Lock Poker Scandal Part 2

We wanted to complete our short 2 part series on the player and affiliate scams involving Lock Poker. As you can see in Lock Poker Scandals Part 1, In Lock poker’s brief history in the online poker world, they have had several major issues which call their ethics and security into question. AS we mentioned in the previous article, we recommend players and affiliates stay away from working with lock poker until all of these issues are played out (if then).

Lock Poker Takes Affiliate commission because he complained

This Lock Poker affiliate chose the CPA payment model. This means that the affiliate is paid a flat amount for each player that they refer once the player meets a predetermined rake requirement. If a referred player under a CPA affiliate plan turns out to be fraudulent player, the affiliate program would typically remove payment for this one player from the affiliate’s pay. This is done to prevent shady affiliates from creating fake player accounts in an attempt to steal commission.

Lock Poker’s affiliate program did not just deduct the commission from this one player; they deducted 11 times the amount of the commission. This means that not only did the affiliate lose the money from the fraud player; he lost the commission from ten other referred players that were legitimate.

This is not stated in Lock Poker’s affiliate terms and is not something any other affiliate program has been known to do in the past.

The affiliate tried contacting Lock Poker’s affiliate managers. The affiliate states that he was ignored. He eventually posted in a private forum at Poker Affiliate Listings. The consensus from other affiliates was that this was an honest mistake and that Lock Poker would correct it.

Lock Poker Responds (must read)

 They stated that this was not an error; the affiliate would lose 11 times the amount of one CPA from this player, a player the affiliate did not know. The only connection this player has to the affiliate is that they clicked on a link on the affiliate’s website.

Jennifer Larson, the founder and CEO of Lock Poker, discovered the public discussion of this commission theft. She contacted the affiliate in question with this email:

I am the owner and CEO of Lock and Revolution Gaming. It has been brought to my attention that you have been slamming us on the forums and just being overall disrespectful.

We consider all our partners as just that true partners. We would never go out into a public forum and disrespect you but we would work to resolve any issues.

Based on your actions we have decided to no longer work with you. Gerry and Shane have come to me on multiple occasions with the constants issues and just overall stress they feel when it comes to you and its just not the making of a healthy partnership.

We invest over 500K into affiliate marketing a month and regardless of any problems that may happen both parties are always looking for resolution. That does not appear to be what you are looking for at all.

Shane will make sure that all CPAs are paid in full on July 1st. Please remove us from your sites as we no longer wish to work with you.

Best,

Jennifer

After being ignored by Lock Poker’s affiliate support trying to resolve what was thought to be a mistake, this affiliate was banned from Lock Poker’s affiliate program. Even if the affiliate in question decided that they would no longer promote Lock Poker after this incident, they are certain to have many players that signed up through their websites that have never made a deposit.

If these players convert to real money players after July 1st, and many will, the affiliate will also lose commission from those players. This means that not only did Lock Poker steal what we believe is over $1000 from this affiliate, Lock Poker is also going to steal their potential future earnings.

The Lesson Learned?

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire! How many times have poker players seen this scenario play out?? If a room can’t deal with player issues, or affiliate issues then its a symptom of a much larger problem.

How often have you heard of player issues or affiliate issues with companies like PokerStars or Party Poker? Not too many (I don’t recall any issues in the last year or more) – The bottom line is that real companies know that their customers and their partners all want the same thing. An open and honest relationship, and one where everyone makes money. If there is an issue, fix it. If there is a problem, address it. Act like adults, and have some respect.