Partypoker has decided to step up its game and bring more security to its offer. According to the latest news, the company’s parent entity, GVC Holdings, has brushed up on their player fund protection status, taking it all the way to ‘Medium’ and hinting at a possible sponsorship on the cards.
Partypoker’s History of Player Fund Protection Weakness
Partypoker has not suffered a hit to its reputation in years, even after respectable poker outlets uncovered problems with the company’s offer, particularly in the player fund protection provisos listed on the website. Pokerfuse, one of the noteworthy outlets of the poker reporting world, has identified the problem first and the rest of the media quickly piled on.
Apart from doing traditional reporting, the outlet actually decided to examine how well online poker operators have been protecting the funds of their clients by carefully scrutinizing every offer.
After sufficient time and analysis spent on the job, Pokerfuse pronounced itself against the protection system used by partypoker which quickly merited the operator some unwanted attention. Based on laws in the United Kingdom, there are three types of player fund protection that an operator can focus on. Those are ‘Basic’, ‘Medium’, and of course ‘High’.
Strikingly, partypoker’s own level of protection was couched in ‘Basic’ terms, which left it open to abuse both from the operator, but also from ill-meaning third parties. The case deserved the parent company, GVC Holdings, to step in and quickly beef up the offer all the way up to ‘Medium’.
Following a number of important partnerships, GVC Holdings are loathe to be seen as a company that doesn’t take the necessary pains to protect its customers.
Mending Fences, Fixing the TOC
Following the latest changes to the Terms & Agreement (TOC) policy, a spokesperson from GVC commented for Pokerfuse explaining that the issues have been solved to reflect a better customer fund protection.
The player funds, as specified by the official statement, were held in a segregated bank account and all the conditions for obtaining ‘Medium level of protection’ have been now met.
In plain words, if the company becomes incapable of meeting its own financial responsibilities, it will still be able to pay out the money that have been caught up in the legal bickering.
An ideal situation would be to set up an independent legal entity, however, GVC has informed media outlets that such a major move would be beyond the capabilities of the company at the present moment, and separating the funds instead would have to suffice for the time being. Meanwhile, GVC has been expanding its financial results at a commendable pace.
Not a Buzz Kill at All
The actions taken by Pokerfuse quite clearly indicate how investigative journalism can work in the world of poker, using the publicly available resources. What the outlet did there was not just peruse the Terms and Conditions of the operator.
They actually approached the subject with legal knowledge and understanding of how a business runs, including implications for customers in specific scenario.
Partypoker’s quick reaction is also an indication that the big operators respect quality journalism done right and are more than willing to make amendments over any particular aspect of their offer that may be seen as putting customers at risk.
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