Effective immediately, SealsWithClubs will cease providing Bitcoin poker and will be shutting down all operations except to allow player funds to be withdrawn for a limited period of time. SealsWithClubs is, and has been, completely solvent up to this point in operations.
WE URGE ALL PLAYERS TO WITHDRAW THEIR FUNDS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. PLAYERS SHOULD CEASE ALL ACTIVITY TO THEIR ACCOUNT DEPOSIT ADDRESSSES NOW.
On approximately February 11th, 2015, several events occurred related to operational security that we consider to indicate SealsWithClubs now operates in a perpetual state of jeopardy. We will not divulge details publically, but they may come to light if any team member chooses to come forward of their own volition at a later date. All player funds and data remain intact and the issue was not software related. We do not believe any of our Bitcoin wallets used in operations to be compromised or lost. However, this event has made the majority vote of the ownership and team agree that shutting down operations is the best move for safety and security purposes.
SealsWithClubs Chairman, Bryan Micon, would like to carry forward the business with his own team (currently settling in Antigua) but the majority ownership cannot guarantee the future security, solvency, and integrity of that operation because there will be no administrative oversight carried over from SealsWithClubs. Members of the SealsWithClubs team and ownership are not ones to lightly endorse anything, not even our own longstanding trustworthy team members, which is why nobody ever makes a sole decision. This dynamic has saved the business several times throughout the years. With Micon operating on his own with his own team, the checks and balances we have kept in place against one another internally for 3+ years will have been removed.
As the majority ownership & team will not go forward with operations but Micon is still in a position to do so, it makes the most sense to hand off assets to Micon in order to enable him to provide to our players the best Bitcoin poker experience he can. Micon has been extremely enthusiastic and dedicated to SealsWithClubs for longer than any member of SealsWithClubs historically, and we truly believe he wants what's best for its players.
We've made considerable effort and expense on a SwC 2.0 software package over an extended period of time; we are transferring the rights to that package in full to Micon with the understanding he will remain faithful to the revenue share and licensing agreement SealsWithClubs had with its primary developer(s) that continue work on it. We suspect that the primary developer(s) behind that project will gladly continue working with Micon. Micon will also be provided the swcpoker.eu domain from which we were planning to continue operations from once SwC 2.0 was ready to deploy. As such, we believe Micon will have the resources at his disposal to bring the new site up, backed by the new SwC 2.0 software package, at a rapid pace.
The traditional SwC 1.0 clients and server, based upon the PokerMavens server/client software and protocol, will be retired. There are a number of operational and security considerations to the SwC 1.0 architecture that we do not feel could be properly documented and conveyed to any new team for further operations or development. At this time, those available must focus our efforts elsewhere.
While the majority ownership and team wish the best for Micon and his operation, we prioritize remaining faithful to our player's balances and security first and foremost. The SealsWithClubs.eu domain, related social media accounts and support e-mail addresses (for the duration they are still active and being checked) will solely be used for administrating and paying out all remaining player withdrawal requests. In the event the domain is seized or the current withdrawal server is made inoperational during the period withdrawals are still being administrated, a signed GPG message from hdev or xdev will provide definitive instructions for players to continue making withdrawal requests assuming we are still available and able to draft such a message. Any unsigned or invalidly signed instructions by others should not be considered legitimate.
Please note that withdrawals will only be open for a limited period of time and be solely administrated by those uninvolved with Micon's new operation who have been charged historically with maintaining SealsWithClubs solvency. Those able to stick around to process these withdrawals are hoping to commit to at least a few months of availability. We hope that this is sufficient in allowing all players to make their appropriate claims to their funds before they are made unavailable; in addition, we hope our players will do their part by spreading the word.
In line with remaining faithful to player security, we will not be providing Micon or his team with account passwords or authentication information or balance details. We will provide to him account names and the current e-mail addresses associated with them, as well as the krill amount associated to each account. This should allow his team, if they choose, to reserve usernames and e-mail password resets to users as well as honor their Krill amounts. Micon will also be provided the current e-mail address and account names of any affiliate accounts and the accounts associated under them so that he can choose to remain true to the affiliates in the affiliate program that he pioneered through the years for SealsWithClubs.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN EMAIL ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR ACCOUNT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CLAIM YOUR KRILL AT SWCPOKER.EU IN THE FUTURE. YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO ADD OR CHANGE IT NOW USING THE FORM BELOW.
I reiterate for emphasis: Micon nor his team have not and will not be provided access to SealsWithClubs player funds or account credentials at any time. This limitation is not placed in order to hinder Micon or his operation, but rather, to remain true to the SealsWithClubs administration's commitment to player security and balance integrity to the very end.
Thank you to all of our players for your support, trust, loyalty and enthusiasm throughout the years. We know that cryptocurrency poker is here to stay and it saddens us all to be in a position that we can no longer reliably be the ones to provide it to you.
