I just had my Empire account closed for no apparent reason other than I haven't played there in the last few months except when playing the very few bonuses they had. No explanation as to exactly why but I am banned. I guess they don't want any bonus chasers playing there anymore. Here is the email I received. It seems pretty final. Wondering if anyone else has received one of these lately. I honestly don't see how it benefits them to ban players since they do get their rake when I play regardless of whether it is on a bonus or not.

"Thank you for contacting customer support.

Please note that your balance of $461 were transferred to your Neteller account. As far as the closure of your account please note that it was due to Management decision and it is not reversible in any case."

and this is bad because now you have to make a new account and get all the bonuses all over again?

That is frightening.

Please keep us updated on this, and any attempts you make to set up another account.

My Empire account was also closed today, with no explanation at all other than it was an "irreversible management decision".

I had no money in my account and had not played since the last reload bonus (mid-April).

yeah, my account was closed. i wrote about this in another forum.


basically, it was suspended, and i received an email from pay pro that i needed to contact them. when i did, they told me that to have a party and empire account, you need to have special permission from empire to allow it. therefore, write an email to empire to ask to have it unlocked and to allow access.


i received the following email after writing empire:

Dear patient77,

Thank you for contacting customer support.

We regret to inform you that this account has been closed due to Management decision and cannot be reversed in any case.

If you have any more concerns please feel free to contact us.

Best regards,

Marina
Empire Poker
Players Club
Customer Support Team
www.ep.com


when i was on the phone with pay pro, they were telling me that everyone who has an account at both sites will be receiving an email. whether this is true or not, i have no idea, but if you have problems logging into empire, you know why now.



patient77

mine's also closed
I just sent them an angry email saying that i've been a customer for 2 years and it is very unprofessional of them to close my account for no reason.I aslo stated that i would post warnings in all the poker forums i visit to warn existing players and possible new players of thier actions.

I am working on pokernow reload this week and i wonder if this is somehow connected. A few friends of mine also have empire and party accounts but didn't get this email.They also DID NOT do the pokernow reload.Is this the same story with others????

I haven't started the pokernow reload yet. But I was working on the party reload.

I'm not that concerned about the account being close at Empire since they have so few reloads. What I am worried is that Party may pull some stupid stunt like this and leave me without a real reload outlet. And with my weekly deposit I stand to lose a lot if I can't cash out my player points.

well, mine was closed, but the wife and dad's were not (yet). All have done both the party AND poker now reloads. As for empire not having frequent reloads, havent they been monthly like party has lately? This is concerning since many of us have had both for a 1-2 years now. Oh well, I knew the gravy train would end eventually.

JP

It's a bit strange, though - what would Empire stand to gain from closing down all these long-term accounts? The whole Party/Empire connection doesn't make a lot of sense, since it is Empire that is losing all their customers, not Party. Empire is an independent business, so I can't imagine them being happy about losing a chunk of their userbase because "Party said so".

I almost wonder if they are just taking advantage of this situation to dump some "loser" accounts that have been costing them money come every bonus cycle, especially from the .5/1 and 1/2 players that are never paying as much rake as they are receiving in bonus money. Or is there a common connection, such as affiliate, to explain this?

I haven't received any emails from them, and I also haven't logged into my account in a few weeks. Almost scared to at this point... I might just lay low for awhile on that account, or try logging into the account elsewhere to doublecheck it.

Why do you believe Empire doesn't want to get rid of these account? Parasites that only play when there is a reload bonus and cash out right afterwards (often with multiple accounts) have zero value to Empire.

I would expect Party to follow rather than Empire to back down.

Actually, my post was more of a "thinking out loud" session about what the value in closing the accounts was. I'm starting to think more and more that this has NOTHING to do with having an account at both skins, which is what was originally conjectured. It makes little business sense for Empire (an independent business) to be closing accounts on their site because people have an account already at Party.

It's starting to look more and more like they are going after bonus chasers.

Caught this thread at 2+2 where an affiliate had his account switched from CPA (cost per acquisition) to MGR (monthly gross revenue). Here's the text from his post (bold text is from me); in case it gets deleted (2+2 is very picky about affiliate stuff in their forums):



Seems to tie in more and more to the if you are whoring them to death and they are losing money on your account, they are going to close your account. Never thought the poker sites would reach this point, but it looks like they are going to be like the casinos - if you only hit them for bonuses, they will eventually just close you down.

Call me paranoid, I've always left my funds in account a minimum of 5 days after I clear a bonus at a Party site. After which I will play 100 hands and then cash out.

Hopefully I dont get my account closed

now i'm getting worried...I just tried to make a deposit into my party account and it wouldn't accept my neteller.anyone else with a newly closed empire account want to give try??

No problem but I went in the back door directly to their web site. Didn't work for Empire. I was currious if I could slip into my account bypassing the poker site itself. No such luck.

I guess it's time to open an account for my wife.

So far no problems with Empire...but I did have a big hassle with Party wanting to verify my wife and I are two seperate people even though we did this already over a year ago..she even had to change email accounts with them. They asked her far more questions than should have been necessary....hopefully that is the end of it.

Yeah - my guess is that they will look at the generated rake, take off bonsues and if it is negative over a long period, close the account. We always knew this day would come, I mean it makes sense, sites were always going to stop giving bonuses where they are not recupping at least an equal amount in rake.

I've been careful to make sure that Empire is always in credit, cos I've got a rakeback deal (which also makes it easy to track); Party might be another matter , but I played a lot without bonsues in the early days so I'm hoping that will offset the recent whoring. I expect my Pokernow account to disappear at some point.

BTW what is CPA?

Basically, a flat fee per user you get signed up with a site, as versus sharing in the amount of rake they generate for the site.

Ah - thanks

I just got this email yesterday. Guess I'll call and see what happens. Fortunately for me, I've found casino bonuses to be much more profitable and have really cut back on poker anyways. But it still could be the start of a dsisturbing trend.

hmm weird, i have an account at all four sites with my same name and address, i havent gotten anything yet

im so nervous about depositing into pokernow right now though..

No e-mails for me yet either... still - this is worrysome, as I am pretty much relying on Party skins and Cryptos currently. Haven't expanded into many more sites - but I guess that could be thought of as a positive thing as well (having many options left, if some doors are starting to get closed).

Wonder if it would be more profitable to just whore away at Empire until they close it, or actually try to be stealthy from now on, and give the site some non-bonus-related action and leave some money in there from time to time...

Hmm, though since PT tells me I make profits on the poker, I guess it couldn't hurt to play there some. Will try to log on and see if everything seems ok, once I finish up the PokerNOW reload, I guess...

Sorry for you guys who are already shut down. I fear I'll join you soon enough, unless I'm too small-time for them to bother with.

Another one bites the dust here ,they shut my account down today.
Threw me some piece of garbage about not being an active player and "other suspicious activity" .....

Screw the Empire...lets join the rebel alliance

Nothing for me...YET. Though I have had money in there before just because I played their MTT's.

There are enough other sites out there that I'm certainly not going to sweat the loss of Empire. I'm more concerned about OTHER Party skins doing the same thing than anything. If Empire stands alone in this, then so be it. I think they'll end up regretting the move in the long run as they'll lose quite a lot of their player base.

Just curious, to those who are having their accounts closed.

What limit do you play at?

I've been whoring the Party network since about Decemeber, I dont understand why I havent been shutdown yet.