Closure of community forum silences continuous string of non-payment complaints at the ex- iPoker skin.
Gutshot’s indifference to previous customers and continued shifting of operations extends one of the most nomadic existences of all online poker sites.
Players with balances due have seen a lot of their complaints muffled in recent days with the takedown of the site’s member discussion forum.
Significant problems with the online version of the now defunct UK poker club, founded by Barry Martin, became public after allegations last spring and summer of no payment on withdrawal requests following its iPoker skin closure.
A second site, the Dutch PokerHuis Poker, was also acquired by Gutshot; its former players face similar problems.
Allegations posted last summer on the HendonMob forums included an e-mail exchange from an official at one of Gutshot’s present homes, Merge Network, noting that Gutshot’s cashier during its iPoker days had terminated its banking relationship with the site.
Nonethless, Merge continued with plans to accept Gutshot into its lineup of skins. Gutshot was also slated to open a site on the smaller Enet Poker Network, though promotion of the planned Enet site was halted in September.
Instead, Gutshot launched an alternate site on the fast fold-only Instadeal Network, best known under the Terminal Poker brand.
Gutshot has called its Instadeal skin “Rush Poker,” an apparently blatant imitation of the Full Tilt “Rush” brand. The Instadeal site does not yet list Gutshot as a partner skin.
Gutshot’s indifference to previous customers and continued shifting of operations extends one of the most nomadic existences of all online poker sites.
The online version of Gutshot began at Microgaming, where the site’s deal was terminated in September 2008 “following breaches by Gutshot Poker room of … standard operating rules.” From there, Gutshot jumped to the Cake Network, where it remained until its 2011 move to iPoker. In April 2012 it announced its departure from iPoker, and with Merge and Instadeal now its filling the gap.
Gutshot’s ownership has also undergone a change, if only cosmetic. Listings from its iPoker era showed the site being owned by Appollo Assets, Ltd., with Ben Slater, Lisa Martin and founder Barry Martin listed as directors at various times.
However, current site information shows Gutshot as being owned by Nucla N.V. Registration information for the company lists Barry Martin as owner, including a Willemstad, Curacao (formerly the Netherlands Antilles, in the Caribbean) address also used by Barry Martin.
The Gutshot site also bears an approval seal from the Curacao eGaming Licensing Authority, a regulatory body which on its own site advertises,
Quick issuance of eGaming License – within a few days and Annual costs of regulatory & compliance lowest of any jurisdiction.
However, the Gutshot site has encountered problems even with its Curacao registration, with a page at the Curacao-based gaminglicenses.com showing a listing for gutshot.com with the entry, “E-gaming license status: Suspended.”
