| Prima Poker is a network of poker sites. A lot of casinos (Golden Tiger, Gaming Club, Lucky Nugget, Royal Vegas, River Belle…the full list is here) share a poker room where people in the different casinos play against each other. While the casino takes care of small matters like cashouts, Prima Poker runs the main operations. Thus, while you sign up through say Gaming Club, in reality you are playing in the Prima Poker room.
I have played more and won more at the Prima Poker network than at any other poker room and have received every penny of what I won. However, many people including Mercy (the other editor of this website) have not recieved their money. Why do I blacklist this site? Simply because they banned my account unfairly and have banned many other people who have won a significant amount there. I know ten people there who play a lot, and nine have been banned at one point or another (three of those have gotten their accounts back). Also, while I received my money, some of those whose accounts were banned never received their money (and these were large amounts such as $12,000).
In short, my story is that I won a lot more one month than I had in previous months. The reason is that there were high stakes no-limit games going on much more often. I also had a good run of cards. At the beginning of the next month, I found out that my account was locked and after several weeks, my casino (Golden Tiger) informs me that it will remain closed forever because Prima suspects me of collusion.
Did I collude? No. Did Prima ever write to me or explain why they thought I was colluding? No. I tried contacting Prima, but it is next to impossible. The email support they list, support@primapoker.com, does not work. Golden Tiger was only able to talk to Prima briefly about my situation and could do nothing on my behalf (Golden Tiger wanted my account to stay open so they could continue getting my rake). I located Microgaming's (the company that owns Prima Poker) number but they were totally unhelpful and refused to give me any direct contact with anyone in the Prima Poker department. They told me to write to one person at Microgaming, who told me he would look into it and then never responded again.
One of the other people I know who was banned is Mercy, the other editor of this website. While I have received my money, Mercy has not recieved his! As of right now, Prima poker is illegitimately keeping his money - approximately $1,200. He was banned at the same time I was and was suspected of collusion. I have a strong suspicion that they think we were colluding because I have sent him money on Neteller to cover costs he has incurred when designing this site. It has been rumored that somehow Microgaming/Prima are able to get information about their client's Neteller accounts from Neteller. However, the idea that we would collude together is laughable since he and I have never played at the same table.
While I cannot prove this, I have a suspicion that Prima investigates people that win a lot at their site and are quick to close their accounts. Microgaming has the 'casino mentality' where they are distrustful of winners because they suspect they are cheating somehow. It is also in their interests to get rid of any big sharks from their site because every shark will probably bust 20 or so fish and reduce the number of games. Prima probably wants to become the next Party Poker (known for its easy games), and wants to avoid becoming the next Paradise (a large poker room that is now in the second tier because the games became so tough).
What is undeniable is that Prima truly holds all of the power, and it is impossible for the player to contact Prima in case there is a dispute between the player and the Prima management. I know this site better than any other sites, and I think it is very fishy that it is the only site I and those other eight people have had any problems with.
Furthermore, I kept in regular contact with Golden Tiger about my account. They were very displeased with Prima's decision too because they get a large share of the rake I generate (which is a lot because I play quite a bit at the higher stakes tables). One of the operators passively mentioned that there have been a lot of problems on the network recently.
However, in Mercy's case, Golden Tiger was very evasive. Although they accused him of collusion, at no point did Golden Tiger present any evidence of this alleged collusion (which is not surprising, since he did not engage in collusion.) They refused to provide any assistance to him in his attempts to contact Prima Poker directly. And although they continually promised to communicate with Prima and notify him of Prima's final decision within 24 hours, at no point was Mercy ever contacted by Golden Tiger or Prima afterwards, not even to inform him that his account money would be seized. These broken promises give me the impression that Golden Tiger did not act in good faith to resolve his dispute.
In short, I do not trust Prima Poker, and I think only a fool would trust a site that has banned many players and does not even have a working support email/phone number. In my opinion, Golden Tiger and the other Prima sites are not at all player-friendly, and you are taking significant risks by playing there.
Update 12/10/03 by Mercy: One day after posting this article on pokertips.org and some forums, I recieved a cashout into my neteller account. It looks like Golden Tiger ended up fighting for me after all. This makes things look a lot better for them, and I must say that in the end they did act in good faith to resolve the situation. However, my account remains permanantly locked, and I'll let the reader form his or her own judgment from the facts. TwoGun also recieved some additional information about the situation with his account. He writes: "Apparently, they did not suspect me of collusion. They suspected me of 'chip dumping,' but gave no details as of yet." |
HOME / POKER ROOM REVIEWS/ BLACKLISTED POKER SITES 
G-MEMBERS AREA
Bodog
Poker 