The Legal Battle of Online Poker Players

Jeff Lance and Chris Ferguson, the pioneers of online poker have been on the losing end of the stick for the past five years now. Jeff, as he is popularly known, was forced to sell his poker company EPIC Poker to a private equity firm because it couldn’t generate enough revenue. The online poker industry in general has been struggling ever since. And now Jeff Lance is going after online poker players who have made him a lot of money.

Jeff plans to sue thousands of online poker companies for money he says he’s owed. He has filed cases in both California and Pennsylvania with the possibility of having a judgement granted against the online poker companies in the next few months. While Jeff is not in possession of any proof of mismanagement by these companies, he’s using their dubious track records to force these companies to pay up. His case may be one of the most intriguing and complex that have ever reached a courtroom, but there is some serious legal issues involved.

Jeff’s latest move will upset many Judi bola online poker players who like him and want to continue playing at sites where they’re earning money. Most sites in fact are probably so small that they can’t afford to pay their bills if Jeff loses. They won’t be able to afford to pay his legal fees either, especially since they’ve been stung by the lawsuits of other players who have taken the big banks to court. In the worst case scenario, Jeff could be found to be a fraudulent gambler.

One thing’s for sure, Jeff and his lawsuit are not going to go away and we could see many more lawsuits from him or his companies in the future. The reason is that many sites have gotten lazy and haven’t been fighting back against rogue players. They have been trying to work with these sorts of people to simply get rid of them, but all it’s done is give players another option for playing online poker.

It’s now up to site owners to decide if they want to fight against a rogue player like Jeff or just play it safe and settle the legal mess out of court. But as online poker sites are limited in size they are going to have a hard time defending themselves in court. The question is do they even have a right to do that? Many argue that Jeff’s lawsuit is one of the largest in poker history because of the claims he makes against the online poker industry.

If Jeff is successful in his lawsuit, many online poker players who don’t want to play under his regime may find their way to other sites where they can play for fun. What is sad is that he’s making them even less money than they are now since they will play at an online poker site that doesn’t have any money on the line. They’ll lose that money to a player who has earned it instead of paying Jeff to play for them.

For site owners this is the right thing to do. For Jeff, who is a whiny little guy who doesn’t care about anyone but himself, he will take the money and run. With no real proof and the poker sites running scared, it looks like Jeff and his lawsuit are going to make some companies a lot of money.

Some serious legal issues are brewing. With poker sites that don’t have the resources to defend themselves, they’ll have to settle. For Jeff, it could be a very long four years or so.

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