#AP and #UB withdrawal updates #Poker

It has been quite some time since we last heard from Cereus and in between Pokerstars moving on and processing payouts to US customers and the Full Tilt Poker dilemma it feels like a black hole without any information. From time to time though, some members on online poker forums get paid out - about 2 weeks ago a Canadian player was paid by bank wire and I also had some friends from the UK saying they were paid. Apart from that you barely hear any news and I just noticed an email notification for a player from the US that was posted:

Dear xxx,

Thank you for contacting us.

Cereus's top priority has always been, and remains, the refund of account balances to its US players.Unfortunately, the Company still faces several legal issues, which must be navigated before funds can be paid out to US players. The Company's United States attorneys, Blank Rome LLP, continue to work diligently to resolve these issues, which is a necessary further step to facilitate the return of funds to players.US Player account balances, therefore, will not become immediately available for withdrawal as a result of our recent agreement with the DOJ.


We thank you for your patience in this matter. This remains our highest priority, and we will update you as we move forward to resolve outstanding issues.

Regards,
Lucas
UB - Deposits

At least they still occasionally reply to  emails, however it still looks like a standard template and the few players that get paid don't really justify a reasonable statement that anything is improving as of now. Fingers crossed for all players at the US, has anyone else received the same or a very similar email as of lately?

update August 14th 2011: another non US player reported that he has received a Ukash voucher for $500 

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Re: update regarding #FullTilt and Online #Poker in the #US – July 2011

Both Black Friday (April 15^th) and Blue Monday (May 23^rd) went through the online poker scene like a Tornado and we are yet to see a light at the end of the tunnel. The next shockwave was the meltdown of FullTiltPoker, even though most were aware of the illegal bank transactions it still came pretty surprising and as a shock to all. There are rumors that European investors or Jack Binion will buy them for $150 Mio but that is yet to be confirmed and also delayed due to new complaints.

Whereas Pokerstars is almost back to normal and there are no news from AbsolutePoker and UB (pending payout requests for weeks, traffic gone on vacation to wonderland), Full Tilt Poker is the one site in the news as of lately. At first, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) suspended the licenses for Full Tilt Poker. According to a rumor, a few days later at the most recent board of directors' meeting, Ray Bitar was voted out of his role as CEO and he is one of the people in charge that was mentioned in the indictments of Black Friday. This is yet to be confirmed even though lawyer Jeff Ifrah has stated the following:


“We can completely deny the reports that Ray Bitar is no longer CEO. In fact that [rumour] really ruined his day yesterday. It doesn’t help anyone for sites to be reporting news that’s not true.”

Whether this has any influence on regaining the gaming license of the AGCC or not remains unclear as of now and there is no official confirmation either that Full Tilt Poker has been sold and will soon be back up and running. One thing for sure though is that it will probably take a long time before one of the market leaders will regain the confidence and trust of its customers, because what would actually stop them from cashing out all their funds as soon as they can access the cashier again? 

Recently, Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) introduced bill HR 2366 and the Online Poker Act of 2011 is supposed to restore the online poker rights by allowing licensed companies to offer Internet poker with real-money play to U.S. residents. It is yet another step towards the legalization of online poker, in fact it is not illegal to play online poker in the United States though. Only the gambling transactions in the form of deposits and withdrawals are illegal according to the UIGEA from 2006. 

The recent actions and developments have shown that the US has planned this for quite some time already and the poker sites tried to bluff too often, it works out as long as you don’t get called but when there is a showdown, you know you are behind. The remaining online poker sites that still allow Americans to play for real money are more considerate and careful with their advertising and the same goes for the online poker forums as well. It is just a logical consequence because nobody can really predict what will happen in the next few weeks.

Cake and the Everleaf network improved their software and Cake recently introduced a new VIP system as well, same goes for the Merge Gaming network but they were not able to handle the massive increase of traffic (sign ups since Black Friday up by 70%) and have stopped their rakeback deals as of June 1^st 2011. Support and all money transactions were delayed and as a direct result, they established a Blackout period for new sign ups from the US in order to catch up. First it was announced to take approximately 3-4 weeks but this deadline has already passed for more than a week and there is no news in sight.

It is a logical step though and better to act now before it can get worse, after all they have to make sure that they can still offer the same quality to all of their players. In the meanwhile, most payment processors are not available anymore and it becomes increasingly difficult to get money on and off the sites. At the same time, it is also more and more difficult to maintain the same promotions and if you are still fortunate enough to play online, you should not waste your time and complain about bad beats and suckouts. 

Not only the US but the whole online poker industry has been hit by this shockwave and even though most non US poker sites try to continue with their schedule business as usual and push promotions while focusing on the European market, only time will tell what the future of online poker will be like. After France and Italy, now Spain will also follow the footsteps and regulate online gambling and it requires a special gambling license to still operate and offer games to Spanish citizens. 

