Last week, the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority, or LGA, claimed that Lock Poker was not a valid licensee. Lock Poker, which can now be found on a dot-eu domain, displays the emblem of the LGA in the footer of its website, but the regulatory body countered, “The Lotteries and Gaming Authority would like to inform the public that the website LockPoker.eu has no connection whatsoever with the Authority and therefore any mention of the Authority or license issued by the Authority on the mentioned website is false and misleading.”

On Wednesday, Lock Poker provided an explanation of its own to the online poker community. In a statement sent to PocketFives.com, Lock Poker officials asserted that the Merge Gaming Network recently received a letter of intent for a Class 4 license from the LGA. It went on to say, “Based on this, Merge allowed its licensees, including Lock Poker, to display the LGA logo on their site once they had opted into the agreement and updated their Terms and Conditions on site.”

The two times the word “Malta” appears in Lock Poker’s Terms and Conditions are in the “Governing Law” section, which also references the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, or KGC, also licenses Lock Poker.

Lock Poker’s statement clarifying the apparent misunderstanding continued, “Merge Gaming Malta Ltd. is now working with their Key Official in Malta to resolve issues that have arisen in the past two days. Merge Gaming Malta Ltd. can also confirm that Lock has in fact provided all required documentation to Merge Gaming Malta Ltd. in relation to this process.”

The Lock Poker press release concluded by saying that a resolution could come quickly: “Lock has been proactive in assisting Merge Gaming Malta Ltd. in addressing the Malta issue and this should be resolved shortly.”

The LGA’s original statement was dated August 25th and continues to appear on the home page of its website. Likewise, Lock Poker still boasts the LGA’s logo in the footer of LockPoker.eu.

The Merge Gaming Network is listed as a Class 4 licensee of the LGA along with other poker networks like Entraction, B3W, and Boss.

Also surfacing on TwoPlusTwo in recent days was whether Lock Poker segregates player deposits from operating funds. PokerStars did so as a result of a directive from the Isle of Man and, as such, was able to pay players back quickly following Black Friday. Full Tilt Poker, contrastingly, purportedly intermingled funds, resulting in insolvency.

On TwoPlusTwo, an RPM Poker spokesperson relayed, “Without going into specifics about this, player funds are not mixed with operational funds. Never have been, never will be.”

One poster, however, doubted the validity of RPM’s statement: “There’s a huge difference between Stars being required by Isle of Man to hold players funds in trust (i.e. bank account in name of ‘Players c/o PokerStars’) and Lock telling you the players funds aren’t in the same bank account as the marketing budget. The deposits still remain in a bank account in Lock’s name and are therefore subject to DOJ seizure if they were to be indicted.”

We’ll keep you posted on the latest from the Lock Poker front right here on PocketFives.com. Visit the Poker Sites thread about Lock Poker for more information.