Another online poker room has closed its doors. This time, Fleet Street Games has announced that it will be shutting down operations effective next Friday, October 31st at 11:59pm. The subscription-based online poker site will maintain operations as normal until then. The reason given for the cessation of operations is the “chaotic economy;” Duplicate Poker announced its closure earlier this month for the same reason.
The statement posted on its website notifies Fleet Street Games customers of the shut down effective at the end of the month. It also states, “When FleetStreetGames closes, all unused paid membership fees will be refunded to your account. All of these funds and any winnings currently in your account can be cashed out via the website after the card room closes or can be used in part for purchasing discounted membership periods for PokerSchoolOnline. Until then you can use the cashier as normal.”
Players can request a withdrawal simply by logging in and visiting the “Cashier.” However, the site cautions, “Please note that cashouts are going to take longer than normal because the volume of cashouts is very high right now.” Fleet Street Games expects a two to four week turnaround time and all cashouts must be submitted by November 30th, giving players about one month from the date of closure to act. Normally, the site charges a $15 fee in order to process cashouts of less than $50. However, this fee is being waived.
Customers of Fleet Street Games will still be required to submit documentation to the site for any cashouts. The company explains what it plans to do with these following the closure: “All documents supplied to us are stored on our secured servers. This information will be used to send 1099 forms to both the IRS and to you. This will occur in January of 2009. Once we have processed your 1099 form, we will then delete the files from our system.”
The site’s poker training arm, Poker School Online, remains open for business. Memberships are $14.95 per month or $149.95 per year. Players with less than $15 remaining in their accounts will be awarded memberships in Poker School Online in lieu of a refund. In addition, Fleet Street Games is exploring an option that may allow players to exchange tokens for the room’s marquee $50,000 tournament for memberships to the online training site.
Membership in Fleet Street Games was $19.95 per month and $150,000 in tournaments were run. Earlier this month, Duplicate Poker stopped operations due to financial difficulties. A statement released by that company read, “Caught in the middle of the global financial situation, the company is not able to continue to provide service. We are a small victim of the global financial crisis.” Both Fleet Street Games and Duplicate Poker were considered to be legal online poker rooms in the United States. The former, like the World Poker Tour’s ClubWPT, is a subscription-based online poker room holding tournaments that require points for entry.
Meanwhile, ClubWPT is promoting six-man final tables that are being broadcast on Fox Sports Net on Sundays. Qualifiers for the tournament are members of ClubWPT. The WPT will also air its Season VII tournaments on FSN, although a date for their premiere has not yet been announced. WPT events will appear as part of a nationwide block of programming on Sunday nights.
So what do you do when this website promised to pay the $85 or so they owed you within 30
days .. responds to their email with promises to pay .. but hasn’t paid as of 1/14 5:44PM ???
Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info