The time has come to use all available free time that you can dedicate to this card game as reasonable and effective as possible, it doesn’t hurt to work on your game and improve the knowledge about all various aspects of this fascinating game that we all like so much. The situation might appear hopeless, but that doesn’t mean we should give up and rather stick together and do whatever we can to establish poker as a game of skill. We don’t mind being taxed if the gaming experience is regulated in a reasonable way, this way we can make sure that the current dilemma will not repeat again.

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#Pokerstars possibly backing out of #Australia and #Poker News Magazine closing

A few months ago the Merge Gaming Network temporarily allowed Australians to play online poker for real money, but after the developments of April 15^th (“Black Friday”), they backed out and banned them again. It is quite funny though that the Merge Gaming Network is also based Down Under as well.

According to latest rumors the same might happen at PokerStars as well and there have been discussions on QuadJacks and Chris Levick claims to have a reliable source. It is yet to be confirmed by PokerStars or any media contact closely to them but might come into effect by August 1^st 2011.

It looks like PokerStars has insight that one of their subsidiaries (GP Information Services) based in Erina Heights (suburb of Gosford in New South Wales), has been under the radar by the Australian authorities. According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, GP Information Services is owned by the Oldford Group which is one of the business entities involved in “Black Friday”.

Company Extract for GP INFORMATION SERVICES PTY LIMITED

GP Information Services provides marketing services for Pokerstars for the Australian market and the IGA law from 2001 clearly states that it is not allowed to run marketing campaigns in any way, shape or forms and thus GP Information Services potentially is in direct violation of it. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is currently investigating 46 complaints and appears to be as strict as the FBI.

*****

Another remarkable development Down Under is the closure of the Poker News Magazine, they recently took over Bluff Australasia and the magazine will cease to exist and probably just remain as normal newspaper. Advertising for the online poker market in Australia has dropped significantly and thus this is a direct result, since they basically can’t afford it anymore to keep it going.

*****

As you can see, not only the US is influenced by the actions of Black Friday and we are yet to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Whereas PokerStars appears to be back to somewhat normal and also already pays out US customers, there is no significant positive news from FullTilt and AP/UB. As soon as this is officially confirmed, we will of course keep you posted.

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The #FullTilt Poker Media Puppet Show

I just stumbled over this news and thought I would share it, source: HoldemPokerChat

According to a post on QuadJacks.com the person who has been keeping the poker community informed of what’s going on with US player cash-outs from Full Tilt Poker is none other than Full Tilt Poker PR representative Michelle Clayborne posing as “FTPDoug” on the 2+2 Poker Forums. As source close to Full Tilt Poker claims that “the real FTPDoug left the company a long time ago and they just use the name since he had some credibility on 2+2.”

According to the same source claiming to be very close to Full Tilt Poker, “Ms. Clayborne is/was the personal assistant to Howard Lederer, among other Full Tilt pros. Another source reported in late May that she had also worked closely with Phil Ivey, but that he had since terminated their professional relationship.”

Michelle Clayborne is also said to have written the angry response issued by TiltWare to the announcement by Phil Ivey that he is not playing in this year’s WSOP and is suing Full Tilt Poker.

What exactly does this all mean?

It means that someone at Full Tilt Poker, possibly Howard Lederer himself, has been pulling all the strings and feeding the online poker playing public misinformation for the past 2 months. With the exception of the initial press release by Full Tilt Poker claiming that they are working with the US Department of Justice to release player funds the only information players have received has come from the “FTPDoug” account on 2+2.
Most US online poker players have lost faith in Full Tilt’s ability to pay and as time passes players from other countries are beginning to as well. According to Pokerscout.com Full Tilt’s traffic is now down over 52% since April 15th, 2011.

Now that the “FTPDoug” account has been outed, we have no idea how Full Tilt will try and get a message out to players but we’ll keep an eye out for the next puppet show.

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Merge Poker Network temporarily disabling New US Player Signups?!

Source: HoldemPokerChat

The Merge Poker Network will temporarily stop accepting NEW US players in a few days in order to catch up on a backlog of customer service requests. Even more importantly though is the fact that this is also the case for all poker money transactions as well. As it stands right now, the customer service has a 2 week backlog and cashouts are much worse.

They simply were not prepared for the influx of players they’ve received since Black Friday and are feeling growing pains. Only NEW players are concerned by this, for all existing players it will be business as usual. As of June 1st 2011, they already disabled the daily rakeback for new sign ups as well and this is another careful step to make sure they will be able to handle the traffic.

