August 2012 Cashout Report by PokerAffiliateSolutions: Lock Poker gets C-, Cake gets D-

[Dan Druff]

http://www.pokeraffiliatesolutions.c...ng-report.html

Lock Poker C-
Lock Poker continues to struggle with their new network. There are many complaints about support and cashout issues. Lock Poker offers players cash transfers and checks by courier. Cash transfers arrive in 7-10 days and carry a 10% fee. Checks arrive in 4-7 weeks but arrive from a foreign bank. Players are reporting holds of up to a month to clear these checks making the true wait 2-3 months. There is a $25 fee per check. Players receive one free cash transfer and check per month. Bank wires are still an option but are experiencing delays to many players so I suggest a cash transfer or check.

Cake Poker D-
Cake Poker, once the flagship of their own network, continues to experience serious delays with their U.S. payment processing. Cake Poker offers only checks by courier for U.S. players. Checks may be requested up to $3000 and are taking 4-5 months to arrive. The player does not pay a fee for these checks.

Both of these sites are on the Revolution Gaming Network.

Cake is a fucking disaster, taking 4-5 months to get cashouts! I personally experienced this last year.

Lock is sending foreign checks which need 2-10 weeks to clear. The check is frozen in your bank's system while this is done, so you can't access the money. These checks also take 4-7 weeks to arrive, according to the report. I guess you can do a Western Union type withdrawal, but get dinged with a 10% fee, which is horrendous for large cashouts.

You should avoid both of these sites.

[Steve-O]

http://www.pokeraffiliatesolutions.c...ng-report.html

Lock Poker C-
Lock Poker continues to struggle with their new network. There are many complaints about support and cashout issues. Lock Poker offers players cash transfers and checks by courier. Cash transfers arrive in 7-10 days and carry a 10% fee. Checks arrive in 4-7 weeks but arrive from a foreign bank. Players are reporting holds of up to a month to clear these checks making the true wait 2-3 months. There is a $25 fee per check. Players receive one free cash transfer and check per month. Bank wires are still an option but are experiencing delays to many players so I suggest a cash transfer or check.

Cake Poker D-
Cake Poker, once the flagship of their own network, continues to experience serious delays with their U.S. payment processing. Cake Poker offers only checks by courier for U.S. players. Checks may be requested up to $3000 and are taking 4-5 months to arrive. The player does not pay a fee for these checks.

Both of these sites are on the Revolution Gaming Network.

Cake is a fucking disaster, taking 4-5 months to get cashouts! I personally experienced this last year.

Lock is sending foreign checks which need 2-10 weeks to clear. The check is frozen in your bank's system while this is done, so you can't access the money. These checks also take 4-7 weeks to arrive, according to the report. I guess you can do a Western Union type withdrawal, but get dinged with a 10% fee, which is horrendous for large cashouts.

You should avoid both of these sites.

Question: How accurate is this site considering they call Cake Poker the flagship of their own network? I mean they have three separate rooms from the Revolution Network (Cake, Red Star, and Lock) all with different ratings, B+, C-, and D-...... And the month before they have Lock at B- with 4-6 (instead of 4-7) week checks??? Don't get their rankings at all.

Also your summary is erroneous, lock is taking 4-7 weeks to process checks and up to another month to clear; there is no mention of 2-10 weeks.

From my own understanding the only fast, reliable, US method at the moment are the debit cards from ACR

[Dan Druff]

http://www.pokeraffiliatesolutions.c...ng-report.html




Both of these sites are on the Revolution Gaming Network.

Cake is a fucking disaster, taking 4-5 months to get cashouts! I personally experienced this last year.

Lock is sending foreign checks which need 2-10 weeks to clear. The check is frozen in your bank's system while this is done, so you can't access the money. These checks also take 4-7 weeks to arrive, according to the report. I guess you can do a Western Union type withdrawal, but get dinged with a 10% fee, which is horrendous for large cashouts.

You should avoid both of these sites.

Question: How accurate is this site considering they call Cake Poker the flagship of their own network? I mean they have three separate rooms from the Revolution Network (Cake, Red Star, and Lock) all with different ratings, B+, C-, and D-...... And the month before they have Lock at B- with 4-6 (instead of 4-7) week checks??? Don't get their rankings at all.

Also your summary is erroneous, lock is taking 4-7 weeks to process checks and up to another month to clear; there is no mention of 2-10 weeks.

From my own understanding the only fast, reliable, US method at the moment are the debit cards from ACR

You misread what they wrote about Cake. They said it was "once the flagship of their own network", which is a true statement.

The letter grades are not really relevant, as those are very subjective.

The hard numbers regarding cashout fees, speeds, and availability are much more important.

My summary of Lock is correct. The process of clearing foreign checks is known as "collections". Each bank handles collections differently. Some do only take a month, while others take up to 10 weeks. For example, Bank of America reports their collections process to take "3-8 weeks".

I actually dealt with this issue myself about 5 years ago. A certain poker network was sending checks based out of a foreign bank, but backed by Citibank. Despite Citibank's backing, I found that all other banks were refusing to take these checks without putting them through the collections process. Wells Fargo, for example, wanted to make me wait 6-8 weeks, while Washington Mutual wanted me to wait 6-10 weeks. I refused to wait this long, and instead opened a Citibank account just for the purpose of depositing those checks. Citibank did not make me wait any time, because they were the backers of those checks.

It sounds like the checks Lock is sending out have no US bank backing them, so they always go to collections. Again, this is bank-dependent. If most people are getting them clearing in a month, that's great, but you can't take for granted that it might take longer.

