March 2007 US Poker Updates
This is archived updates for online poker news regarding the US. For the latest online poker US updates please visit our primary page.
Updated Friday Mar. 30
3:22pm – We’ve added a new APCW video in the main US video section. It recaps most of the stuff we went over in the blog posts this week like the Stanford Financial report about the future of online gaming in the US. The video also talks about Neteller in Canada. Something interesting J. Todd said was that Turkey is now blocking access to gambling sites. The only other country to do this is China. 
I hope the US isn’t next.
1:55pm – Pokerplayersnewspaper is spreading an unconfirmed date of April 18th that Congressman Barney Frank would begin his track for anti-UIEGA legislation. GO FRANK!
1:28pm – The WTO has issued a compliance report regarding the US online betting. The report is 36 pages of legal jargon but this quote pretty much sums up what it means to us.
“Antigua’s original triumph in April 2005 is reaffirmed in this final report, with the WTO panel decisively ruling that the US has done nothing to comply with the original ruling. By rejecting US arguments that the country applies its laws against remote gambling in a non-discriminatory fashion, the WTO has handed Antigua a resounding victory, and offers hope to the global online gambling industry currently under siege by the US Department of Justice.”
Updated Thursday Mar. 29
2:02am – There is a rumor going around that some big name poker sites have agreed to pay D’Amato $5million if he succeeds. This $5million is if he is successful in getting a carveout for online poker in the new legislation. According to Poker Players Alliance financials he is receiving $100,000 yearly to serve as chairman for the PPA.
Updated Wednesday Mar. 28
6:07am – I just talked with AmericasCardroom support. He told me they were expected to re-open to US players by the end of April. This includes the Java version. That’s good news as US accepted “no download” versions are needed badly for Linux and some Mac users.
Updated Tuesday Mar. 27
1:41pm – This is for our Floridians out there. New wording has been added to certain bills regarding poker in Florida (live games). Don’t worry it’s for the better. Some people thought they were going to raise the max bet from $2 to possibly $6 but this didn’t happen (some believe a bill is currently being drafted for this). The only real significant changes occured for “high stakes poker” tournaments. Two times a year Florida cardrooms are now allowed to conduct a high stakes tournament. Changes will go into affect July 1, 2007.
12:50am – While I’ve been a bit skeptical of the accuracies to some of Gambling911’s articles of late they came out with a really good article today analyzing the “future predictions” for online gambling in the US. The article is based off a Stanford Bank Regulator Report.
The main points to the article are below in case you don’t want to read the full > article ( www.gambling911.com/Internet-Gambling-Stanford-Group-032607.html ). I, unfortunately would have to agree with most of the statistics even though they are pretty pesimistic. To be honest, I was kind of happy when they at least said there was a 10% chance of a UIEGA opposition being successful. I’m not too sure why they are predicting that ACH transactions and checks would be exempt from the regulations. I’d have to disagree with that.
1. The report says they do not believe there is enough “political will” to overturn the gambling legislation. They gave a 90% chance that the legislation stays even with opposition from Barney Frank.
2. They give the poker carveout possibility a 20% chance of happening.
3. The Stanford Financial Report gave a 60% that a “study” would be issued to look into the possibilities of taxing and other online gambling benefits.
4. They suggest there won’t be a delay in the regulations setting in and we will see them by June with exemptions for checks and ACH transactions with a possibility of more exemptions.
Updated Monday Mar. 26
1:44pm – Neteller is no longer taking customers from Canada. Here is there reasoning.
“NETELLER decided to cease online gambling transactions for Canadian members due to increased uncertainty about the status of certain activities related to online gambling in Canada.”
Updated Saturday Mar. 24
4:25pm – It looks like Pokerstars com is slowly infiltrating the use of Paytru or their “Pre-Paid debit card” on their site. At first it was only issued to 5000 players. I was not one of them but when I did my daily check today, I noticed the button was there in the top left corner. Who knows how long this option will last but they seem to be happy with it at the moment.
4:15pm – AbsolutePoker has stopped the use of Add-funds. They were the only site to use them. This might be a precursor to Nucharge, Immediatedeposit, and Makeadeposit from not being used anymore at their respected sites because they are the exact same thing. They are all issued by the same pre-paid teleco-company.