The only part of this story that HoldemPokerChat was not able to confirm yet is if this is the case for all Merge Skins or just those that use the Merge cashier and customer support. HoldemPokerChat has been told that the temporary ban on new US players is just supposed to last about a month, however from past experience in dealing with the Merge Network Fonzi from HPC is guessing that "it will last through the end of the summer".

New processing options as well as more customer support personnel are in order to handle the extra traffic, but especially the recent action of the DoJ has shown that they are also going after sportsbooks and their payment processors as well and everybody is more careful in this business, you simply don't know what will happen next week. After the crackdown of AP/UB, PokerStars and FullTilt, the Merge Network was one of the contenders for the US players that were seeking a new home.

A few Merge Poker skin operators complained about the current processing problems and with the loss of QuickTender / UseMyWallet the main option became credit cards. Shocking number: the current success rate for successful credit card transactions is roughly 20%!  According to HPC it is rumored that for Carbon Poker the success rate is closer to 70% which "leads to believe that the Merge Network was putting their site Carbon Poker ahead of all others".

You may understand that this internal info is another tough pill to swallow for US online poker players, but let's keep the fingers crossed that it is the right step in a more regulated online poker experience. It would be even worse for the Merge Gaming network if they don't take the necessary steps to make sure all issues will be taken care of in a timely manner.

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Victory Poker closing

It was only a matter of time and nobody heard much of Victory Poker after the Black Friday, their planned move from the Cake Network to Cereus never took place and soon after April 15th 2011 they also announced that they will not be accepting players from the US anymore.

As of June 1st 2011, this episode is now also over and they have officially closed their doors. After starting on the small Everleaf Network, they soon decided to switch to the Cake Network and were willing to move yet again to join AP and UB on the Cereus network. Where once excitement was in place is now dust and another poker site is gone.

It is not really a big surprise though, but one of the many consequences after Black Friday and all players and account balances will be transferred over to Cake Poker, including existing Gold Cards / Chips as well.

RIP.

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The DoJ strikes again - BlackMonday?!

Just about one month after the crackdown and domain seizure of FullTilt, PokerStars and AP/UB has passed and April 15th 2011 may forever remain as BlackFriday in the history of online poker. But as already assumed, this was not the only thing that will happen and now just appears to be the beginning of an unstoppable shockwave that goes through the online poker scene in the United States.

An affidavit from a Maryland Homeland Security special agent reveals many interesting details already and according to an official press release of the Maryland Department of Justice (DoJ), many government agencies were involved in the investigation. A total of 10 domains has been seized, but this time the banners don't display the FBI as 2nd partner in crime, but rather the Homeland Security.

• Bookmaker.com
• Truepoker.com
• Doylesroom.com
• Beted.com
• Betehorse.com
• Betgrandesports.com
• Goldbnarchcasino.com
• Funtimebingo.com
• 2Betdsi.com

More details are getting published, one of the most interesting is surely the news article in the Baltimore Sun. As a direct result of this, indictions against two gambling processors have been released. The first charges against K23 Group Financial Services (BMX Entertainment) and Ann Marie Puig state “conducting gambling business” and money laundering. The second charges ThrillX Systems, Ltd (BetED.com) are directed at Darren Wright and David Parchomchuk and contain the same allegations as well.

Both indictments specifically mention online sports betting “a gambling business involving online sportsbetting”, but no other forms of online gambling are included, whereas Doylesroom and Truepoker don't have any sportsbook activity at all and may get out of it. All other sites on the Yatahay network though that also operate sportsbooks have recently pulled out and informed affiliates that they can no longer pay commissions. I guess this should have been the first warning signal already and you can check out an interesting post on RoundersRadio.

Bet DSI said “Offering poker has always been an add-on with hopes of keeping our sports players who also enjoy a bit of poker at BetDSI.com, therefore we have added the sportsbook directly into the poker clients, and will be offering our poker players notifications of upcoming games, halftimes, etc.”

Even though there is no official statement yet, it appears that TruePoker and DoylesRoom are guilty by association with the other sportsbooks on the Yatahay network and they may get their .com domains back in the next few days. It remains unclear as of now though, which specific influence the payment processors have on the online poker activities.

Earlier today Bradley Franzen, one of the 11 individuals named in the indictment against PokerStars, FullTilt and AP/UB as well as a number of payment processors from April 15th 2011 ("BlackFriday"), plead guilty to lesser charges in a Manhattan court today. You can guess already that he has not done this because he is a nice guy, he will contribute towards the investigations with a testimony against some of the other individuals named in the indictment and will probably get out of it with a deal similar to Daniel Tzvetkoff, who has been caught a year ago and helped the FBI to get the ball rolling.

11 bank accounts in total have been seized as well and one of them appears to be the american Quicktender bank account that has been used for the processing. You can read a quick follow up in this blog post: Important Quicktender / UseMyWallet follow up!

