Archived November 2006 US Poker News
Updated Thursday Nov. 30
12:52pm – All Actionpokernetwork sites have reopened to the United States. The network’s lawyers gave them the green light according to the support I talked to. The bigger sites that run off this network are actionpoker.com, tigergaming, and nine.com
8:59am – Online gambling is now illegal in South Africa.
Updated Wednesday Nov. 29
2:15pm – Bill Frist has announced he will no longer run for President of the United States. He was the Senate Majority Leader who was mainly responsible for pushing the Gambling Bill through. He is also being dubbed the most “corrupt senator” by Google.
Updated Tuesday Nov. 28
6:33pm – Well Americascardroom.com did not tell us the truth (see post below). Their Java version (play now) still works for US players. A forum member emailed us and we verified it by testing it out ourselves. The no download version seems to still be running on the same Network as Ongame but it’s hard to tell due to the fact you can’t see real money tables at PokerRoom.com
1:59pm – We talked to AmericasCardroom via phone today to get an update. They have told us they expect to have a Java (no download) version in the new update on Jan 1st. This is very good news for Mac users if it pans out. Until then they are still down for real money games.
1:16pm – Bowmans Poker has closed to US players as of today. The email stated all existing US accounts will be transferred over to Bodogpoker.com. Bowmans is part of the Tribeca Network and so is Bodog.
12:56am - This is an interesting video done overseas about the online gambling industry and recent laws. To view the video just click the link and click “watch panorama” beneath the “5.8 million go to gambling sites.” It’s quite long but talks about a professional poker players life, online gambling addicts and impact of the US gambling law on certain companies as well as interviews with these CEO’s.
Updated Monday Nov. 27
10:31pm – According to a big RB affiliate, Bodog.com will be pulling their US based TV ads. He also said that Bodog will be revamping their software so that they can become a big player in the poker market due to their large increase in US players. Some are expecting better multi-table abilities (6-8 tables). They will be issuing an official release regarding the issue shortly. Right now this is only a rumor from a respected source.
10:05pm – Battlefield poker has stopped their rakeback refer a friend (RAF) program due to new rules from their network provider, Microgaming. The Battlefield poker email we received didn’t mention the US law as a cause but it might have affected it inadvertently.
Updated Sunday Nov. 26
4:30pm – No major changes today as usual on Sundays.
Updated Saturday Nov 25
4:18am – It will be interesting to see if PokerStars breaks the record for most players in the million dollar Sunday guaranteed tournament this weekend. They said due to all the US players going there that they’ve broken records in tournament entries and prize money every week except last week.
4:03am – Just to straighten things up. There are no more poker rooms that are skins of PokerRoom.com / Ongame that are taking US players. Americascardroom was taking US players for awhile but they got shut off along with all other Ongame sites.
3:46am – We recently posted that Canbet would stay open to US players but unfortunately the email from Canbet had incorrect information in it. The poker room is NOT open to US players. We are sorry about the misinformation but it seems even some of the poker rooms haven’t gotten things straight either.
Updated Friday Nov 24
6:24pm – HoldemPoker has officially merged with PokerRoom.com and neither offer US support.
Updated Thursday Nov. 23 THANKSGIVING
3:25pm – I couldnt resist. Dave Ulltiot is selling Devil Fish poker in light of the US gambling act. If not he probably couldnt play in any more US land based tournaments without getting detained. Remember Doyles and Negreanu’s sites aren’t actually theirs. It is just their name backing it.
3:21pm – Happy Thanksgiving. There will be no updates today due to the holiday. We will be back in full force tomorrow. 
Updated Wednesday Nov. 22
9:11pm – All Futurebet sites are being merged over to Dobrosoft Software/Network. Here are all of the https://www.compatiblepoker.com/futurebet-poker/Future Bet poker sites. Codeweavers or Wine is needed for Mac and Linux users to run this software.
2:13pm – Canbet has announced they will leave the poker room open to US players but close the sportsbook and casino to all players from the USA starting November 30th.
