5050Poker Suspended by LGA - Financial Problems Surface

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The license of 5050Poker has been suspended by The Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta (LGA) recently, and has set up a procedure, following which players might be able to cash their bankrolls out of 5050Poker.

LGA suspends 5050Poker's license

LGA issued 5050Poker's license, but recently it has been suspended. Furthermore, the company announced they are initiating legal action against 5050Poker to facilitate the release of player funds. For players who still have money with 5050Poker need to send an email to LGA.

LGA's press release:

"The Lotteries and Gaming Authority hereby notifies that the remote gaming  licence LGA/CL3/337/2007 held by 5050 Poker Limited has been suspended as of 27th June 2012.

5050 Poker Limited operated a Class 3 licence (for Poker)  through URL www.5050poker.com
Other types of games offered through www.5050poker.com are not licensed by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority.

Players who deem to have any outstanding payments due to them on the mentioned licence are to send an email to omplaints@lga.org.mt">complaints@lga.org.mt and should submit the following information:

1. Name and Surname
2. Registered Address
3. Date of Birth
4. Certified True Copy of Passport, or ID Card or Driving Licence (by email or post)
5. Telephone Number
6. User Name
7. Amount of Claim of Balance or pending Cash Out
8. Screenshot of Balance or any Cash Out's pending (if not available estimated balance)

The Lotteries and Gaming Authority notifies that no further information shall be released at this stage in order not to compromise any investigations that may need to be performed."

Rakerace.com strongly advises that all its players who have money with 5050Poker send an email to LGA as it is described above.

Microgaming is renewing its services this summer, and the changes were highly criticised by 5050Poker, whose representatives deemed them discriminative. Such modifications include a new, True Value rake method and a new rule that would allow players to only play at two tables at a time. 5050Poker stated they cannot operate under such negative circumstances, and started analyze the financial status of the company.

Judging from the situtation, it might be possible that 5050Poker did not hold players' funds on a separate account, and might repeat Full Tilt Poker's or Purple Lounge's case.

Microgaming issued a press release that stated the network cuts its ties with 5050Poker. They argue that the poker room did not pay his debts towards the network, which violated their contract.

According to most recent news, 1,704 players played at 5050Poker in the last 3 months, who had a total of 5,7 million swedish kroner (around $790,000) on their poker accounts. Currently 5050Poker's accound holds around 7 million SEK ($970,000), which would be enough to pay all the players' funds back, however, it is not sure the repayment is the first priority considering the room's debts.

LGA has constantly been criticised because of their behaviour, not being able to enforce the points of the license they issued. LGA also issued licenses for Purple Lounge, currently under liquidation.