Stay tuned for the next updates, as the action will soon move out of Maryland as well ... I also can't wait for the official name for this "incident". BlackMonday is one option, but since it may soon be another massacre we can also consider RedMonday as a possibility as well.

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New home for US (online) poker players?

No worries, you won’t get to see flashy banners and US flags with huge “sign up here” signs but I already caught your attention, right? The shockwave of April 15^th, a day that will always be considered as Black Friday in the online poker scene, might have calmed down a bit but the final consequences are not visible yet. I want to use the following blog post for a little summary about the current situation and maybe also provide a temporary solution for some as well.

All indicted and seized poker sites have reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, the latest was AP and UB and as a direct result, they have now been blocking players from the US from the real money tables, but are yet to provide a solution to pay out the funds to their American customers. PokerStars was the fastest to block the players and reach an agreement, it just seems logical that they already offer the option for their customers from the United States to cash out their funds as well.

FullTiltPoker also immediately blocked players from the United States and the residents of Washington could finally say “ha, now you are screwed as well”. But even though they were pretty quick at blocking the players and publishing a press release, they have postponed the official date 3 times now to offer the cashout solution for Americans. I guess it is time to “wait and see”, we might have already witnessed the crash with the iceberg but the Titanic is not sinking yet.

The overall traffic at PokerStars and FullTilt has gone down, but it didn’t hurt them as bad as the Cereus Network since a fair bit of their activities was also focused on the non US market, whereas AP and UB had a significant part of their traffic tied up to the US (about 70%). AP and UB have reduced their capacity and staff to approx. 20% of the original size and want to continue to operate outside of the US, nobody knows yet if these efforts will be successful or not.

A few months ago though most players from the US would have laughed about the smaller networks and just played there for fun and didn’t consider them as an option. The deposits and payouts were slower, the guaranteed games didn’t have the attractive prizepools that most are used to and take for granted based on the last few years on the big sites. They might have not been as successful, but this doesn’t necessarily make them less trustworthy. In fact, they cannot risk using the same strategy for payments that got their “big brothers” in trouble.

So what is actually left for players from the US and how can you be sure that those sites won’t be the next targets for investigations? Most of the networks that still allow players from the US are considerate and careful with their advertising, of course the current dilemma is an opportunity for them but the risk is also by far higher as well and they might not want to jump on the bandwagon yet.

The Merge Gaming Network has been around for several years already, with its flagship CarbonPoker that also offers 35% Rakeback as you play. But they have already implemented a “one rakeback account per network” policy and will even increase that restriction and don’t allow any more rakeback accounts for new players as of June 1^st 2011. If you don’t have a rakeback deal on Merge yet, now is the perfect time. The traffic has increased recently and the software is by far more stable, the regular tournaments have higher prizepools and they now host a weekly 100k Guaranteed every Sunday.

The Cake Network has not changed their policy towards players from the US, however every skin may decide on their own if they still accept players from the US. PowerPoker for example doesn’t accept any new sign ups from the US anymore, but existing players can still access their accounts and play for real money. New start up rooms such as PokerPlayerCafe accept new players from the US and the network wants to change some promotions in the near future and improve the traffic again.

Next on the list would be the Everleaf network, even though their traffic has not benefited much after Black Friday. LuvinPoker is one example, but they may or may not move to Merge or Cake in the near future. New start up networks such as the Atlantis Poker Network offer a different playing experience with either 2D or innovative 3D graphics, but the traffic on skins such as WildSidePoker is not strong yet. 

Many would assume an Indian name when they hear “Yatahay”, but is actually a small poker network and the new home of DoylesRoom, even though Doyle Brunson himself has recently announced that he would leave the site for now due to the recent development in the US after discussing the situation with his lawyers. They recently released a new software and the gameplay is by far better, which is yet to show in the real money traffic.

Last but not least on the list of “serious competitors” for the US market right now is Bodog as standalone poker site that also offers sports betting at the same time as well. They have increased their promotions and now offer $15,000 in Freerolls every month, you have to use Points though to get access and those can be earned on the real money tables.

Quick overview – networks that still allow players from the US:

- Merge Gaming Network
- Cake Poker Network
- Everleaf Gaming Network
- Bodog
- Yatahay
- Atlantis Poker Network

One thing that you always have to keep in mind before signing up for a new poker site: If the offer sounds too good to be true, be careful and look twice before you proceed. Many players are looking for a new home and opportunities to earn money always attract shady people as well. 

Given the recent news about Quicktender - UseMyWallet accounts possibly seized, it becomes obvious that it is getting more and more difficult to fund your accounts, let alone the headache to get money off if you happen to win a decent amount. Many players are worried that this situation will become yet another “eWalletXpress” disaster where most still don’t know if they will ever see any Cent of their funds or not. 