4:10pm – I just got a heads up from an email that Bodog is only allowing their paperless check option to “loyal customers”.
Updated Friday Mar. 23
4:37pm – We put up this weeks APCW video in the US video legislation section. This weeks vid. goes over the Neteller and Sportingbet issues. I thought this weeks video was pretty good.
4:02pm – Planet Poker has closed not only to US players but to all players today. They said the US legislation left them with no other choice because they couldnt find depositing alternatives. Real money play will end on March. 31st. If I remember correctly Planet Poker was the first poker site to ever issue real money play online. They kind of crashed and burned awhile back but this is still a landmark thing to happen. They are transfering real money players to Bodog.
3:58am – TheRegister.co.uk published an interesting follow up story to the Neteller news. They called the whole thing a fishing expedition and if the DOJ doesn’t get an arrest out of this, it would be really good news in general. Here is a direct quote from the article.
“Although a big bust is usually how a US Attorney gets ahead in his or her career – oh, the lights and cameras at those big press conferences! – the bust needs to be followed by an actual conviction. In its whirlwind attack on the international internet gambling business, the DOJ might finally have bitten off more than it can chew.®”
Updated Thursday Mar. 22
12:48am – Bodog.com launched a paperless check deposit option about 5 hours ago. With as hassle free as this deposit method is, I expect to see Bodog get ALOT more popular.
Updated Wednesday Mar. 21
4:55pm – Neteller has finally given us some information about the US funds they were holding. They have worked with the US Attorney’s office to device a plan to release funds within the next 75 days. The report said it would “develop” a plan to have funds released in 75 days…..not release funds within 75 days. So, as usual Neteller gives us very vague information. Here is the latest US Neteller funds press release. ( www.neteller-group.com/press/en/126.htm )
Updated Tuesday Mar. 20
12:02pm - People are beginning to report on a few forums that the Paytru issued card is successfully being used at Bodog. Players were told that it could only be used at PokerStars but so far that seems untrue. The Paytru card was only being offered to 5,000 or so PokerStars players. I wasn’t one of them so I’m just going by what other people say for now.
Updated Monday Mar. 19
6:16pm – Absolute Poker added MoneyGram to their deposit lists today.
3:34am – Senator Jon Kyl sent a letter to President Bush regarding the gambling legislation. Looks like Kyl is counter-striking Barney Franks attempt to repeal the UIGEA. This is a quote from gambling911 which sums up the letter.
“The staunch advisory of online poker sent the President a letter thanking him for his protection of family values and urging him to act immediately in ensuring that the forthcoming regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) are as stringent as possible.”
2:14am – Poker.com just added a deposit provider called ImmediateDeposit. It seems to be another one of those pre-paid phone card companies that basically every poker site now has. There is a 6% transaction fee on all purchases. During my WhoIS check I found they were issued by PRIMUS TELCO PTY LTD in San Salvador and have been in business for a little over a year.
Updated Saturday Mar. 17
1:42am – A lot of gambling stocks have begun to rise. These stocks are of course sites that do not accept US players. People are saying the rise is coming from the news that Barney Frank is drafting legislation to repeal the UIGEA. This is possible but I believe it’s really a combination of things. I think investors are starting to see what huge potential there is in Europe and other markets especially France, Germany and the UK. Partygaming stock rose 13% in just a few days. It would be nice to think Barney Frank could get something done, but if he does I don’t forsee it being for quite some time.
Updated Friday Mar. 16
5:25pm – The hearing for the two Neteller co-founders has been officially pushed back to April 16th, one day before taxes are due this year. It has now also been 2 months since US Neteller customers had their funds frozen, going on 3. I wonder if Neteller is still telling customers their funds will be released in 6-8 weeks. 
Updated Thursday Mar. 15
5:19pm – The government is asking for another delayed trial for the Neteller hearing. It was scheduled for tomorrow. If it does not happen tomorrow, no future date is yet scheduled. Looks like everyone will be waiting even longer for pending cashouts. I don’t know about you but I think we should at least get the Treasury Bond percentage interest rate for them holding our money. 
Updated Wednesday Mar. 14
4:52pm – Egaming Review just reported that Barney Frank (US Congressman – Chairman of the House Committee) is working on legislation to repeal the recent UIGEA Law that was just passed. He called it one of the stupidest and most prepoperous laws he’s ever seen. I agree with you Barney and so do a ton of other Americans.
