Making poker news headlines this week was word that Players Investment Company, more commonly known as PIC Club, had severed its relationship with the Merge Gaming Network. PIC Club CEO Chuck Kidd sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss the company’s formation and its compliance with U.S. law.
Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. For those unfamiliar with PIC Club, can you tell us what it is and how the company was formed?
Kidd: A group of players and I were customers of Hollywood Poker. I usually had a second screen up and running during my job and poker was entertainment for me. I wasn’t a movie watcher or a television watcher. Instead, poker was my form of entertainment. In October of 2006, when they came out with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), I took offense to that. I felt like they had stepped into my business. A week after the UIGEA passed, we got thrown out of Hollywood Poker.
My friends and I who played on a social basis had nowhere to go. I’m an old software geek and so I built a forum and a chat room. It was during that time that I contacted a Congressman and asked him to send me a copy of the UIGEA. I sat down and read through it with a couple of pretty smart business guys and realized that they hadn’t outlawed gambling, just the transfer of funds. It was also up to the banks to enforce it. On the very first page of the UIGEA, in its list of exclusions, there is a reference to trading companies. That put an interesting thought into my mind: what if we had a company that traded in poker? I found an international trading company called Ledvil for sale and we went and bought it. We’re licensed to trade everything from precious medals to durable goods.
PND: How does PIC Club avoid violating the UIGEA?
Kidd: We never violate the UIGEA. When you deposit money into a PIC Club account, you have an “available shares account,” which is money you can use to purchase shares in the pooled commodities we are currently trading in. We sell at the rate of $1/share. When you say you want to send money to DoylesRoom, for example, the player is actually buying shares of the pooled commodity that we will sell to DoylesRoom on your behalf and then DoylesRoom places money in an account for you to play in. At no point does a U.S.-based financial institution ever do business with an online poker site.
PND: Has the Federal Government ever approached you?
Kidd: They gave me the permits to operate and we just filed our taxes. We’re not doing anything against the law. To quote one of my sources, the Department of Justice is scratching their heads as to what to do with us and just ignores us for the time being. Last year, we paid out 10.5% interest to people who used PIC Club through their available shares account. The year before, we did 14.25%.
PND: Explain how the transfer of funds to an online poker site works.
Kidd: It’s all an electronic transaction. We are required by law to keep a copy of the certificates for shares. At the end of the day, we are transferring money for the poker industry, but we do it in such a way that we don’t violate UIGEA because we’re not transmitting money from a player to a site. We’re not like Neteller.
PND: How does PIC Club make money?
Kidd: We make money off poker rooms, not players. The processing costs are charged to the player, so when the money goes into PIC Club, it’s breakeven. When money goes to an online poker room, they pay me a percentage of every dollar. It’s pretty much the same fee for every site and I haven’t had to do much negotiating there.
PND: How can PIC Club help you manage your bankroll?
Kidd: You can see every dollar you have online at PIC Club rooms. You just push a button and your balance will be fed back to you. You can then choose to move money around as you see fit.
PND: What does the future hold for PIC Club?
Kidd: PIC Club will keep growing like it is. I’ve let it grow at a very nice pace. I’ve refused to compromise on my customer support. I was angered as anyone when I would call poker room support and be put on hold. I decided that would never happen at PIC Club. One of the things I’m proud of is that we’ve had online support since 2007 and our support has never been down for more than six hours. Personally, I am launching PokerProsNetwork.net. We’re putting a whole new spin on the idea of playing with pro players.
As the news is about the split of Merge and PIC-CLUB why run a piece of (for lack of a better description) advertising?
Is there any reason with having the chance to interview Chuck Kidd the following questions maybe weren’t asked.
How safe are poker players funds?
If withdrawing to PIC-CLUB now, what happens?
As these are classed as share certificates, is it shares poker players have or $$?
What should poker players on merge that use PIC-CLUB do, can they/should they withdraw using PIC-CLUB or not?
To say but a few, without even asking anyones reasons for the split, poker players I would think that use PIC-CLUB would like some reassurance to thier funds and not an advert imo.
Chuck Kidd and Pic Club should be be ashamed of the way they run a business. They have a customer support phone line and a live support on their web site yet they cannot answer question about anything dealing with withdrawals. Yet they have no problem taking your cash or your credit cards for deposits. 40 plus days is a crazy amount of time to wait on a withdrawal and no once can answer questions of why it is taking so long.