Updated Tuesday Nov.21
5:28pm – Fullcontactpoker.com has just released the first beta version of the conglomerate “New Network” of sites which are accepting US players. Here are some screenshots. Daniel Negreanu (screen name “KidPoker”) was sitting down at the $.25/.5 table trying to get the action started. The player traffic was quite low because Full Contact is the first site to make the switch to the new Network and it was only released about an hour ago. The homepage is loading extremely slow.
We could quite possibly see Doyles Room join this network but that is still up in the air. Americas Cardroom and Alamo Poker should get transferred over sometime within the next few weeks. The layout looked very similar to the old Ongame software (PokerRoom.com). There was no Mac capabilities.
1:09am – Neteller seems to be doing an online survey. There were some gambling related questions in it as well. The survey was sent out via email. It looked a bit fishy at first but it was confirmed to not be a phishing email. I wonder what they’re up to now.
Updated Monday Nov.20
12:46am – For those that do business with Neteller you must have the latest version of Internet explorer or a different browser for it to work. They must have made some changes today but if you try logging in with an old browser you get an error.
Updated Sunday Nov.19
10:12pm – The new unnamed software network has pushed back the beta release date for all skins to Tuesday. It’s about the 5th time the release has been delayed. This includes those who are waiting for Full Contact Poker and Americas Cardroom downloadable software to go back up.
4:58pm – Sports Interaction has moved their US players to Microgaming software while the non-US players are directed to the usual iPoker software. The Microgaming software does have an 11 state restriction.
2:29pm – For those that had Neteller problems on Nov.8th and Nov.9th like we did, those errors are expected to be fixed on Tuesday of this week. The support lady said it was a processing error.
2:19pm EST – The new Network of sites is not yet up yet. Full contact is supposed to have the first beta. We are checking every hour. If it’s not up today they said it would be running tomorrow. This is going to be interesting how this network does. Nothing like this has been done before.
1:50pm – A few Neteller customers had problems with deposits on 11/8. We are looking into this and will inform you guys when Neteller responds.
Updated Saturday Nov.18
10:44pm – I just checked Full Contact and the new software has not yet been released. They are supposed to have the first access to the beta. Hopefully it will get released tomorrow.
3:20am – No major news breaks in last few hours.
Updated Friday Nov.17
7:01pm – The “New Poker Network” that will support Full Contact, Alamo, possibly Sportsbook.com and other skins might be out by this weekend. Here is what the latest Full Contact email said today.
1:56pm – Old U.S. Paradise Poker players are getting an email saying that they can log into Sportsbook.com and use their old Paradise login to play at Sportsbook.com. Because of this a lot of people are getting the misconception that Paradise Poker is back open. This is false. Sportsbook.com was sold last month and no longer has ties with Sportingbet. It seems they worked out some sort of arrangement with Paradise Poker to get their email database so they could transfer US players to Sportsbook.com which coincidentally 
has a new poker room coming out in a couple weeks. Here is the full Paradise – Sportsbook.com news update.
11:41am – PokerChamps has begun blocking Australians from playing poker.
Updated Thursday Nov.16
8:51pm – Americas Cardroom’s website / servers are currently down. I just contacted support via a cache page from google. Here is the number if you need it for any reason. (1-888-242-5401). Support said they had to change servers and were working with their ISP which was necessary to continue US support. The lady couldn’t give me an exact time frame as to when the site would be back up and running. She did say that when they go back live only the no-download version would be accessible. Come January 1st they will be switching software providers as well. I’m sure it will be to where all the other ex-Ongame Network skins will be going. The only negative I’ve heard about the new software is that it won’t be Mac compatible.
12:25am - For those Betholdem players trying to transfer your money to Bodog for cashouts you might want to try logging into your old Betholdem account and going to the bank. Some people are saying that you will have access to the Bodog transition page where you create your Bodog account so you can cashout your money. If all else fails call Bodog support. They are very helpful and will get you straightened out very quickly. (1-888-263-0000)
Updated Wednesday Nov.15
11:56am – This is for customers who were having money held by Betcorp (betwwts etc.) there is new word. Support is now saying that withdrawls will be made through Bodog. It looks like they will be setting up Bodog accounts for everyone and sending the money there. Support said they will send out an email today with all the detailed instructions. Players with pre-existing accounts may run into “account locked” errors. To fix this players are reporting having to call support and which bypasses the faxing in of personal information.