At the same time, the recent WPT Championship at the Bellagio has seen 220 players in total that paid the buy in of $25,000 and thus 25 players more than last year. The ultimate highroller event with a heavy buy in of $100,000 attracted 29 players in total and the winner takes home a paycheck of $1.5 Mio. Is that the new tendency and are you already looking for the next casino near you? One thing is for sure, Black Friday has changed the online poker scene dramatically.

Whereas many players still hope that this might be the first step towards the legalization of online poker in the United States, I would not hold my breath and hope that this will happen anytime soon. We will soon have the opportunity to see the influence on the next big event on the poker calendar, since the World Series of Poker at Las Vegas is around the corner.

P.S. how many referral links did you notice in this blog post? ;)

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AP and UB now blocking US players from real money

As of May 19th 2011, AP and UB have released a new software update that will block all players from the United States to play for real money and just the play money tables are available.

Just recently they also followed the path of FullTilt and PokerStars and reached an agreement with the Department of Justice, the text can be found here: Executed Absolute Poker Money Return Agreement - if you fancy another read, you can also compare it to the agreement of FullTiltPoker as well: Executed FTP Domain Name Use Agreement

PokerStars has already started paying out customers from the US, however FullTilt is still delayed and has postponed the deadline 3 times now. It is unclear yet when AP/UB will make the necessary efforts to proceed as well and even though they have recently increased the weekly cashout amount from $250 to $500 for all non VISA (VISA from $500 to $1000), at the same time they also disabled MoneyBookers as withdrawal option as well:

We regret to inform you that unfortunately MoneyBookers is no longer an available payout option. Your pending request was cancelled and the funds were placed back into your poker account. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Please choose any of our other available payout methods for your next payout request. Thanks for your continued patience and support. 

If you look at the current cash game lobby at UB, you see a few active tables and a lot of HeadsUp bumhunters, however only very few tables are actually generating rake. The original plan to stick to the non US business and continue with 20% of the key staff might be a difficult task with such a traffic.

 

I guess right now we can only wait and see ... .The latest news about Quicktender don't necessarily help to feel more comfortable though.

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Quicktender – UseMyWallet Accounts Possibly Seized by US

Courtesy of Holdem Poker Chat

Quicktender – UseMyWallet issued the following press release today regarding the recent problems with recent transactions. It appears they still do not know the true issue of the problem but do fear that the US bank accounts used to process transactions have been seized by the US Department of Justice.

The management of Quicktender would like to make the following statement regarding the current situation with UseMyWallet/Quicktender withdrawals:

We have operated a reputable and reliable payment mechanism for US customers since 2006. Our reputation is important to us, and until recently there has never been any question that players and merchants would be paid. In order to achieve this, we have built over many years relationships with payment intermediaries that share our values of honesty and integrity. In the jurisdictions from which we offer our services we are proud to be properly licensed and constituted, and have even worked with US law enforcement on occasions where criminal activity has been identified.

However, we cannot always predict some of the vagaries of the US administration. Over the past 2 weeks we have in good faith transmitted withdrawals initiated by Quicktender account holders to beneficiary bank accounts in the US. The money left our account in Europe. It was only in response to increasing complaints from our customers that we recognised there was a problem, and asked our bank to investigate. It emerges that the money has been accumulated in our bank’s correspondent banking partners accounts in the US, and has been frozen. We suspect it is possible that these funds may be subject to a seizure order by the US authorities. We would stress that we do not have bank accounts in the US of our own, and that the funds have left our account Europe.

It is our express intention to ensure that the funds of our account holders are safe. For this reason we have decided to suspend future withdrawals until we understand what has happened to the money that has been frozen. If we continue to transmit bank wires into the US we could find that these funds also do not reach their ultimate beneficiaries. This would simply make the problem worse.

We ask our customers to bear with us in these difficult times. Please be assured that we have always honored our obligations in the past, and that we will make every effort to overcome these current difficulties. It is not in
the interests of anybody to attempt to financially impact QuickTender further. These actions may impact the future viability of the company and the ability of the company to pay its customers. We are assessing our current exposure, and how best to reintroduce withdrawals safely.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their past loyalty, and to reiterate that we will take all possible steps to ensure that our customers money is secure.

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The „new“ Merge Gaming network?!

When I first started playing online poker years ago, I found poker.com (now PDC, the domain was sold for one Million USD years ago) and that was basically the very first site of the Merge Gaming network. Back in the days, the emoticons were the biggest attraction and you could enjoy the play money tables with some friends and just chat. The cash game traffic was low and you could get entry to the 50k and a few other tournaments with guaranteed prize pool by earning comp points – at that time dealt and not contributed.

