Resolution of the Stars investigation.

[Sandra Bullett]

[ QUOTE ]
"Please tell me you have something more, Lieutenant.."

[/ QUOTE ]

G1 grjr

PS. If you have any pictures of Jack naked (sigh), pls post those too.

[train.]

[ QUOTE ]
1) 100% correct. My mother's account was NOT active for 43 straight hours. Jeff's email said that the security measure they had in place initially identified that time period as having been 43 straight hours, and he simply made a mistake when he investigated in more detail.


[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Have they actually stated where the mistake was made? Have they acknowledged that, no, your mom didn't play for 43 straight hours , on several occasions.


[/ QUOTE ]

I see that my reading comprehension sucks.

[MattSuspect]

My only question is why the club? [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Nathan Kim]

"The real issue, of course, is not a 55-year old mom's ultimate vindication and ability to continue playing very low limit hold'em games. But rather it's the implications for serious players like myself who play high stakes poker at Stars, and those who post on the 2+2 boards, many of whom even make their living from online poker. I'm not exaggerating when I say that it scares us that one day we may find ourselves on the receiving end of a security investigation without having done anything wrong, and have a poker site act as judge, jury, and executioner, the only reason for which being an investigations team who has misinterpreted data and steadfastly refuses to re-examine it. In short, it's not this issue in isolation that calls for a response, but rather the broader implications for us, your loyal player base."


BIG [censored] PROBLEM and Stars needs to at least post something here to reassure some of us. I know I'm a bit worried about this issue.

[ColdCaller]

[ QUOTE ]
Why hasn't ColdCaller posted in this thread yet, oh why?

[/ QUOTE ]

Because I was out tonight.

That said, good job Teddy. All I said is that critical information is lacking and the whole story wasn't being presented. I also said that Teddy was slightly misleading, which he was. I never brought his integrity into question, only that there was significant information lacking in the story.

I also came down on Stars for their ridiculous representatives speaking from an all-mighty tone. Regardless of the outcome (say Teddy's mom WAS a bot), that is absolutely no way to treat a customer. Having worked in customer service, every time you send an email or make a phone call, you just imagine that such correspondence will be shared with everyone in the world.

That usually keeps you in check.

[ColdCaller]

In fact, I dug up the old thread, and one of my more "damning" comments is here:

[ QUOTE ]
I think he's not telling the whole truth. If he posts the emails in full with the disclosed evidence, then we'll be a lot closer to seeing the truth. If I'm wrong about him not telling the whole story, then I'll gladly eat crow, but I would be willing to bet $10,000 that I'm not.

[/ QUOTE ]

At the time of that posting, Teddy had not fully disclosed the entire story.

I also said that PokerStars wouldn't throw someone off the site for playing by-the-book poker, and no evidence has come to light that this was the issue.

I don't see where I'm in the wrong here. Regardless, again, Teddy, congratulations (I guess?) and thanks for keeping us updated. I hope that the public voice 2+2 could give you helped in the situation, though I know your mom doesn't really care - hopefully she understands the importance of it on all of us.

[Soul Rebel]

Teddy - You did us all a great service by handling this issue so well. The implications of mistakes like this from a site as reputable as poker stars are huge, and less care in handling this would not have brought the attention that the issue deserves. As someone who makes a living from this, just want to say thanks.

[krazyace5]

ColdCaller=biggest nit ever

[Cry Me A River]

IMHO Stars could turn this into a huge PR win.

Online Poker is going through some growing pains, and one of the big problems is credibility - From ZeeJustin to security issues to arbitrary management rulings. The US Govt's anti-online gambling legislations cites in part exactly this kinds of "above the law with no recourse" potential for abuse as justification for banning the whole industry.

Stars could be an industry leader in addressing this pro-actively by implementing an Ombusman's office which would act as an intermediate between players and management while remaining independant. Someone outside Stars with credibility to represent players - Someone like Casinomeister or someone who has already been down this road like TeddyFBI (Who I'm sure will appreciate being volunteered [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]). Alternately, this could somehow be an elected position or positions from amongst Star's userbase to represent players through direct democratic action though I have no idea the scope or logistics of such a thing.

Many corporations, governements, goverment departments, police, military, etc have similar oversight offices which act independantly or quasi-independently to foreward or investigate complaints. To my knowledge, no Poker site has anything resembling this and implementing such an office would could be a tremendous step foreward in credibility and accountability.

It's disturbing to think that this incident could happen to any one of us at any time. While there is some comfort in knowing that posting to 2+2 can frequently achieve these kinds of results, it's just as disturbing to think that there is no official mechanism to address these issues, just the clamour of the masses...

[Terry]

Glad to hear it turned out well for Mom and Teddy. It's also good news that Jeff is no longer considered faultless by his colleagues.

PS: I'm 57 and unattached. I don't look like Jack Nicholson but quite a few people have claimed I'm a dead ringer for Jeremy Irons. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]