Updated Tuesday Nov.14
12:49pm – This post was removed.
Updated Monday Nov.13
7:24pm – We have news regarding the poker sites leaving their Networks so they can support real money US players. Full Contact Poker is one of them and they just released a statement regarding the transition. From what Full Contact said it is taking longer than expected to make the transition. The plan was to have the sites up and running this week but from what FCP said it won’t happen until December. Some sites are being allowed to use the beta but all the sites won’t come together until some time in December.
If I were to make a guess this is probably where a lot of the Ongame and Tribeca skins will flee to. Again, this is a new Network and poker software and the sites aren’t joining an existing network like we thought before.
2:03pm - All real money play at Paradise Poker was officially stopped for US players at 12:01am est this morning. Here was the official email from Paradise Poker.
1:58pm – Playtech has bought Tribeca Tables. Playtech was used to run places like TitanPoker and Tribeca is infamous for Doyles Room. Doyles Room is expected to jump ship from Tribeca since both Playtech and Tribeca don’t offer real money games for US players.
Updated Sunday Nov.12
7:35pm – No major changes today. We expect some press releases tomorrow. Paradise Poker will be closing real money games tomorrow.
Updated Saturday Nov.11
3:30pm – It was amazing to see that Party Poker still has enough players to make them ranked 2nd in cash player traffic even though they dont accept US players. PokerStars has double the traffic of the nearest competitors because of all the US traffic but it just goes to show how big Party Poker really was.
12:30am – Here is the latest scoop on Doylesroom.com. Tribeca Network is giving them 6 months to figure out what they want to do which means despite Tribeca’s decision to back out of the US, DoylesRoom plans on finding a way to continue supporting US players. For now it’s business as usual but they will be looking at ways to continue US support after 6 months.
Updated Friday Nov.10
9:54pm – Still no press release by Doyles Room yet. Support keeps telling us it’s business as usual but this contradicts the fact that Tribeca skins are closing to the US. Since Doyles Room runs off Tribeca software it would only seem logical that Doyles Room would have to switch software providers to continue US support. As soon as the press release comes out it will be linked up here.
Special Update 2:00pm – Tribeca skin sites which Doyles Rooms runs off are supposedly leaving the US market. Here is the unofficial Tribeca room announcement. The release came in on email. 2:29pm – This was confirmed by egaming review. We are waiting on an official release by Doyles Room because the support is saying that nothing has changed. 
1:44pm – Pamelapoker.com (Pamela Anderson’s site) was taken off the market.
Updated Thursday Nov.9
10:26pm – New J. Todd video added to the poker ban video section. Interviews with Michael Bolcerek and others. (Poker Players Alliance)
8:44pm – DoylesRoom.com will now have state restrictions. According to support the only states rejected are Washington and Louisianna. Real money play will stop on Nov. 30th for those two states. Supposedly it’s a felony to play in those states. 
6:50pm - 
Goldenpalace casino has shut down to US players today. This is a huge blow for American online casino players. Goldenpalace worked out some sort of deal with GoldenCasino.com . All US players will now be redirected to them even though they are not affiliated. The dates when US players will be locked out has yet to be determined.
1:31am – Cardcrusade has closed all real money games.
Updated Wednesday Nov.8
12:34pm – Dave Loesbsack defeated Jim Leach in the elections. Leach is the one who is considered the “Father” of the bill which recently passed against online gambling. Whether you’re a democrat or a republican this is good for online gambling’s future.
Updated Tuesday Nov.7
9:56pm – I’m sure most of you are aware that Paypal does not and never has accepted gambling transactions in the US. A couple emails came in asking about it so I posted them in the deposit tracking section.
8:41pm – There is a new video in the poker ban video section. It was kind of funny and is about how all all the sites are “kicking us in the balls”. Amateur video but I’ll give it an A for effort.