In general, sending foreign checks (without a US bank backing them) has been considered a huge no-no in the online poker industry, even after Black Friday. It's because of this collections situation.

It sounds like Bovada, Merge, ACR, and Red Star all have significantly better cashout situations right now than Cake or Lock.

[Steve-O]

Question: How accurate is this site considering they call Cake Poker the flagship of their own network? I mean they have three separate rooms from the Revolution Network (Cake, Red Star, and Lock) all with different ratings, B+, C-, and D-...... And the month before they have Lock at B- with 4-6 (instead of 4-7) week checks??? Don't get their rankings at all.

Also your summary is erroneous, lock is taking 4-7 weeks to process checks and up to another month to clear; there is no mention of 2-10 weeks.

From my own understanding the only fast, reliable, US method at the moment are the debit cards from ACR

You misread what they wrote about Cake. They said it was "once the flagship of their own network", which is a true statement.

The letter grades are not really relevant, as those are very subjective.

The hard numbers regarding cashout fees, speeds, and availability are much more important.

My summary of Lock is correct. The process of clearing foreign checks is known as "collections". Each bank handles collections differently. Some do only take a month, while others take up to 10 weeks. For example, Bank of America reports their collections process to take "3-8 weeks".

I actually dealt with this issue myself about 5 years ago. A certain poker network was sending checks based out of a foreign bank, but backed by Citibank. Despite Citibank's backing, I found that all other banks were refusing to take these checks without putting them through the collections process. Wells Fargo, for example, wanted to make me wait 6-8 weeks, while Washington Mutual wanted me to wait 6-10 weeks. I refused to wait this long, and instead opened a Citibank account just for the purpose of depositing those checks. Citibank did not make me wait any time, because they were the backers of those checks.

It sounds like the checks Lock is sending out have no US bank backing them, so they always go to collections. Again, this is bank-dependent. If most people are getting them clearing in a month, that's great, but you can't take for granted that it might take longer.

In general, sending foreign checks (without a US bank backing them) has been considered a huge no-no in the online poker industry, even after Black Friday. It's because of this collections situation.

It sounds like Bovada, Merge, ACR, and Red Star all have significantly better cashout situations right now than Cake or Lock.

#1 -- Yes, definitely missed the "once" in the first read-through.

#2 -- I know how checks work believe it or not. Point is you are quoting numbers and then conjecturing with your own experiences. you seem to be taking the worst case scenario from the numbers they gave plus your own experiences from years ago.

#3 -- Red Star is a Revolution skin??? Unless I'm missing something this makes no sense.

#4 -- FT checks (not that they present a good model) came from foreign banks to me pre-Black Friday (my wait was usally like three to five days before they cleared)

[Dan Druff]

You misread what they wrote about Cake. They said it was "once the flagship of their own network", which is a true statement.

The letter grades are not really relevant, as those are very subjective.

The hard numbers regarding cashout fees, speeds, and availability are much more important.

My summary of Lock is correct. The process of clearing foreign checks is known as "collections". Each bank handles collections differently. Some do only take a month, while others take up to 10 weeks. For example, Bank of America reports their collections process to take "3-8 weeks".

I actually dealt with this issue myself about 5 years ago. A certain poker network was sending checks based out of a foreign bank, but backed by Citibank. Despite Citibank's backing, I found that all other banks were refusing to take these checks without putting them through the collections process. Wells Fargo, for example, wanted to make me wait 6-8 weeks, while Washington Mutual wanted me to wait 6-10 weeks. I refused to wait this long, and instead opened a Citibank account just for the purpose of depositing those checks. Citibank did not make me wait any time, because they were the backers of those checks.

It sounds like the checks Lock is sending out have no US bank backing them, so they always go to collections. Again, this is bank-dependent. If most people are getting them clearing in a month, that's great, but you can't take for granted that it might take longer.

In general, sending foreign checks (without a US bank backing them) has been considered a huge no-no in the online poker industry, even after Black Friday. It's because of this collections situation.

It sounds like Bovada, Merge, ACR, and Red Star all have significantly better cashout situations right now than Cake or Lock.

#1 -- Yes, definitely missed the "once" in the first read-through.

#2 -- I know how checks work believe it or not. Point is you are quoting numbers and then conjecturing with your own experiences. you seem to be taking the worst case scenario from the numbers they gave plus your own experiences from years ago.

#3 -- Red Star is a Revolution skin??? Unless I'm missing something this makes no sense.

#4 -- FT checks (not that they present a good model) came from foreign banks to me pre-Black Friday (my wait was usally like three to five days before they cleared)

#2 - No, my worst-case scenario would be 10 weeks. I said 2-10 weeks, which gives a range from the best to the worst.

#3 - I don't know much about Red Star. Here's what the article said: "Red Star Poker, once a standalone poker room catering to Russian players, is one of the original members of the Cake Poker Network. That network became the Revolution Gaming Network earlier this year." I read that as Red Star being a Revolution skin, but maybe I'm wrong.

#4 - If your FT checks cleared in 3-5 days, they were likely backed by a US bank and you didn't realize it. It is highly unusual for the collections process to take 3-5 days. Usually if it clears that quickly, the check is backed by a US bank or the check is below the amount to where the bank worries about it (an amount that differs for each bank and customer). For example, I could deposit a foreign check under $100 into any of my banks and not be subject to the lengthy collections process. I am not sure of the amount of your checks, but I have a feeling they were large enough to be collections-bound, but weren't because they were backed by Citibank or something else in the US.

[Dan Druff]

Please tell me that you at least agree that Cake's cashout situation right now is horrendous, and that Lock's is also substantially worse than their competitors at the moment (though not nearly as bad as Cake's).