Response to Subject Poker Article

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By now I'm sure most of you have read the Subject Poker article about Merge & the DOJ.  I have already responded in the comments of my last post but feel this matter deserves its own blog post.  After many discussions w/ people at Lock and others in the industry I have comiled some thoughts of myself and others & linked a couple articles.

Hey,

The opinions of some people at Lock are that the article was planted by a Merge competitor. If people panick & cashout of Merge many will go to competitors. There really isn't much there in the article. It never even states that the DOJ is trying to shut down any Merge sites. Rather, it says they are going after the processors. Sites have survived such actions in the past. The source has also confirmed he does not work for the DOJ & is a 2+2 poster. Again, we don't think there's any truth to the article.

The type of DOJ investigation that would lead to an indictment takes years to put together. If there was such an investigation it would have made more sense for the DOJ to indict Merge around the same time as the New York & Maryland indictments were unsealed. Waiting & delaying could only hurt their chances of a succesful prosecution & the chances of a large seizure of funds. Also, the fact that there was no leak of any information about the earlier indictments makes this leak even more unlikely. The only reason for somebody in the DOJ to leak such info would be to help poker players & alert them so that they could withdraw funds. If that is the person's attentions who allegedly leaked the Merge DOJ info then why didn't they leak anything before the indictments of the big 3? It just doesn't add up.

The publishers of the article probably thought they were doing the right thing & helping players. The problem is there was no way for them to really confirm the source aside from asking the DOJ, which they obviously weren't going to do. In reality the article likely just caused a bunch of panic withdrawals, which really doesn't even make sense because if the article were true on the time of DOJ actions the withdraw money would be seized before it reached the player. I have already stated I find the article to be false info, but even if it were true & they went after the processors then withdrawing would be the worst option as your money would be much safer on Merge.

There was also a quadjacks article in the summer claiming that Merge was going to be shut down by the DOJ in x amount of time.  Needless to say that timeframe passed and nothing happened.  The same will almost certainly happen this time. 

Lastly, here's a couple links that argue against the subjectpoker article:
http://pokernewsboy.com/poker-gossip/subjectpoker-uses-rumor-and-fear-mongering-in-their-report-on-the-merge-gaming-network/9253

http://pokernewsboy.com/poker-gossip/subjectpoker-uses-rumor-and-fear-mongering-in-their-report-on-the-merge-gaming-network/9253


Hopefully this instills more confidence in the players at Lock and other Merge sites. I think the passage of time absent any DOJ action will show the article to be false & lead players back.

For those that haven't read on my twitter, Lock now gives you double VIP points on Thursday & Friday!

Thanks & gl,
Hub