11/4/09 - In mid-October a dispute between the Merge Poker Network and payment program PIC Club surfaced publicly and the relationship between the two organisations appears to have been in a downward spiral ever since.
Initially, PIC Club emailed its users notifying them that it was severing its relationship with Merge by mutual agreement but would welcome any individual poker venue on the network that wished to come to a seperate agreement with it.
A week later Merge Poker CEO Anthony Taylor responded, claiming that Merge Poker had severed the relationship. "To be clear, it was Merge Gaming, who served notice on our agreement with Pic Club," Taylor said.
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He went further, saying: "The reasoning behind this is a matter of private record. Merge Gaming attempted to resolve the issue brought on by PIC Club, one of its principals, and one of its members, and without resolution, felt it was in the best interest of our customers to end this relationship immediately.
"It is regrettable that I have to respond to the statements of the past week, but our hand has been forced. We've cancelled our agreement to protect our players, our network partners, and our reputation going forward."
In the latest development this week, PIC Club's CEO Chuck Kidd, reignited the dispute with a claim that Merge Poker still owes his organisation $64 000 dating back to July this year.
Taylor's response should be interesting, as independent statistics from the Poker Scout site indicate that Merge's player liquidity is diminishing.