12:13pm – It looks like Absolute Poker will be the ones pushed the hardest after the Absolute Poker / Ultimate Bet merger. No concrete news has been released but this is kind of inside information from an affiliate.
6:28pm – The next poker room we have scheduled to close down to the US is Paradise Poker on Nov. 13th when they stop all US real money play.
5:53pm – We have published a news piece about todays news regarding PokerRoom and their skins.
2:13pm – For those of you waiting on the software change of various sites that say they are switching providers to “accept US player” I can tell you it’s not Absolute Poker or an Ultimate Bet skin that they will be partnering with. Full contact just contacted me saying it’s definitely not them.
10:31am – All real money games are officially gone from PokerRoom.com, HollyWoodPoker, and most other Ongame skins. When you log in you can only access the play money tables. They stopped play at 12:01am today.
Updated Sunday Nov.5
8:08pm – In about 4 hours all real money play will stop at PokerRoom.com for US players.
Updated Saturday Nov.4
10:05pm – We have been getting a lot of the same questions asked so I added a FAQ section to this page. More topics will be addressed in the next few days.
3:49pm – Word just came in that the only PokerRoom.com skin (Ongame Network) site that is still open to US players is Americascardroom.com. I called support to confirm and they said that they do run the Ongame software but are totally seperate from Ongame and they were given the choice to stay open or close down. They decided to stay open.
3:21pm – A place called PharaohsPokerPalace was added to the accepted US list. They are some sort of “webcam” poker site.
3:08pm – (This is clarification on the last post.) According to various people MGM can do this because PartyPoker doesn’t offer real money games to Americans. Since before most sites offered money games to just about everyone they had to be over seas but now it seems to be fair game if they dont offer real money games to US players. This may be a good thing if MGM buys out Partygaming. Maybe buyout talks will give some of those poor people who lost a ton on Partygaming stock some of their value back.
2:25am – Well Im sure most of you are sick of reading articles but this one is pretty interesting. It looks like MGM (an American based company) has been trying to make exploratory takeovers of online poker sites and supposedly even contacted Partygaming. If you feel like reading here is the short article .
Updated Friday, Nov. 3
6:10pm – The absolute / ultimatebet merger due these US changes has been confirmed. It expected to take place on Monday. Details will be supplied when the official release comes Monday.
3:21am – For those who emailed in about Bodog deposit problems here is what I was told from one of our visitors. John from NJ said that one of Bodogs payment processors server had scheduled maintenance and that is what was causing the problems. All states except for possibly Washington should be able to play at Bodog.
2:49am – Here is the update on Full Contact Poker. Alamo Poker will probably follow these guidelines as well as other PokerRoom.com skins that want to stay open to the US. On Nov. 6 players will be blocked from their accounts temporarily until the software is switched over to the new Network. On November 14th players will be allowed back in.
I wouldnt expect Mac compatibility right off the bat but Full Contact said they will strive to provide Mac compatibility. My guess would be that they join an Ultimate bet skin. I know for a fact Absolute Poker had plans of a Java poker software for Macs so hopefully they join them instead for Mac users sake.
12:00am – Players are reporting having troubles depositing into Bodog. It sounds like there are certain restrictions depending on your geographic location. More info will be provided shortly.
Updated Thursday, Nov. 2
2:13am – Neteller released their Q3 reports and this statement was in it. It is not looking good for US neteller users. This is courtesy of a twoplustwo user.
“NETELLER has performed well during the third quarter of 2006, continuing to grow its business both geographically and extend its reach to new customers and merchants. However, the impact of the recently passed Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the US is likely to change the future direction and nature of our business fundamentally. While we have continued to see strong sign ups and fees during October, NETELLER is constantly re-examining its position with regard to the US market and its provision of services to that market is currently under review. As previously stated, NETELLER, a company registered outside the US, will comply with the Act and its related regulations as if it were subject to the Act’s jurisdiction. We will keep our shareholders, merchants, customers and employees informed of any developments during this challenging period.”
Updated Wednesday, Nov. 1
2:45pm – Gameaccount and Redhotrummy have closed accounts to US customers. These are backgammon, gin, and blackjack related sites.- – – -