Seals Administration
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TimDawg   United States. Feb 20 2015 12:55. Posts 10197
Wow...
online bob is actually a pretty smart person, not at all like the creepy fucker that sits in the sofa telling me he does nasty shit to me when im asleep - pinball
1
FrinkX   United States. Feb 20 2015 13:03. Posts 7562
a site is shutting down and letting its players withdraw?
seems fishy to me
bitch on a pension suck my dong
1
handbanana21   United States. Feb 20 2015 17:30. Posts 3037
thx man. havnt logged into swc in forever.
1
Minsk   United States. Feb 20 2015 18:39. Posts 1558
On February 20 2015 12:03 FrinkX wrote:
a site is shutting down and letting its players withdraw?
seems fishy to me
lmao
1
AndrewSong   United States. Feb 20 2015 19:53. Posts 2355
Do NOT cashout straight to coinbase, coinbase will ban you.
1
TimDawg   United States. Feb 21 2015 01:50. Posts 10197
well, I guess the bright side of this is that it doesn't seem to involve any sort of DOJ/government involvement
online bob is actually a pretty smart person, not at all like the creepy fucker that sits in the sofa telling me he does nasty shit to me when im asleep - pinball
1
traxamillion   United States. Feb 21 2015 09:15. Posts 10468
On February 21 2015 00:50 TimDawg wrote:
well, I guess the bright side of this is that it doesn't seem to involve any sort of DOJ/government involvement
yes this was my first thought
1
AndrewSong   United States. Feb 21 2015 21:01. Posts 2355
On February 21 2015 00:50 TimDawg wrote:
well, I guess the bright side of this is that it doesn't seem to involve any sort of DOJ/government involvement
They are shutting down because Nevada gaming commission is going after them for operating illegal gambling site.
Micon was arrested in his home with a search warrant. All his electronics were confiscated and swc management team decided to pull out after the event.
Last edit: 21/02/2015 21:01
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humPah   Finland. Feb 22 2015 00:54. Posts 1544
On February 20 2015 12:03 FrinkX wrote:
a site is shutting down and letting its players withdraw?
seems fishy to me
Yeah. Seems like a good position to deposit some cash
Raising preflop more than 10% is somewhat wild. 5% is average. Less than 3% is passive.
1
NMcNasty   United States. Feb 22 2015 17:01. Posts 2041
On February 21 2015 20:01 AndrewSong wrote:
Micon was arrested in his home with a search warrant. All his electronics were confiscated and swc management team decided to pull out after the event.
LOL. So SWC is trying to pass this off as a software issue thinking the above tidbit will somehow go unnoticed.
1
Bejamin1   Canada. Feb 22 2015 17:58. Posts 7042
He's already got a statement out about what happened, and is planning to relaunch the site shortly was SWC.eu. There is a 5 minute youtube club of him explaining what happened that I saw on twitter this morning. So he's hardly keeping it secret lol.
Sorry dude he Jason Bourned me. -Johnny Drama
1
NMcNasty   United States. Feb 22 2015 18:18. Posts 2041
On February 22 2015 16:58 Bejamin1 wrote:
He's already got a statement out about what happened, and is planning to relaunch the site shortly was SWC.eu. There is a 5 minute youtube club of him explaining what happened that I saw on twitter this morning. So he's hardly keeping it secret lol.
"He" is not majority ownership. Point is is that its obvious the raid spooked the majority ownership enough into shutting down. There's no point in dancing around that issue.
1
NMcNasty   United States. Feb 22 2015 18:57. Posts 2041
Don't get me wrong though I hope everything with SWC and Mycon work out, I'm on their side here. Just they should be concentrating on lawyering up instead of pretending that what's important is SWC 2.0 coming out.
Last edit: 22/02/2015 18:57
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Silver_nz   New Zealand. Feb 25 2015 02:09. Posts 5647
damm, too late
I had about 0.6 BTC on there
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Silver_nz   New Zealand. Feb 25 2015 03:00. Posts 5647
oh, its not too late, can still fill in a form
1
Silver_nz   New Zealand. Feb 25 2015 12:32. Posts 5647
I got my Buttcoins out! Time to spend them all on asian hookers
Seals with clubs really being very reliable
1
Silver_nz   New Zealand. Feb 25 2015 14:36. Posts 5647
To be clear, that was Joke.
I'm not going to spend all of the recovered bitcoins on hookers.
I'm going to spend some on cocaine too.
1
traxamillion   United States. Feb 26 2015 03:34. Posts 10468
On February 25 2015 13:36 Silver_nz wrote:
To be clear, that was Joke.
I'm not going to spend all of the recovered bitcoins on hookers.
I'm going to spend some on cocaine too.