The check I received from The GamingClub Poker Room, as subsidiary of Bellrock Gaming, was deposited over one week ago. On Friday, late afternoon, Big Red notified me that the check had been "returned" and was not paid against my account. Let's recap...My $481.10 was removed from my GamingClub account, following my cashout (via check) request. It was approved. A check was cut from Web Trends LLC and sent to me for the full amount. I received it, and deposited it...and now it has been returned, with out me getting my money. So I spent a couple of turns on the phone with GamingClub's customer support. Let's see instead of recapping off the top of my head, let me just copy what I posted to the HPT forums, for all the world to see:

I'd like to apologize in advance to those of you who make it through to the end of this poorly concealed rant in the the form of a post to the HomePokerTourney Forums. I guess I'm just one of the statistics now... After Neteller pulled out, I started checking around to find an alternative, and wasn't entirely keen on the alternatives, BUT I started making choices about where I wanted to keep and leave money online. I opted to pull my money out of Gaming Club, mainly because I hadn't found myself playing there, or finding a good $oft $eat. So, I make a withdrawal through their currently prescribed method on the website a few weeks ago. I was notified that it had been approved and that a check was making its way to me for the full amount. I received a check from "Web Merchants LLC, dated 1/28/2007. Took it to my bank and deposited it. Today (over a week later) I was contacted by my bank and they informed me that the check had been returned twice now, not marked as NSF or anything, just refused. So, I log on to Gaming Club, find my account is at ZERO, so I contact them via their 800 number. Hey they even answered in less than a minute! This is a good sign. I spoke with a customer service rep who checked into things and said that he'd been informed that Web Merchants was no longer acting as a payment processor. So, he told me my only alternative was to provide my bank account information and routing number and they would transfer direct, instead. I needed the routing number so I told him I'd call back, he said I could even send it to them in an email. But 5 minutes later I got the information I needed, and opted to call them back. AND (I'm sure you see where this is going) I got someone else on the line this time. "Oh, no sir...as of YESTERDAY, we have been informed that there is no means to transfer funds to our U.S. customers. We will notify you when something becomes available." I told him I'd just been on the phone with someone else who told me otherwise, but he repeated his speech to me as if reading from the teleprompter. Yes, that's his "final answer!" So, next question, what do I need to do. "Oh sir, your money is safe with us." Well not exactly, was my response since my online balance at good ole Gaming Club is ZERO! And you say you've paid me but you haven't. So where does that leave us. "Let me put you on hold... Oh okay, sir, I will put in the order to have your Gaming Club account credited with the money that we can't ship to you." Gee what a pal. He started to hang up, but I caught him in time to say, "...and I can expect this deposit on...?" He assured me it would be there on Monday. Stay tuned here at HPT, we shall see.The part that really gets me here is this. Gaming Club asserted that No U.S, financial institution will "accept" money from them or any other online gaming establishment. So that would imply that the new law has swept the nation, and it is common knowledge in banking circles. Enter into the picture my wife (previously referred to as "Big Red" here in the forums)...the Member Services Rep at the Credit Union where we do all of our banking, or credit union-ing... She checks with the manager and told him what was being stated. He said that absolutely NO GUIDANCE has been issued to financial institutions about rejecting funds from online gaming establishments. The long and short of it was...if they want to make a transfer to your account with the routing number, we'll process it today. So as you can see we have ourselves a bit of a disagreement. I'm not saying anyone is trying to cheat me here, but the mass confusion and misinformation is just painful. Rather than call back and get into it with the Gaming Club Help Desk, and perfect my communication skills with the "English as a 2nd Language" reps, I opted to drop them an email with all my information. And for the time being have them to return my money to my gaming account, if they were unable to transfer to my bank account. If they get it back there, I'm going to try to do a direct bank transfer and see what happens.So, like I said before, stay tuned, I'll keep you all posted. And granted I'm only talking about $500 here, but it is still MY $500 and I worked hard for it. Ah, it seems like only yesterday that it was an initial deposit of $100, but my how it grew! But enough about memory lane. Anyone else in this boat? Any other oddball interactions with your online poker rooms? If so, I'd like to hear them. Or have at least somebody say..."I feel your pain." Remember the good ole days when a bad beat was just when some donkey hit his 2-outer on the river? I miss those days!I sincerely hope that your mileage has varied. Now, I'm half afraid to touch the remainder of my bankroll on UltimateBet, Bodog, and Noble. At least when Party pulled out, I was forewarned that I had 'x' number of days to vacate their premises.Anyway...thanks for listening. And yes this is the end of my rant!

Regards,

cheer_dad

So, you can see, it did not go well the second time around. SOOO, now I'm in a holding pattern. I'm waiting (unpatiently) on a reply to a nasty-gram email I sent to GamingClub Support. I doubt that it will be responded to at all. Hopefully, though, they can do what the first guy said and send me my money straight away. If not, then they'd better make good on this and at least CREDIT my account back the $481.10 I had in the first place. A tidy BONUS SUM should as well be in order. I would think!

Anyway, I'll keep things up-to-date. Mind you, if GamingClub makes all of this right for me, I will fully thank and acknowledge it here, in full public view.

In other news, several of us headed to Shuman's for the Friday night cash game. DANG, it is cold out there in the garage, even with the stove burnin'. I was there til after 2:00am. I doubled my $20 to $40. Unfortunately, Big Red got stuck for $30 for the night. JR on the other hand was a force of nature and cashed out for well over $100 for the night. That's how to play the game, now! I should have opted to leave earlier that night. I was exhausted and "shaky" the next day, well on into the evening. Had we made it home earlier, Big Red might have submitted to another Poker Night on Saturday! But it was my own stupid fault. SORRY DEAR!

Well another day here at work on a Sunday, is slowly coming to an end, much SOONER that we'd expected. :) and :(

Anyway you keep readin' and I'll keep bloggin'

Regards,

cheer_dad