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My online poker company refuses to send me my winnings. What can I do? Any thoughts?

I won't mention any names, but I play poker on one of the top 3, possibly top 2 online poker sites in the world and I finally have a fairly substantial cashout after years of playing without ever making a cashout. It may not be much by most players standards, but its over a thousand dollars and thats a heck of a lot of money to me. So after jumping through hoops attempting to verify my personal ID and bank account information in order to be approved to receive my cashout in the form of a check ( instead of one of the 4 or 5 other "options" they offer, non of which I find very trustworthy ), they have informed me out of the blue that they have closed my account. I was expecting the email to say something more along the lines of "your cashout has been approved and please allow 15 days for delivery". Needless to say I was very surprised. Then my surprise turned to anger when the follow up email said they are "seizing all of my funds" due to collusion with another player. I feel Im being nothing short of robbed since Ive never done anything remotely close to what they are accusing me of. This other player they are referring to and I are indeed friends, we have played at tables together in the past, maybe 8 to 10 times out of friendly competition yet never to work together to win any money ( as Im certain records would indicate it would be very very rare to find he or I finishing in the top 3 during any of those 8 to 10 games, mostly because neither of us are very good players I guess ). Heres the part that upsets me the most. Im certain it has been well over a year, closer to two years since he and I have found ourselves on the same table either intentionally or by accident. I find it EXTREMELY ironic that they decide only now to close my account; 3 days after requesting a cashout and nearly 2 years after sitting at the same table with the player they accuse me of somehow cheating with. Our play at the same table together is obviously something they have had record of since the last time he and I have played together, like I said, well over a year- closer to two years ago. Yet they never said anything about it to me until now and gladly took deposit after deposit after deposit from me, only now raising an issue 3 days after requesting my first cashout. Heres the problem I immediately find myself in at first glance: Online poker seems to still be operating in the wild wild west even though its been around for several years now. Its not something I can solve by simply having my attorney send a threatening letter or whatever. All the legal implications seem to reside in whatever dark shadow of a country they operate in. I feel like I am at a loss for any kind of defense to what they are accusing me of. And thats a terrible feeling, particularly knowing I have done nothing wrong. I plan on requesting records of the games he and I have played in together in and requesting proof of the outcome to prove he and I made virtually NO MONEY at any table we have both been sitting at together. But if they decide to ignore me, then Im at a loss of what to do next. Regardless, I was at 0 dollars in my account a month ago and now have over 1,000; all of these winnings being achieved in the past 30 days while the wrongdoing they are accusing me of took place a very long time ago. Should I not at least be entitled to my winnings of the past 30 days, even if they want me to refund any money I may have made while playing with this other player? That only seems fair. Does anyone know of an agency which may loosely govern the online poker community which may give me some assistance in this matter? Is there anyone I can turn to for help? If not, can anyone refer me to a players organization or websites where I can share my experience and expose these people as criminals assuming they dont have a change of heart and listen to my appeals in the next few days. THANK YOU VERY MUCH YAHOO COMMUNITY FOR ANY HELP WITH THIS ISSUE!!!! I want to make sure this issue gets resolved and equally as importantly, I want to make sure this doesnt happen to anyone else. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions they would like to share with me off the record, or has any ideas as to how I can really get even with these people ( even though that will be my last plan of attack, after I have finally thrown in the towel and admitted defeat to something I am being wrongly accused of ) please please please send me an email at ronjon9000@yahoo.com and share your thoughts with me.

Public Comments

1. wow you write alot
2. The Nevada Gaming Commission enforces the pl... wait. Ohhh... ONLINE poker? Oh, you're fcuked.
3. killurselfimmed.com
4. heres the thing...the poker site you play for is illegal in the u.s theres no way of retreieving your funds, you cant get any legal help well mainly because its illegal to begin with these poker sites are all ran in other countries that pretty much dont give a crap if there ran...and once they nab you for "working with another player" thats a wrap, i had a friend that happend to as well, and he also claimes his innocence however he was out over 2 grand, cut ur losses and play for another site or just stop all together
5. Your only move is to continue to email them about this. Address the collusion. Proving that you weren't cheating is the only thing that can save you. They reserve all rights, but they have been known to make mistakes in these cases. However, especially if it's Pokerstars, fulltilt, bodog, absolutepoker, or UB, they are usually accurate when they accuse people of collusion. Their only fault is that they are sometimes overcautious. Question everything about it though. Call them up to talk about it if you can. Dispute as much of it as you can. It's also possible that you aren't aware that something you were doing was under the category of collusion, and in that case, you may be able to get them to understand that you didn't know and won't do it again. Good luck.
6. sorry dude, cant help you. i play the old fashioned way, a couple of beers and some take-out. i never saw online as a viable way to make money...these places operate from "overseas" and have access to your cash? you'll wind up wasting $4000 to get $2000 back?
7. First ask them to e-mail you all the hands that they have flagged, then send me the hands i could have a look for you, also any e-mails they have sent you would help. I think, not 100% sure but if they can prove you have been cheating they can take all your funds without notice even if the accusation of when you cheated were at a different time. I could look at the t's and c's but i need to know which site it is, have they seized your funds until an investigation has been made or have they already done one.
8. Eh, if you already cheated them in the past they were probably just hoping you'd keep losing money and then as soon as you wanted to cash out they'd cancel your account. Probably shouldn't have cheated in the 1st place
9. Depends which online poker company. IF you are with a big one like partypoker or pokerstars you might be able to explain yourself as they arent going to ruin there repuation over $1000. Otherwise if you are with less well know poker company then you are screwed