Phantom EFX Online Rules of Conduct

As with all things, Phantom EFX is governed by certain rules of conduct that must be adhered to by all users of our online games. It is your responsibility to know, understand and abide by these rules of conduct.The following rules are not meant to be "exhaustive," and Phantom EFX reserves the right to determine what conduct it considers to be outside the spirit of the game and to take such disciplinary measures as it sees fit.

Rules Related to User Names/Icons

When you choose a screen name, or otherwise create a profile that can be seen by other players, you must abide by the rules of common decency. If Phantom EFX, in its sole discretion, finds such a screen name, Icon/Avatar or profile to be offensive, it reserves the right to change the name, remove the profile, and/or suspend your use of our online services. In particular, you may not use:

-Names of another person with the intent to impersonate that person;
-Names which incorporate 'swear' words or which are otherwise offensive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
-Names subject to the rights of any other person without authorization;
-Names of popular culture or media personalities;
-Names that are trademarks, or registered trademarks (e.g., Ferrari, Zenith, Pepsi, Charmin);
-Names of religious individuals; (e.g., Buddha, Jesus, Allah, Jehovah, Lucifer);
-Names related to drugs, narcotics, or criminal activity, including references to drug substances (e.g., Heroin, Cocaine, Cannabis).
-Names which incorporate the word BOT into it, with the purpose of misrepresenting your player as a BOT.
-Icons which are deemed inappropriate for public viewing, including those which contain any form of the above names or pictures, pornographic images, nudity, sexual references, drug substances, religious, racial, cultural or political references.

Additionally, you may not purposely use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the name restrictions listed above, nor can you have a "first" and "last" name that, when combined, violate the above name restrictions.

Rules Related to "Chat" and Interaction With Other Users

Communicating with other Users and Phantom EFX may or may not (in our sole discretion) represent a part of Phantom EFX Online and is referred to in this document as "Chat." Your Chats are subject to review, modification, and deletion without notice by Phantom EFX. When engaging in Chat in Phantom EFX, note that you may not:

-Transmit or post sexually explicit images or other content which in the sole discretion of Phantom EFX is deemed to be offensive; nor shall you transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content;
-Carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as cause the Chat screen to "scroll" faster than other users are able to type to it, including setting up macros with large amounts of text that, when used, can have a disruptive effect on the normal flow of Chat;
-Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue in Chat or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, individuals or entities, including, but not limited to, posting "Spam" messages on Phantom EFX ("Spam" messages as used in this document include, but are not limited to,
-"Spam" by posting or sending more than one unsolicited message or piece of mail to a single address or in a chat area;
-Use of all CAPS is, in internet jargon, considered "shouting". Using a word in a sentence in caps to emphasize a point is acceptable. Typing entire conversations in all caps creates difficulty for others to read chat, and is generally considered rude in internet chat. Therefore it is not allowed in public lobbies.
-Communicate or post any user's personal information in or on Phantom EFX, or websites or forums related to Phantom EFX;
-Harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to another user of Phantom EFX Online or other person or entity
-Strong, vulgar language, crude or explicit sexual references, discussions of illegal drugs, racist or hate speech are always inappropriate content.
-Non-English Chat: We are aware that our players are from around the world, and that for many of them English is not their first language. However, we do require that English be spoken in all Poker games and Tournaments, except those tables that have the Flag denoting them as multilingual.
-Begging or Soliciting for Loans: The nature of our online games revolves around cyber-money. Because of this and because we value the privacy of our subscribers, we do not allow players to ask for loans, and the loaning of money.
-Cheat during game play, including but not limited to modification of the game program files, or exploiting any bug or flaw in the game and manipulating the game in ways that it was not intended to be played.

Players caught cheating in any way will have:

First Offense

1. A warning will be placed on your account, and remain for a period of 3 months
2. Your accounts will be reset to a maximum of one million dollars.
3. Your accounts will have a one level reduction.
4. A mimimum one day ban

Second Offense

Your account will be banned permanently with no refunds of fees paid.

You may not modify Phantom EFX Online to change game play, including, but not limited to, the creation of cheats and/or hacks, nor may you use any third-party software which is running at the same time as Phantom EFX Online that accesses the files which are part of the Phantom EFX Online software product, for any reason whatsoever. Additionally, you may not utilize any "packet sniffing" software, regardless of the operating system utilized by such software and regardless of whether or not such tools are running on the same computer as the client or any computer connected to that client or its network, or otherwise monitor Phantom EFX Online 's network connection while you are playing Phantom EFX Online.

You may not institute an attack upon a Phantom EFX Online server or otherwise deliberately attempt to disrupt the Phantom EFX Online servers. Neither can you institute any such attack which results in the disruption of any other player's client. ANY ATTEMPT BY YOU OR ANY OTHER PLAYER ON AN ACCOUNT TRACEABLE TO YOU TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE Phantom EFX ONLINE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF Phantom EFX ONLINE IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND, SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, Phantom EFX RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH USER TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

Your Member Account, Password and Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account.

You agree to :

(a) immediately notify Phantom EFX of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security, and
(b) ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session.

Phantom EFX cannot, and will not, be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with these rules.

If you are caught accessing another member's account in any form, it will result in a lifetime ban from our games. If you are caught knowingly assisting another person in the access of another members account, it will result in a lifetime ban from our games.

Phantom EFX has one instance in which we require your password, and that is during the log in process.

