There's a lot of evidence to indicate that Lock is broke.

- Segregation of cash game players
- Segregation of tournaments
- Cancellations of cashouts, especially large ones
- Extremely slow non-US payouts, despite all other sites being able to pay quickly
- Non-payment of skins
- Refusal to allow their finances to be audited, even if someone else pays for the audit

However, there is one piece of evidence that is arguably bigger than all of the above combined, and I don't feel it's getting enough discussion:

- Lock has been almost completely silent about the situation, and is willfully allowing its reputation to hit rock bottom.

This is the strongest piece of evidence that all -- or at least most -- of the assumptions about Lock are 100% true.

Lock has spent a LOT of money on marketing. Let me count the ways:

- They've taken out lots of expensive print ads in poker magazines

- They've paid for a lot of expensive spots on 2+2 and other high-traffic websites

- They have hired a LOT of pros, paid them well, and have taken them on expensive yearly retreats

Needless to say, Lock has put a lot of money into growing their site.

In just a matter of weeks, Lock has gone from a shady-looking but still viable site into a spiraling mess of scandal, controversy, innuendo, and hatred.

Not surprisingly, their traffic is rapidly dwindling, and their loyal players are leaving in droves. Two site pros have already quit due to the ongoing scandals, and I'm sure more will follow.

If all of the allegations are true, this makes sense. If Lock is broke, they can't just invent money where it doesn't exist. If they can't process cashouts right now (due to having no money), they can't just reinstate the unfairly-canceled payouts, as they will have no money to pay these people. If they can't reinstate the payouts, they also can't communicate a clear transfer/cashout policy, as it would immediately raise questions as to why the canceled cashouts have not been reinstated. If they are insolvent, they cannot agree to an audit that will show they are healthy. If they are busto or close to it, they can't talk about their expensive Portugal trip without looking even worse than they already do.

Lock CEO Jennifer Larson might not be cut out to run a medium-sized online poker room, but she's not an idiot. She sees what's happening to her company. She sees the walls crashing down around her. She sees that all of the money spent on marketing, lavish pro retreats, and everywhere else is about to go down the toilet. If there were a rational explanation to put a stop to all of this, she would have presented that long ago.

It is said that an innocent man wants to shout his innocence from the mountaintops and wants all circumstances closely examined, while a guilty man stays quiet and tries to find ways to suppress the ability to investigate.

This is definitely the case here. Lock has no reason to stay quiet. They have no reason to be unable to communicate a simple policy regarding transferred money. They have no reason to leave cashouts canceled for weeks that should rightfully be reinstated. They have no reason to not bend over backwards to pay non-US players in any way possible, even if they are supposedly having problems with one payout method.

But they do have a reason. That reason is insolvency.

To all Lock defenders, please answer the following:

1) WHY has Lock been unable to directly state the cashout policy regarding transfers, and WHY have they not been able to communicate this policy to the 5 or so customer service reps answering e-mail. You might say, "Lock is incompetent with customer service", but do you really believe that incompetence is the answer for 3 weeks of failing to address this simple, while the site literally burns to the ground? Do you really think your boss Jennifer is that stupid?

2) WHY have the canceled cashouts not been reinstated? It takes about 5 minutes per account to do this. It has been 3 weeks. Given the importance of this issue, why wouldn't Lock invest a few hours and solve this?

3) WHY are all cashout methods for non-US players so slow? We heard the excuse about Skrill and their supposed limits. But why is every single method of payout so slow? If you want to blame it on the "backlog" caused by these supposed mass cashouts by shady affiliates, have you seen a single piece of evidence to support this?

4) WHY did Lock promise a new 2+2 rep to replace Shane, but this individual dropped one terrible and useless post, and completely vanished? Does your company not care to address all of these very serious matters on the world's biggest poker forum? How can you explain this other than an inability to answer questions truthfully, and a further inability to sell convincing lies?

5) WHY is the Portugal trip still being covered up? We all know it happened. There can no longer be excuses about "unwanted guests" crashing the event, since it's finished. Yet every single attendee of the event is under strict orders not to talk about it. Why is that, if the trip was not taken with player funds? What is there to hide?

6) WHY have we not heard any statements yet from Jennifer Larson herself? It seems that Lock only communicates through low-level slugs, so this way they can blame the messenger if their statements are proven to be untrue. Can you explain why Jennifer has not agreed to any interviews by an unbiased third party?

7) WHY does Lock refuse to answer questions about the Girah scandal, two years after-the-fact? They were caught being complicit in one of their own pros cheating a major contest. We have never received sufficient answers about this. There is no lawsuit filed anywhere. WHY can't we get closure here?

8) WHY doesn't Lock attempt to satisfy the 2+2 community, in order to get their high-producing ads back on the site? Does Lock hate money? Or do they realize they can't satisfy the community with lies and obfuscation?


The answer is simple.

Lock realizes that it is impossible to answer the tough questions. Their lies have been taken apart and destroyed. There is no way out of this mess other than to stay silent for a few weeks, gather a few bucks together, start paying a few cashouts in June, and hope that Father Time heals all of the wounds.

They know that we can't go on discussing this forever. Eventually, we will lose interest. Eventually, there won't be anything new. Sure, there will be a few diehards that won't let it drop, but much like UB, most people will move past it and forget about it.

Lock is trying to get a few cashouts going, by way of robbing Peter to pay Paul, to give the impression that everything is A-OK, and hopes everything else will fall into place.

Even the pros posting here seem to have the same message: "Wait a few weeks, cashouts will start again, and all will be good! You'll see!"

The silence is really the key here. Lock isn't answering us because they can't answer.

Remember that when a few people start receiving payouts next month.