selling may depress share prices temporarily while stock is redistributed to less sensitive investors. But if the business has value this will only be a temporary phase.

On the other hand, destroying your business by abruptly dumping most of your customers and ceasing marketing to your #1 market can have a distinctly permanent impact on all shareholders.

DeliciousBass

10-14-2006, 12:08 AM

[ QUOTE ]
They arent stealing shiat. Calm down and deep breaths... BetCorp is just doing what SportingBet PLC and some other sites did, they are selling their US clients to a private firm to continue business as usual. 3 groups are looking into buying this. The law was signed after normal London Banking hours so they can't offical finish a sale until Monday. This will be back to normal Monday.

-Brendan

[/ QUOTE ]

Classic.

And in other news; Citibank is refusing to allow its US customers to withdraw money from their accounts. A spokesperson for Citibank stated, "Everyone should just calm down. On Monday morning we'll have been sold to Bank of America and business will resume as usual."

The spokesperson had no comment on the thousands already lining up to empty their accounts come Monday. "Business as usual" appears to mean "No business at all". It appears as though many unaffected Europeans are also closing their accounts. When asked why, Diektric Haagenberg remarked, "Are you serious?"

KAT21

10-14-2006, 12:17 AM

Whatever, it seems to me they purposely mislead people before the bill was signed. Then they tried to claim they didn't know about the bill. Very shady.

Your Mom

10-14-2006, 12:23 AM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
They arent stealing shiat. Calm down and deep breaths... BetCorp is just doing what SportingBet PLC and some other sites did, they are selling their US clients to a private firm to continue business as usual. 3 groups are looking into buying this. The law was signed after normal London Banking hours so they can't offical finish a sale until Monday. This will be back to normal Monday.

-Brendan

[/ QUOTE ]

Classic.

And in other news; Citibank is refusing to allow its US customers to withdraw money from their accounts. A spokesperson for Citibank stated, "Everyone should just calm down. On Monday morning we'll have been sold to Bank of America and business will resume as usual."

The spokesperson had no comment on the thousands already lining up to empty their accounts come Monday. "Business as usual" appears to mean "No business at all". It appears as though many unaffected Europeans are also closing their accounts. When asked why, Diektric Haagenberg remarked, "Are you serious?"

[/ QUOTE ]

This is my exact point in my chat conversation with them.

KAT21

10-14-2006, 12:25 AM

LOL, at least they are allowed to empty their accounts

westmt01

10-14-2006, 12:36 AM

I'm an equity analyst, and I can tell you if any fund manager (i.e. mutual fund, hedge fund, private MM, etc.) had a proviso in his/her investment policy stating they could not invest in companies that are in violaion of the law, every fund/portfolio/account would be empty. Just about every company, at one point or another, makes a business decision to violate/disregard a law.

The sites that are temporarily blocking withdrawals are almost certainly waiting for the dust to settle, and for their lawyers to come up with some legal opinions on how this is all going to play out. I serious doubt any reputable site is going to steal your money. I would just be patient.

That being said, I also don't buy for a minute this "business as usual" nonsense. The US Gov't is serious about blocking funding to these sites, and while there will be a number of enterprising individuals who will get around the new regs, none of the fish will bother. Internet poker will be drastically different until the gov't wakes up and regulates the industry; I believe they will one day reach the conclusion that this is best for everyone. But it won't happen quickly, IMHO.

In the meantime, don't panic. I seriously doubt you're not going to get your money.

mikeh1975

10-14-2006, 01:01 AM

ok here is a way to ease your anger.....
imagine bill frist(the retard who passed this bill) is in front of you and he is saying "whatcha gonna do about it big boy huh?" once you imagine this just go flat out and knock the nearest wall with the biggest hole that would make mike tyson proud.then exhale take a deep breath and repeat......

westmt01

10-14-2006, 01:09 AM

How is me shattering every bone in my hand going to make me feel better?

westmt01

10-14-2006, 01:11 AM

Lose SOME customers? That's like saying e-coli will cause SOME people to stop eating spinach.

mikeh1975

10-14-2006, 01:12 AM

i'm wondering the same thing.i just imagined that wall was mr. frist and i pounded that sucker into twisted pulp.now how am i gonna pay for that wall.i got it! i'll just win it back online.shiat but how do i know for sure i'd get my money if i wanted.everywhere i turn there the bastard is impeeding my progress.

MLSchaff

10-16-2006, 01:14 PM

Just speculation here, but I noticed when I opened Bet Holdem this morning that the promos running in the right side box are now 123Poker's promos, not the old Bet Holdem ones. They are both BetWWTS sites.

As Brendan said above, it looks like they are doing a sale of the US customer base to a private entity. My speculation is that one site (Bet Holdem or 123Poker) will be private and serve US customers and the other will remain with BetWWTS and serve non-US customers.

Just speculation here. There is supposed to be an announcement of some kind today.

Edited:

Here is a link to the announcement that was posted on the Betcorp website.

http://www.betcorp.com.au/admin/upload/2FE71DBE-4C04-4974-9050-258228272558.pdf

It wasn't posted on Bet Holdem's website, which I'm not happy about as it seems they are now trying to hide the info.

The important part of the announcement is that withdrawals are still frozen, and they expect to announce something further WITHIN 10 DAYS.

Looks like it will be a while before we see our money.

MrWookie

10-16-2006, 01:33 PM

Hell. I want my money out of there if I can't play with it.

Little_Luck

10-16-2006, 01:47 PM

I w/d before the act was signed and they refused to process it. They were a very reputable group in the past, it is a shame they were willing to throw it all away like this. Chances are we will get paid, when they finally sell it to the bidder in the room with a dollar in his pocket. After they pay us and try to do, "business as usual", I hope everyone realizes that they could be screwed over next and stops doing business with them.

tmfs

10-16-2006, 08:54 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I w/d before the act was signed and they refused to process it. They were a very reputable group in the past, it is a shame they were willing to throw it all away like this. Chances are we will get paid, when they finally sell it to the bidder in the room with a dollar in his pocket. After they pay us and try to do, "business as usual", I hope everyone realizes that they could be screwed over next and stops doing business with them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I also requested a w/d right when the act was signed and they gave me the run around until they eventually froze my account with close to 6 figures in it. I'm not to worried about getting the money, but I can gaurentee they will never recieve another dime from me once I'm able to get my money.