Merge owe us Money – November 6th, 2009
In mid-October a dispute between the Merge Poker Network and payment program PIC Club surfaced publicly and the relationship between the two organisations appears to have been in a downward spiral ever since.
Initially, PIC Club emailed its users notifying them that it was severing its relationship with Merge by mutual agreement but would welcome any individual poker venue on the network that wished to come to a seperate agreement with it. A week later Merge Poker CEO Anthony Taylor responded, claiming that Merge Poker had severed the relationship.
“To be clear, it was Merge Gaming, who served notice on our agreement with Pic Club,” Taylor said. He went further, saying: “The reasoning behind this is a matter of private record. Merge Gaming attempted to resolve the issue brought on by PIC Club, one of its principals, and one of its members, and without resolution, felt it was in the best interest of our customers to end this relationship immediately. “It is regrettable that I have to respond to the statements of the past week, but our hand has been forced. We’ve cancelled our agreement to protect our players, our network partners, and our reputation going forward.” I
n the latest development this week, PIC Club’s CEO Chuck Kidd, reignited the dispute with a claim that Merge Poker still owes his organisation $64 000 dating back to July this year. Taylor’s response should be interesting, as independent statistics from the Poker Scout site indicate that Merge’s player liquidity is diminishing. UPDATE: In the Merge Poker matter, the actual amount owed is $160 552.12, claims PIC CEO Chuck Kidd.
“The 64K was what PICClub was willing to deduct from their debt over a month ago to get Merge to settle and salvage the relationship. For those who have been speculating in the forums about the demise of PICCLUB without knowing the details of this issue and for all PICCLUB members who have been reading it. You can rest assured that your money and your trust in PICCLUB was never in jeopardy,” he added.
UPDATE 2: This week, Merge Poker’s CEO Anthony Taylor hinted that excessive PIC commissions on transactions at network online poker sites was at the root of the dispute between the two companies. Apparently a high roller player at several skins on the Merge network would make large deposits, play a relatively few hands, and then withdraw using the PIC Club facilities. Each time he did so, PIC levied its commission charges of 7 percent to merchants on all monies going in and 2 percent for players’ monies going out.
Merge took exception to this, and reports that in addition the player concerned may have made chargebacks. PIC apparently stood by its guns, pointing to the terms of its agreements with players and Merge, and the issue escalated from there.