Over the years a lot of things have changed, the emoticons are still funny though and they always seem to come up with new entertaining versions. The rewards system at the tables has changed from dealt to contributed and all the small stack grinders cannot benefit from it anymore, the active players now have an advantage.

A while ago, a bigger software update came out and now you can resize the tables and it is by far easier to play up to 12 tables at the same time, definitely an improvement. You also get 35% daily rakeback as you play, but this will soon change since it won’t be available anymore for new players as of June 1^st 2011. If you don’t have a rakeback account on Merge yet, go for it before time is running out. But keep in mind that you can only have one active rakeback deal as per network policy.

The Merge Gaming network will also have a network rake race as of June 1^st 2011 and there will be changes to the current VIP system. The exact details are not published yet, but the active players will benefit from it. But there is something even more amazing and I thought this would actually never happen: A few years ago the network struggled to get more than 3000 players online at the same time, now we have more than 8000 and the numbers are still going up.

After Black Friday (April 15^th 2011), most players from the United States are looking for a new home and the cashgame traffic went up by a whopping 80% on Merge. New skins pop up every other month and the network, based at “Down Under”, is doing their best to keep up with the new increase in traffic. 

Where you could not find any open tables or opponents, you now cannot get on open tables anymore since they are all full on certain limits! For a short period of time, even Australians were allowed to play for real money but that was unfortunately just a short adventure and one of the consequences of Black Friday. I guess it was fun while it lasted for them, definitely not good for the mindset though.

You can now see more deposit options for players all over the world and even for Americans who usually have a tough time to get money on poker sites (beware of the UIGEA), there are some reliable methods available. Right now though many deposits don’t get processed and the network can barely keep up with the number of transactions.

Even though many might complain about the speed, the advantage is quite obvious: They pay higher fees but can also guarantee that the transactions are safe. It will take a bit of time for them to get used to the increased traffic and number of deposits, I am sure they will get it solved and it is just a matter of time. It might sound bizarre, but I don’t think that the Merge Gaming network expected such an increased activity in such a short time.

For most, Black Friday and the humiliation of the big 3 FullTilt, PokerStars and AP/UB from an American point of view gives smaller networks the opportunity to grow and establish a solid player base. Whether or not the other sites will ever get into the US market again is not really any concern for them right now. But will they be able to use that chance and keep up with the pace that all the players show so far? I guess only time will tell … .

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Good game, AP and UB ...

Courtesy of: Gambling911

Blanca Games Inc., owner and operator of online poker rooms AbsolutePoker and UB, issued the following statement today:

AbsolutePoker and UB ceased their U.S.-facing operations due to recent legal developments in the United States. The company is currently restructuring and will focus its remaining resources on consolidating its non-U.S., rest-of-the-world operation and software business. Unfortunately, this also means an immediate need to downsize and streamline operations significantly at both online poker rooms, with a view of becoming more efficient in the way the business is conducted.

Today's decision has not been made lightly, or in haste. It comes after considerable review and analysis of the impact that 'Black Friday' has had on the business as a whole. All affected employees have been informed of this necessary restructure, and staff will be reduced across several areas of the business.

A company spokesperson said: "We regret that we have been compelled to take these actions. We have worked tirelessly to create a truly amazing company that is filled with extraordinary people. We have always been and still remain fully committed to our employees and players. At the same time, we are confident that this restructuring will strengthen the company and its future."

In addition, the company's legal counsel is in continuing discussions with the U.S. Attorney's office to formalize an agreement that would facilitate the return of funds to U.S. players. Further information and timely updates will be provided to players moving forward as our legal team works to resolve the outstanding issues.
____________

It was just a matter of time and despite the efforts and initial attempt to fight against the US, it was pretty much bound to happen and now they had to make a cut to avoid even more trouble. Hopefully they will be able to work out an agreement with the US soon and can return the funds to the US players, I feel bad for all employees though that just lost their job yesterday.

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Pokerpocalypse - To bank or not to bank?

The consequences are not fully visible yet and the agreement between Pokerstars, FullTilt and the Department of Justice to regain the right to use their world wide .com domains went through pretty quickly. American players are now able to log into their accounts on both sites again and can access the cashier to request a withdrawal. This has currently been disabled at Pokerstars to “prepare the technical solutions and formulate the plan and processes required” to allow Americans to cash out their balance.

