Thank you for stepping up to the plate and giving an explanation, its appreciated. Converting current balances to credits is a nice good will gesture BUT does not answer or help the main underlying issue of non payments on withdrawals since Feb.
Cole: And of course we understand this. The biggest issue facing us through all this time was, being a startup, we were not able to guarantee any volume apart from what we had to pay at the time. This made it very difficult for us to even get an account. We still have not been able to recover the amounts sent which never arrived. It becomes increasingly difficult to ask our investor group to put up money to pay players when the money already put up is still in limbo supposedly waiting for the reserve periods to end before we can get it back.
If players do stick around on the subscription model, can you guarantee they will get their winnings and what exactly are they playing for?
Cole: Please keep in mind that we are doing something we have not seen anyone do in a very long time. We have decided to stick around and weather this storm and believe we can come out stronger for doing so. Other outfits have closed for less. I think the fact that we are still going ahead should help us show our guarantee in getting everyone taken care of. What we cannot guarantee at this point is the when. Which is frustrating for us just as much as it is for the player involved.
What they are playing for; We're trying to build a model from scratch which can serve the purpose of real poker play to the player, where players can get paid based on performance within the site. But we are also trying to keep clear of falling into sweepstakes laws. Our attorneys believe they can come up with the right combination, but too early to tell since they have not finished their evaluation. We're trying to fall in the middle of Zynga and Membership sweepstakes sites.
How does poker rebel plan on generating revenue to pay existing withdrawals, when the existing player base will not deposit to fund? New players to the site are needed to pay the subscription fee but many players affected by the recent changes would prefer to recommend
carbon poker and even
juicy stakes over poker rebel as the other two rooms pay up (slowly but pay).
Cole: We are not waiting to generate cash to pay. It's mostly been about acquiring the channel and not the cash. We believe the site is going to be successful or would not be continuing, we like the new model, we think it will generate a steady growth rate in the near future. We completely understand that present players will need to be taken care of before we can expect them to recommend us, but also know that when they do finally get taken care of, they will be happy to at least acknowledge the fact that we may have taken an extremely long time to make good on our obligations, but came through in the end. That would be good enough for us. Also, keep in mind that my appearance here has not been with the intention of getting anyone to promote our site, I merely feel that it is time you guys get some answers and assurances. So here I am.
If word of mouth is out, the other option is affiliates who would if brought in the majority of your player base. Issue there is that we have not been paid either and now the affiliate section is locked.
Cole: The affiliate section is closed until the new model is integrated. Any affiliate having a balance will see their balance upon reopening. The same I said for players, I'll say for any affiliates. I understand there have been many frustrations to deal with, but if we pay everyone next month, I am sure people will again, at least acknowledge our tenacity. At least, it is what is keeping us going. Trust me, closing down would have been much easier. This that we are doing, is much tougher, but in my mind, very worth it. You will be paid, again, it's the when I can't say today.
Without affiliates and good player comments, what is the strategy?
Obviously the strategy is to exploit new avenues of reaching new players, and offering a game the likes of which has not been seen. We don't believe that this incident counts as a scandal, or even registers on the scandal scale. For example, compared to the scandal of Ultimate Bet a few years ago where they were found to have a client which could see all the player cards. Our issues are relatively minute in comparison and encompass a very limited number of people. We believe that the new model will have a much wider audience that will be interested in playing. Our integration into Facebook will eventually pay off, our new ability to market in non gambling media will also pay off.
On another note, once we get the opinion from our attorneys on how to give away cash and prizes without falling into the sweepstakes category, finding a channel to pay should be much simpler.
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