Please do not give your password out to anyone, including those who may identify themselves as staff members. It is recommended that you periodically change your password for the safety and security of your account information.

Name Change Requests

To discourage repeated name change requests, and due to the length of time it takes to make these changes in our database, we have implemented a cost structure for these requests. Before we will consider changing a player name, the player must agree to the following cost.

First request: 20% Bankroll + 20% VIP
Second Request 30% Bankroll + 30% VIP + 50% Level Reduction
Third Request 50% Bankroll + 50% VIP + one full level reduction

There will be no more than three name changes per ACCOUNT. In addition, the player must realize that any time a change is made in our database to a screen name there is the possibility that some player progress could be lost, such as badges, challenge completions, etc. A player must be willing to accept any progress loss to their screen name should this occur.

Moving Player Names to New Accounts

We realize that members of the same household who play on the same account, will at times want to set up their own accounts to play with their family. We will gladly move a player name from one subscriber account to a NEW subscriber account upon request. Both the existing account and the new account must be Subscriber accounts before we will move a player name.

We will NOT move a player from a non-subscriber account to a subscriber account.
We will NOT move a player from a cancelled account to a subscriber account.

Restoring Deleted Player Names

To restore a player name that you have deleted, there will be a 5.99 processing charge.

Please be sure before you delete a name, that it is no longer wanted.

Warnings

When you are in violation of any of the above rules, a warning will be placed on your account, and you will be notified by email (if your email account is available).

Depending on the nature of the violation, a warning may remain for up to three months. If you receive three warnings on your account, it will result in an automatic ban for a period of time to be determined by the Staff.

Always use your best judgment and common decency in online conduct. If you would not say something in a room full of people you have never met, or in the workplace, then don't say it in our lobbies or on our forums.

If a staff member makes a request regarding your online chat or user name, it is recommended that you respect that request to avoid any actions being taken or possible suspension of your chat privileges or account.

Phantom EFX reserves the right to take whatever action deemed necessary to enforce the above Rules of Conduct.

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Anti Piracy and Copyright Laws

The law says that anyone who purchases a copy of copyrighted software has the right to load that copy onto a single computer and to make another copy "for archival purposes only" or, in limited circumstances, for "purposes only of maintenance or repair." It is illegal to use that software on more than one computer or to make or distribute copies of that software for any other purpose unless specific permission has been obtained from the software publisher.

If you pirate software, you may face not only a civil suit for damages and other relief, but criminal liability as well, including fines and jail terms.

The Copyright Act allows a copyright owner to recover monetary damages measured either by:

(1) actual damages plus any additional profits of the infringer attributable to the infringement, or
(2) statutory damages, of up to $150,000 for each copyrighted work infringed.

The copyright owner, also has the right to seek an injunction against the person hosting these files, to prevent them from engaging in further infringing activities and may be awarded costs and attorneys' fees. In cases of willful infringement, criminal penalties may also be assessed against the person owning the web site.

If we find out someone is sharing our software or copyrighted downloads with others, in violating of the Anti Piracy laws, we will not hesitate to take legal action, and ban your account immediately.

This includes providing a web site to download files, sharing them through instant message services, and burning them onto CD and distributing them. Illegal software and file sharing costs companies billions of dollars each year, and we share in the FBI's efforts to eradicate this issue.

If you are aware of others who are sharing files illegally, and come forward with this information, and we can verify it, we will reward you with a free 3 month subscription and two free slot downloads. Your information will be held in the strictest of confidence.

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Tournament Refund Policy

At Phantom EFX we are aware that there are times when a player will lose connection during, or before a tournament that they entered, has begun.

However, to be fair to everyone, including those who successfully complete a tournament, we must have standard policies for issuing refunds for entry fees.

During those rare times that our server may crash, we will cancel any regular slot, table or poker tournament in progress (subject to certain guildlines), which will automaticly refund everyone's entry fee.

For the tournaments that are Phantom EFX sponsored (not guild) and are hourly tourneys, we will refund anyone in the process of playing the tournament when we crash. Hourly tournaments will not be cancelled because of the number of players already having completed it (unless it is less than an hour in progress).

We will not refund individual requests for entry fees by a player who:

-Lost connection before,
-Lost connection during,
-Missed the timer to Go Now,
-Did not get the Go Now,

We have no way of determining why you lost connection, if you accidentally forfeited, if you were out of the room and missed the pop up, or simply were losing and decided to quit.

Poker tournaments will only be cancelled if they are within the first hour of play. Tournament refunds will be given if it can be determined you were not able to get back into the game before your player was removed.

When booted or we crash, you have 10 minutes to return to a poker tournament before the game removes you. If you were already out of a poker tournament when the crash occurred, please do not request a refund.

Table Game tournaments in progress at the time of crash will be cancelled.

We hope that having a standard policy of handling these issues, will make it fairer for everyone who plays. Extreme circumstances will be handled on an individual basis.

Guild Tournaments

-A standard guild vs guild slot tournament will be cancelled if both guilds agree to cancel.
-Solo Guild Tournaments will not be cancelled if the tournament has been in progress more than 30 minutes.
-Hourly guild tournaments will not be cancelled during a crash, and individual players will not be refunded for their entry fees if they are in the process of playing one when we crash, or if they lose connection.
-Hourly Guild tournaments will not be cancelled AT ALL if players have already played in it.

Requests by guild leaders to cancel a guild vs guild tournament which has not begun yet, must be approved by an officer from both guilds.