WPT Magazine cheats one of its writers, claims "check is processing" when outed on 2+2

[Dan Druff]

Embarrassing story for the Word Poker Tour (WPT).

It appears that the WPT Magazine (wptmag.com) is a separate company that is licensed by the WPT to be its official magazine.

There is a link to the WPT Magazine website from the official WPT site.

A writer known as "ZeroSum79" is owed about $2k for writing eight months worth of articles without being paid.

They promised him 200 British pounds (about $285) per article.

He has written 7 articles, over a period of 8 months, dating back to December, 2011.

They have not paid him.

ZeroSum79's real name is Greg. The guy he is dealing with at the WPT Magazine is Jon Young.

Here is the exchange back-and-forth since May:


May:

(Greg/ZeroSum79 had already written 5 articles at this point, and had not been paid.)

Jon,

Just curious if there was a delay in this payment? I got the
impression that it would be happening soon but that was about two
months ago. Do you have any insight or is it possible that something
got messed up with the transfer?

Regards,
Greg

hi Greg,
I've just been on holiday but will be back in the office tomorrow so i'll check and see. I do know that a new batch of payments is imminent, but not sure which issue the accounts dept are up to.
Regards
Jon

June:

(This time he wrote to both Jon Davis and Daniel Smyth, someone else he had been dealing with at the magazine...)

Hey Jon and Daniel,

Just curious if you have been able to track down what is going on with the payment situation and when you need the next article by. I have a new topic related to the bubble and equity that I am writing about which I think is a addition to what is understood about current bubble play theory. It will probably last 1-2 articles.

Regards,
Greg

Hi Greg,

I spoke to Jon today and he's been told a batch of payments will be processed in the next couple of days. You should then get a lump of money coming through.

I'll get Jon to update you on this further as that's more his domain but I'll get in touch with it as well.

If you're able to get another article to me ASAP that would be great. The end of this week/ start of next week would be really helpful.

More stuff on bubble theory would be really good, so I look forward to that.

Let me know if that's ok.

Thanks
Dan

Notice how they are encouraging him to write more, despite not paying him for the over 6 months he had been working for them.

They still didn't pay him.

Last week, he sent this:

Any update on these PDF's? (Note to reader: For a while I was being given scanned digital copies of the articles monthly) Also I am not sure where we are at with another article but its been since January that I have been writing articles that were supposed to be paid with no payment. Could use an update so that we can figure out how to move forward.

Regards,
Greg

They ignored that e-mail, and also ignored a second one that he sent.

Finally, he took his situation to 2+2.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...azine-1235138/

After some public shame, suddenly they claim they're "processing" his payment, which can only be described as obnoxious "check is in the mail" bullshit.

ZeroSum79 posted the following tonight:

I just received word from Jon (by email) that the invoices are currently processing. He has sent me a promise that I will be paid in the entirety for the work which I produced.

He also sent what I consider to be a sufficient apology about dropping the ball on getting me the information that would have helped set my expectations for the payment timeline to a more realistic level, and for continuing to commission work from me when the payment schedule was backed up.

Obviously in a situation like this there are multiple points of failure which may not all rest solely on him. Giving WPT/Jon the benefit of the doubt, it sounds like this was probably the case. I am happy that this looks like it will be resolved.

Regards,
zero

I don't know if he's just giving them credit publicly so they really pay him, or if he is just way too forgiving.

It is clear to me that there was no "information" they could/would have given him that would have explained delaying paying him $2k for a period of 8 months.

He seems to believe that they are really "processing" the payment now (because promising that and failing to deliver would look even worse in the public eye), and I tend to agree.

Still, they only paid him because he publicly shamed them.

If you subscribe to WPT Magazine, I suggest you cancel your subscription from those crooks immediately. They don't deserve your money, and the WPT should disassociate themselves from it (and make good on the $2k if ZeroSum79 doesn't end up getting it).