The owners behind Zagox Management, which acquired Juicy Stakes this week, appear to be a mystery to the online poker industry. The name of the company may have materialized out of thin air, but the people behind it seem to be legitimate, even without their identities being known to the gaming public.
US players that have been waiting 6-10 months for cashouts should not care what goes on behind the scenes. It is apparent that the previous ownership was not capable of processing payments in a timely manner. A new group stepping in can only be a positive.
Players waiting for Juicy Stakes cashouts seem to be uneasy about the situation due to bonus and withdrawal requests being canceled. Players clearing bonuses likely deposited after it was obvious that Juicy Stakes was paying US players in 6-10 months and players outside the US in 4 or more months. This was hardly a good situation and could only improve with outside help.
It is reasonable for players to be pessimistic. Some players fell for the Blanca Games sham at Cereus that was exposed after Black Friday. Unlike the shell game at Cereus, the Zagox Management group appears to be the real deal.
The fact that Intertops quickly merged its player pool with Juicy Stakes after news of the acquisition broke shows that both companies were already familiar with each other.
Intertops is the oldest online sports book in the world. Intertops took its first online wager in January 1996. The company knows how important that reputation is. In my opinion, there is virtually no chance that it would risk its business model, reputation, and claim to fame, by immediately attaching itself to Juicy Stakes if it was not convinced that a turnaround was in the works.
Pending Juicy Stakes withdrawal requests were immediately reversed when the takeover was announced. New US withdrawal requests are hit with a record $100 fee. Cash transfers, which are processed through Western Union, carry similar fees to ones offered by Intertops.
The gossip is running wild about the Juicy Stakes acquisition. It is hard to blame any player that is skeptical after the Cereus shell game, but it appears that this is the real deal. There seems to be a great chance that Juicy Stakes players found a bailout that will benefit all involved. At the very least, the situation is no worse off than it was before the announcement.
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