Segregated accounts for player fundsPosted May 17, 2011 at 10:15 PM |
Just wanted to chime in about most online poker sites not segregating player funds from the company operating expenses. Listening to the show on May.11 it seemed as though Hollywood Dave was almost justifying the fact that many sites seem to be dipping into the player funds to use for operating expenses. It was like he thought it was just standard procedure that these sites would use player funds to grow the company. If this is actually the case, I would consider it stealing, plain and simple.
When I deposit money into a bank I do so knowing full well that the bank will lend out my money to others. By law a bank is allowed to lend out so many dollars for each dollar that is deposited. I even have to sign something when I open an account that says I understand this fact. For allowing the bank to lend out my money they pay me interest and my deposit is guaranteed by the government. Now, online poker sites are not banks. I may be wrong, but I believe it does not say anything in the Terms and Conditions that allows them to use the funds in my player account for other purposes. Keeping my money on an online poker site is akin to keeping my money in a box at the cage in the Bellagio. Again I'm not 100% sure on this but I don't think the Bellagio can "borrow" money from my box if they come up short on the electric bill this month. Can you imagine if at the board meeting the guy who runs the Bellagio said, "We've had a tough few years with the economy being in the shitter. People just aren't gambling as loosely as they used to. Now we're coming up a bit short on some of our operating expenses lately so here's what we're going to do. There are a number of casino patrons that keep a sum of money in our cage. Next month we will borrow money from some of those boxes to help pay our operating expenses. When things pick up again next month we will pay it back. If one of our patrons comes in to use money from their box before we have payed it back, we'll just borrow it from someone elses box. If we can just stay afloat during these hard times our patrons will really appreciate it in the future because we will still be here to serve them when all those other casinos have gone under."
Now if the online sites started to pay me interest on my account balance and the government guaranteed my deposits, I would be happy to have them use my money to pay for their electric bill. Until then though it's just plain stealing.
When I deposit money into a bank I do so knowing full well that the bank will lend out my money to others. By law a bank is allowed to lend out so many dollars for each dollar that is deposited. I even have to sign something when I open an account that says I understand this fact. For allowing the bank to lend out my money they pay me interest and my deposit is guaranteed by the government. Now, online poker sites are not banks. I may be wrong, but I believe it does not say anything in the Terms and Conditions that allows them to use the funds in my player account for other purposes. Keeping my money on an online poker site is akin to keeping my money in a box at the cage in the Bellagio. Again I'm not 100% sure on this but I don't think the Bellagio can "borrow" money from my box if they come up short on the electric bill this month. Can you imagine if at the board meeting the guy who runs the Bellagio said, "We've had a tough few years with the economy being in the shitter. People just aren't gambling as loosely as they used to. Now we're coming up a bit short on some of our operating expenses lately so here's what we're going to do. There are a number of casino patrons that keep a sum of money in our cage. Next month we will borrow money from some of those boxes to help pay our operating expenses. When things pick up again next month we will pay it back. If one of our patrons comes in to use money from their box before we have payed it back, we'll just borrow it from someone elses box. If we can just stay afloat during these hard times our patrons will really appreciate it in the future because we will still be here to serve them when all those other casinos have gone under."
Now if the online sites started to pay me interest on my account balance and the government guaranteed my deposits, I would be happy to have them use my money to pay for their electric bill. Until then though it's just plain stealing.
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