The same deal would also be available for AbsolutePoker and UB, however despite pop up notifications on both brands Americans are still able to log in and play for real money. Today, AbsolutePoker released the following statement:

“Absolute Poker has retained Blank Rome LLP as United States counsel to provide legal advice in relation to civil and criminal matters filed in federal court in Manhattan and made public on April 15, 2011. Absolute Poker is aware that on April 19, 2011, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into separate agreements with FullTilt Poker and PokerStars. These agreements concern the use of the respective www.fulltiltpoker.com and www.pokerstars.com domain names. The US Attorney, in a press release dated April 20, 2011, stated that the government is willing to enter the same agreement with Absolute Poker and UB.

“At this time, Absolute Poker’s top priority is, and must be, the refund of balances to its and UB’s US players. However, given the far-reaching consequences of the US Attorney’s actions for Absolute Poker and for the entire poker community, Absolute Poker believes that the responsible course of action is to review with its attorneys the relevant court filings before taking any action."

“Absolute Poker believes that the US Attorney shares the view that refunds to US players are an immediate and pressing concern, and Absolute Poker wishes to make clear that it wants to work cooperatively with the US Attorney to safely and efficiently return its players’ funds. To that end, Absolute Poker’s counsel has initiated communications with the US Attorney’s office and plans to continue proactively advancing those discussions."

“Further information and timely updates will be provided to Absolute Poker/UB’s players as we move forward.”

In the meanwhile, an article at The Australian revealed, that Australian banks have been handling payments to overseas-based online poker sites that have been illegally taking up to a $1 billion a year. Whilst this might be legal for gambling sites outside of Australia, it is prohibited for Australia itself since 2001 already. The potential profit for local companies was probably too tempting though and part of this business was also FORMER Brisbane IT tycoon Daniel Tzvetkoff, who’s  company Intabill allegedly processed more than $500 million worth of illegal online payments through US banks.

It has been reported that he kept the names, bank details and addresses of up to 500,000 customers of online poker websites – considering that he has turned into an informant for the FBI and Department of Justice during the current investigation and provided these details, we may not have seen the end of the allegations yet. At least the situation has somewhat calmed down after the agreement from PokerStars and FullTiltPoker with the DoJ and hopefully soon, American players will be able to cash out their funds from the poker sites.

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Reflections of an "outsider"

On first sight the Black Friday appears to be a shockwave for the United States and doesn’t have as much influence on the rest of the world, but it once again shows the whole online poker community all over the world that our governments can and will limit our options to enjoy what we like most. It is no isolated issue and does in fact concern every poker player, we need to stick together if we still want to be able to play.

 There is no excuse for the various crimes that have been committed by the poker sites and they have to protect their business now and limit the access for Americans, it may very well be an important step towards the regulation of online poker in the United States or the end of it. A typical coinflip and we don’t know yet who is gonna win.

 What do you take out of the situation as poker player right now? Most non Americans get assured that their funds are safe and the Americans itself can just hope and pray that they will see their money again. But the effect it will have on the whole industry and all the jobs that may now be destroyed, as well as the insecurity and lack of trust does surely play a role for potential new customers.

 As Europeans we can look forward to more promotions and potential jobs as well, but we may be the next on the list after the development at France and Germany is next that would love to regulate online gambling as well and just allow it by offering a specific gambling license. Many have put a lot of effort into establishing poker as game of skill, now the government has every reason to still declare it as gambling and destroy all work so far.

 

Is there hope in sight? Of course, yet the circumstances have changed and last Friday will definitely have an influence on the future regulation, no matter if we like it or not. The reputation of online poker itself has just been backstabbed and it takes a long time to earn the trust again, apart from the monetary loss this might be one of the biggest issues that we have to deal with in the near future. Be it as part of the business as poker site, player, affiliate or media.

 

Right now quite a lot of Americans have actually lost their job and their source of income, the big poker sites will have to reduce their budget and marketing efforts and thus even more jobs get lost. I am not sure yet if the potential opportunities overweigh the current dilemma, only time will show. All we can do right now is stick together and fight for our right to play, many might not like the idea of “wait and see”, but we surely won’t give up easily either.

 

Guess I should feel lucky to be at Germany … for now. But the consequences already show worldwide and we start to realize the influence of this industry. No wonder that the governments want a piece of it and most would even be willing to pay reasonable taxes on it if they can still play. Now it is your turn, we checked in the dark … how much are you going to bet?

http://theppa.org/takeaction/

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Merge Gaming Network to ban Australians from real money again

Just a few weeks ago, the Merge Gaming Network proudly announced that they now accept Australians to play for real money, which was not the case for the previous years due to the online gambling regulations Down Under. With the recent development within the United States and the so called "Black Friday" on April 15th, they have sent out the following statement earlier today, April 19th 2011:

Effective immediately we have had to reactivate our ban on real money play for Australian players using the Merge cashier. A restriction has been put in place so that Australian players can now submit a withdrawal from the Merge cashier, but cannot deposit or play for real money. This has been forced by recent industry changes. We request that you send a mailout to your Australian players advising them that "Unfortunately is no longer able to accept real money play from Australian players at this point in time. You are still able to withdraw your funds via the cashier. We thank you for playing with us and apologise for the inconvenience ."

