A payment processor is claiming that the Everleaf Gaming Network’s apparent efforts to repay their U.S. customers may be deceitful.
Everleaf shut down their gaming operations for U.S. customers in February following a letter from the Department of Homeland Security requesting that they do so. Since that time, the company has maintained a public stance to repay their U.S. players.
In a statement given two weeks following the closing of their U.S. operations, Everleaf reassured customers in saying:
Everleaf will no longer accept U.S. players. Nonetheless, Everleaf reiterates and wants to reassure all the effected players that all the funds will be refunded in full and the effected parties will be contacted in a short while accordingly.
Chuck Kidd, head of the Costa Rica-based payment processor PICCLUB which experience doing business in the U.S., has come forward to claim that Everleaf’s alleged efforts to repay players are disingenuous. In a statement to PokerFuse, Kidd claims that he, “made an offer directly to their CFO that if they wanted to pay US players, they could use PICCLUB.”
According to Kidd, Everleaf rebuffed his offer to use PICCLUB as a means for refunding U.S. players. He interpreted this to mean that Everleaf has no true intention of paying back their U.S. customers.
Kidd also claims that Causash Establishment, an Everleaf payment processor whose funds were seized by the government prior to the company’s decision to pull out of the U.S. market, was in fact not a payment processor at all. Kidd says that Causash was merely a bank account under Everleaf’s control and may not have existed as an independent corporate entity.
Shortly after Everleaf updated their terms and conditions to block U.S. players, the issuer of their gaming license, the Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta, imposed sanctions on the site for “irregularities in their operation”. The same gaming regulator has been in the news recently after another site once under their watch, Purple Lounge, abruptly closed its doors leaving customers to wonder about the state of their funds.
Some former U.S. customers of Everleaf have reported being able to process cashouts after opening a bank account in another country. This was one of three options suggested by Everleaf to U.S. players. The other two involved opening accounts at online wallets Neteller or Moneybookers to receive a cashout. Since neither of those companies service U.S. players, Kidd’s assertion that Everleaf holds no intention of repaying U.S. players seems to hold some weight.