3:22am – There have been rumors going around that Bodog might be ditching the RTG software. I emailed Pete in the managers department and he said it is all speculation right now. This would be a big blow to Mac users if this did happen as they are one of the few Mac compatible casinos still open.
2:56am – Another one of those prepaidteleco companies has opened called Makeadeposit. They are now on the deposits lists that we are tracking.
Updated Monday Mar. 12
11:45pm – In the last post we said that Calvin Ayre was no longer a billionaire, according to Forbes. Calvin cleared things up and went on record to say he was still a billionaire according to gambling911.
1:24am – Despite the fact that Bodog.com continues to accept US players the owner, Calvin Ayre’s net worth was reduced in half according to Forbes. He was once in Forbes richest people in the world list but has since dropped out. Calvin is only worth about $500 million now.
12:43am – Four more days until the Neteller co-founders go to court and US customers potentially find out the fate of their frozen funds. This ought to be interesting.
Updated Sat. Mar. 11
11:50pm – Nothing going down the past day or two. Don’t forget to move your clocks forward!
Updated Thursday Mar. 8
4:24pm – I was skimming around the Poker Players Alliance Youtube account and noticed they uploaded some commercials a couple days ago. The first one is pretty funny. Hit refresh if it doesnt load quickly.
PPA video 1 -“Man Beaten to Death – fake”
PPA video 2 – “License regulate and tax online poker”
1:59am – Cardplayer did an interview with the new chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, Al D’Amato. It is by no means earth shattering nor does it go into much detail but if you’re bored here’s the ( cardplayer.com/poker_news/article/8464 )
4:10pm – Here are some brief statistical averages for those wondering if games are tougher because of lack of players. As you can see the numbers are on the rise again and are still more than pre-US legislation. Games should be as soft as ever. These averages are of the total cash players at Poker Stars during peak hours. We used Poker Stars com because they are the biggest poker room right now.
- 9715 Five day avg. before Bush signs legislation (Oct. 8 – Oct. 12)
- 14781 Five day avg. before Neteller bailed (Jan. 13 – Jan. 17)
- 12637 Five day avg. after Neteller bailed (Jan 19 – Jan 23)
- 11653 In between the two (Feb 8 – Feb 12)
- 13,300 First five day avg. in March (March 1- March 5)
Updated Monday Mar. 5
6:56pm – In an effort to get more players signed up for the Poker Players Alliance, Pokerstars com just launched $5,000 daily freerolls. They are saying that anyone who plays in the freerolls will be given an introductory membership for the PPA. Only people without a membership at the PPA can play in the freerolls. This is great and I’m glad to see these poker sites are being persistent at finding ways to attract more PPA members.
1:13pm - The New York Times posted a long but good article about the former NY Senator D’Amato and his support for online poker.
Updated Sunday Mar. 4
2:43pm – Nothing exciting happening this weekend so far. There are 12 days left until the Neteller trail and players find out what will happen with their frozen funds.
Updated Saturday Mar. 3
1:02am – A new Perspectives Weekly video was added to the US legislation video section. This weeks video goes into new world wide legislation with online gambling. I wish these videos would go a little more in depth about certain important weekly subects. J. Todd, if you’re reading this I’d like to suggest more info and less commercials.
Updated Friday Mar. 2
2:24am – Straightflush and BetUS Poker have moved to the Cake Network to continue taking US players. It’s a shame Doyles Room didn’t do the same.
Updated Thursday Mar. 1
6:53pm – Neteller’s lawyers sent an email to Youteller.com (an ewallet expected to launch this month) telling them to cease using the name Youteller. Neteller said they are prepared to take legal action against Youteller because they feel the name is confusing and is too similar to Neteller’s and its operations.
Personally I think they should have chosen a different name in the first place. It’s obvious they were trying to get ex-US customers by using the name Youteller. If I were a company doing the same type of business as Neteller, I wouldnt want people thinking, “Oh that’s just like Neteller, the ones who handled their US customers terribly during bad times.”
11:08am – Goldenpalace Poker closed its doors to US players today. They will transfer their players to somewhere called Centurypoker.