It is not published on the Merge Gaming Network website yet, but has been confirmed by two skins already and will be posted in the next few hours. 

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Pokerpocalypse - Updates and Perspectives

Most of the mass media already call it the Black Friday, as the big 3 on the American online poker market (FullTilt, PokerStars and AP/UB) have been indicted by the FBI and whilst most poker players cannot understand the reasoning behind it, the accusations are very serious and the future for these poker sites is not clear yet.  The first step for all 4 was the change from their .com domains to European versions and all this was done within 48 hours after the press release of the Department of Justice (DoJ) has been published and caused a bush fire on the online poker scene.

Pokerstars.com = Pokerstars.eu

FullTiltPoker.com = FullTiltPoker.co.uk

AbsolutePoker.com = AbsolutePoker.eu

UB.com = UBPoker.eu

Just for clarification though, the FBI and the DoJ are not after the players and officially, online poker is not illegal either. The most critical part is the funding of said poker accounts and the poker sites and their management has encouraged banks to process transactions that are not in accordance with the UIGEA from 2006. 

The list contains crimes such as conspiracy to violate the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, operating an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud as well as being part of a money laundering conspiracy. In total, the government is seeking at least $3 billion in forfeitures and penalties from the poker sites involved.

Whilst Pokerstars and FullTiltPoker have already booted American players from their real money tables and just a few lucky ones remain active since they haven’t logged out yet since Monday, they can’t transfer their money via p2p to non US friends either and withdrawals get denied. This is obviously an understandable procedure to get control over the current situation and also avoid money dumping outside of the US. They also cut all regular guaranteed prizes and lost up to 48% of their traffic compared to last week.

 

On AbsolutePoker and UB, p2p for US players have also been disabled and despite a pop up earlier today on AP, players can still play for real money. Deposits and withdrawals are not possible for Americans and right now and it remains unsure if they will leave the US market or not. VictoryPoker, a skin of the Cake Network that intended to switch to the Cereus network has since left the network and will probably pull out of the US market.

Smaller networks such as Everleaf, Cake, Merge or Yatahay (DoylesRoom) could see an increase of traffic and new sign ups over the past 48 hours already and also Bodog was one of the benefiters of the Black Friday. CakePoker has already indicated that they will not pull out of the US market unless something big changes and every skin can decide if they want to opt out or not.

In general, most online poker players are scared and unsure what will happen in the near future, since the biggest names from an American point of view have been taken down – will the smaller networks be able to attract more players and also create more trust or does the whole online poker business take a massive hit?

Non US poker sites and networks have already launched new promotions to attract grinders that previously played on the big 3 sites and took advantage of the traffic there, some announced increased player benefits if they can prove the VIP status on the other poker sites. The next few days and weeks will surely see more action and marketing efforts, especially bwin / Party Poker as well as 888poker have seen profits on the stock market on Monday.

The full extent of the whole situation is probably not revealed yet and players should remain in a “wait and see” position and not try to dump money to non US friends when they are still able to play. The security departments will surely have a closer look on all non US withdrawals and it doesn’t make much sense to risk having your accounts locked just to help out friends. 

One of the big questions that remains for both, US and non US players is the safety of their funds – all player funds are kept on different bank accounts, yet the FBI and Interpol have already released a list with the names of banks and bank accounts that are suspected of previously mentioned crimes and are currently under investigation. Will the players see their funds anytime soon or are they lost? Even though the sites ensure that the funds are safe, ultimately it still remains a mystery and doesn’t increase the trust right now.

What you should do as player right now: 

1) Log into the poker clients and take a screenshot of your balances just in case

2) Do not try to dump cash to non US players on sites that still allow you to play for real money

3) Do not panic and rather take action: http://theppa.org/takeaction/

Most online poker news sites keep players updated and if you have an account at twitter, you can also follow the following people for important updates:

@Kevmath

@Pokerati

@oskargarcia

@GamingCounsel

@GaryWise1

@ckrafcik

@grange95

@scarlet_lv

@markgahagan

@bjnemeth

@ftrainpoker

@taopauly

@hardboiledpoker

@ralstonflash

@taxdood

@joebrennanjr

@pokerscout1

Hopefully we will soon be able to post more promising updates, but as of now there is not much that can be done as everyone is still trying to gather as much info as possible.

Edit: It seems that FullTiltPoker has now forced the log out for American players within the US, yet Americans outside of the US are still able to play for real money on their accounts. At PokerStars, Americans outside of the US are not able to play for cash right now.

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