PokerRoom.com Reneges on Tournament Payouts

Online poker room, PokerRoom.com, has made a major blunder, one which, if not resolved, could severely damage its reputation in the internet gaming world.

On December 16, it held $20 + $2 Christmas tournament, called “The Big Christmas Tourney.” The information in the tournament lobby said that it was a $19,000 guaranteed tournament, meaning that no matter how many people registered (although most rooms do have a bare minimum requirement, generally a figure as low as 10 players), the prize pool would be at least $19,000. The prize pool could, of course, grow larger, if enough people play. Additionally, the winner would receive a high-definition television worth $2,000, second place would receive a PokerRoom home poker kit worth $489, and third through tenth would receive a travel poker kit worth $149. Only 265 people registered, producing a large overlay.

On Monday, December 18, the proverbial [something] hit the proverbial fan. Players who cashed in the tournament woke up to find out that PokerRoom.com had taken most or all of their winnings back. PokerRoom.com claimed that the tournament was never meant to be a $19,000 guaranteed tournament and that the “extra” prizes were supposed to be the only prizes. No cash was to be won at all.

Perhaps the most mind-boggling sub-fiasco in this entire fiasco involves that of the winner, who goes by the screen name “mvzander.” He won $3,829.81 and the television. PokerRoom.com removed $3,400 from his account. After posting his displeasure in PokerRoom.com’s message forum, a representative had the gall to say that he should be happy with a $2,000 television and $400. He continued to complain and PokerRoom.com finally made a bit of a concession, privately telling him that they would deposit $2,000 into his account. They did, and mvzander cashed out immediately.

As an interesting side note, they made no concessions, except for a measly $10 + $1 tournament ticket, to any other player who won money and had it taken away. In fact, those who referenced the deposit of $2,000 into mvzander’s account (he, himself, had made this information public knowledge) were told by PokerRoom.com that this never happened.

Over the last two days, mvzander has inquired with PokerRoom.com as to how he would go about receiving the television. They finally told him on December 22 that the $2,000 they returned to him was actually for the television, as opposed to a concession to try to appease him. So, now they are making him go buy his own television.

Again, to this point, no other players have received their prizes or any sort of cash concession.

Some people may argue that PokerRoom.com made an honest mistake and should not have to pay for it. In fact, a company representative tried to compare the situation to if a bank accidentally double deposited into a customer’s account. Of course, the bank would have the right to take back money that did not rightfully belong to the customer. Unfortunately, this is not an accurate analogy.

In the bank example, a customer would not reasonably expect to be able to keep the duplicate deposit. The customer knows it is not his. Same goes for if a store has a typo in an advertisement. Say, this same $2,000 television was advertised by a local store for $20 because two zeroes were accidentally omitted from the price. No reasonable person would think that the store was actually offering the item for $20 and would not be entitled to purchase the television for such an insanely low price.

In the PokerRoom.com case, while a $19,000 guaranteed prize pool is rather high for a $20 buy-in, it is not by any means unbelievable, especially for a special Christmas promotion. The prize information was displayed for days leading up to the tournament, during the tournament, and is even still displayed on PokerRoom.com’s website to this day.

Here is how the top ten finishers were (and are still) displayed in the tournament lobby at the close of the tournament (list reformatted for readability):

1. mvzander -- Real $3,829.81 and $2000 Flat Screen HDTV
2. creg27 -- Real $2,297.85 and PokerRoom Home Game Kit
3. Phillyho -- Real $1,531.90 and PokerRoom Travel Kit
4. Artie0001 -- Real $1,225.52 and PokerRoom Travel Kit
5. rumrunnerII -- Real $765.95 and PokerRoom Travel Kit
6. cluuthers -- Real $612.76 and PokerRoom Travel Kit
7. allinginge -- Real $459.57 and PokerRoom Travel Kit
8. DH0MINI -- Real $306.38 and PokerRoom Travel Kit
9. iosan -- Real $268.08 and PokerRoom Travel Kit
10. Fredda007 -- Real $191.48 and PokerRoom Travel Kit

There was no real reason for any players who happened upon this tournament to assume that the prize pool guarantee was an error. In fact, most who played only did so because of the guarantee. Most would not care to pay $22 just for the chance to win a television or some poker kit.

In addition, while the tournament is not described as a $19,000 guarantee on PokerRoom.com website, the television and poker kits are described as “Extra Prizes”. That page can be seen here:

https://www.pokerroom.com/main/page/promotions/seasons-greetings

Any reasonable person would assume that since the prizes are listed as “extra,” that they were to be awarded on top of any cash prizes. At the very least, the cash prizes would be standard awards for a $20 buy-in tourney. The fact that the tournament lobby advertised a $19,000 prize pool was a bonus. It wasn’t even as if PokerRoom.com caught the error during the tourney and changed the prize structure. The winners were paid according to the $19,000 guarantee and then had the money snatched from under their noses.

PokerRoom.com needs to rectify this error in judgment. The players had an honest and reasonable expectation as to what the prize pool was to be and what their winnings were. A blow to its reputation, a loss of potentially thousands of customers, and further damage to the general public’s perception of online gaming when the industry is having a hard enough time nowadays, is not worth a few thousand dollars.

Originally published December 22, 2006