Lock Poker Opens Own Forum, Tries to Control Message

Lock Poker's slow swirl toward extinction continued this weekend with an impromptu announcement that the site was discontinuing its traditional forum-based support, and instead shifting its public Q&A to a private forum maintained by Lock itself.  The kicker?  In order to gain access to the forum, one has to be a paying customer of the site, having already generated a reported $100 or more in rake just to take part.

The first news of Lock "abandoning" its paid 2+2 forum came from a piece at prominent Lock affiliate and faux poker news site Gambling 911.  We won't offer a link to the piece by the pseudonymous "Ace King" of G911 fame (who is generally regarded to be G911 CEO Chris Costigan's forefingers) but the following excerpt says it all:

"The new forum will help player issues get resolved much quicker as members will be linked to their actual poker account. This will also serve to eliminate so-called 'trolling' and really allow Lock to deal with true player concerns. There is a min GGR requirement for those looking to participate on the new forum."

"Trolling," as defined in the piece, must be the act of publicly asking Lock to account for their actions and statements, including cashouts worldwide stretching well past six months in many cases, and the resignation of a handful of their paid pros after Lock CEO Jen Larson convened an extravagant European retreat a few months back.

Another line from the G911 piece: "The company has decided to close their sponsored forum on the TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum and develop a solution of their own."  Well, yeah, after the forum was suspended by 2+2 over the voluminous complaints about the site, and the blatant lies offered there by Lock's designated PR guy, Shane Bridges.

Speaking of Bridges, he'll be heading up the new, private forum, where he'll be joined by -- you guessed it -- G911's Costigan, who is the head of this same site that published a fluffball of an interview with Larson just a couple of months back.

While this is a classic example of running away from the serious questions Lock continues to face and creating a controlled venue for image and brand manipulation, there is a bright side for knowledgeable consumers: At least several of the rotten eggs have been gathered into a single basket.  Non-paying poker sites and fake news sites that continue to promote them out to be treated with the same sort of disdain.