April Updates for US Players
For current updates please visit our US poker site/webpage.
Updated Saturday April 28
1:31pm – An email sent out by Poker Stars to New York players yesterday stated that they would no longer be sending checks to anyone from the state of NY. This is interesting and I personally don’t see why their check processors would stop sending checks to NY.
Updated Friday April 27
12:25pm – Earlier this week we mentioned that a change in legislation was made for Washington State players. Turns out the state made a typo and it is in fact still a felony to gamble online in Washington State.
Updated Thursday April 26
7:42pm – The Barney Frank new proposed bill made it to CNBC today with a debate. It still amazes me how little the opposition knows about online gambling. They totally disregard the fact that this proposed bill is set to solve the problems they keep arguing why online gambling is so bad.
12:14pm – Here is Barney Franks Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act of 2007 just released today. The link is to the news release. There are 3 links towards the bottom of the page that have the actual Bill HR 2046, a Q&A section and a summary.
The bill basically just shows ways the US can regulate tax and keep problem gambling out. It would license those who have all the safeguards in place like stopping underage gambling, money laundering etc.
I think the best thing I saw in the bill was technology to stop obsessive gamblers. To me that’s the biggest problem with online gambling. Frank basically proposed a technology where you could add your name to a list to keep from playing online etc.
Overall I personally think the bill is great. It shows that all the “Bads” of online gambling can be fixed with technology and gives exact ways of doing it. Once those are fixed the US can tax it and everyone will be happy. 
Something that should have been done before the UIGEA was passed.
1:33am – I added the PPA / D’Amato Webcast video to the “videos” section above in case you missed it. Also don’t forget, Barney Frank is supposed to introduce the bill to repeal online gambling TODAY. The news will most likely first be posted at financialservices.house.gov and we will also post links as they come in.
Updated Wednesday April 25
11:50am – According to most sites I’ve spoken to who have an 11 state ban, this will not be changed regarding the Washington State issue. See 2 posts below for the “Washington State Issue”. Microgaming said that because it only provides players with a defence of a breach of conditions set out by the bill that they are still going to exclude Washington State and the other 10 states from playing at their sites.
11:41am – The bill to repeal the online gambling ban being introduced by Barney Frank, House Financial Services, will come out this week said Frank. It could possibly be out Thursday.
1:16am – It appears Washington State has amended its legislation which previously made it a felony to gamble online. The changes to the Washington State Gambling Legislation (pdf), House Bill 1243 were underlined and basically said “recreation use in ones primary residence” is ok. The bill passed the House on April 17th but this is the first I’ve heard anything about it. I’m going to research a little more but this seems promising……
Updated Sunday April 22
3:23pm – I categorized the list of old Prima sites for US accepted, non US accepted and 11 state ban. If you find any errors or know of other sites that should be on the list feel free to email me at info@STOPSPAMcompatiblepoker.com
Updated Friday April 20
Kyl concludes in his very last sentence, “The Treasury is about to issue the regulations….the input needs to be given quickly.” It sounds to me that the Attorney General and the DOJ won’t be able to co-operate in time with the Treasury Department for the list of “bank accounts” that Kyl wants so desperately.
2:42pm – Some important news came about yesterday. There was a video on C-Span where Jon Kyl speaks with the US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales about the urge for quick and strict restrictions for internet gambling and the UIGEA.
Kyl wanted Gonzales support to be able to give the Treasury Department a list of gambling companies bank accounts so they could properly stop transactions. Gonzales didn’t really committ saying there were “operational issues” involved with that. I’m also trying to get the cspan video clip but they make it impossible to link to.
Updated Thursday April 19
1:29pm – Youteller released some information about their delays. From what the short news piece said, the delays are coming from the legal hassle with Neteller over the name “Youteller”. Florian Schweitzer, the owner of Youteller now says it could be until next summer that they launch. Here is a direct quote from PointSpread.
“It is in everyone’s interest that YouTeller will not be confused with NETeller,” said Seed Capital spokesman Florian Schweitzer. If Seed Capital will not be able to make the legal situation clear the company will introduce an all-new online payment system next summer.”
1:17pm – Americascard Room will reopen to US players in 4 hours according to support. I found it pretty funny that they would not tell me if they would be running of Digital Gaming Software or Microgaming until the official release. Unfortunately they will not have the Java software like they did before as I know was the main reason most Mac users played there.
8:00am – There is rumor that the Financial Services Committee and lobyists will meet today to develop a strategic plan to repeal the online gambling ban, reported Gambling91. We’ll post any reports that get published on what they discuss if it comes available.
Updated Tuesday April 17
5:34pm – I contacted Rebeka at the United States Attorney Southern District of New York press office about the Neteller arraignment which was held yesterday. She told me that yesterday was a preliminary hearing. During yesterday’s hearing there was an option to indict, not indict or to push things back for 30 days. The third option was decided upon, as all parties were not in agreement so from what Rebeka told me, we will have to wait up to 30 days for any news on the fate of Lawrence and Lefebvre. That’s why no press release or information has been published at any of the major news sources yet. We haven’t forgot but there just wasn’t anything to report on. 
Here is the full article we put together on the latest Neteller arraignment hearing.
2:57am – There has not yet been a press release regarding the arraignment hearing for the two ex-Neteller co-founders scheduled yesterday. I presume Neteller will issue a press release early morning today. You can keep checking back here for updates or at Neteller’s news page. Hopefully the press release will also give us some updates on US funds and the progress of the 75 period they were given to find a way to distribute US funds.
Updated Sunday April 15
1:32pm – Bodog says they can no longer process their paperless checks for deposits. Meanwhile Poker.com has re-added this as an option in their list but it doesn’t seem to be functional according to someone who wrote in. (The Poker.com software hates my computer so I can’t download them to verify.)
3:31am – We have another important event coming up. Monday is the Neteller trial. It will be interesting to see how that goes down even though they’re already working out a plan to get US customers their money back……one day. 
Updated Saturday April 14
1:06am – There was a great debate that came out about 10 hours ago on CNBC between Lawrence Walters, gambling law attorney, and Barrett Duke who is on the board of the National Coalition against Legalized Gambling. It’s a five minute debate on whether we should repeal the ban or not. In my opinion the debate favored US players. Most of Duke’s arguments show a lot of hypocritism and the host and Walters make sure to point that out. I’ll also keep this video as a permanent link in the video section above because its a pretty good clip.
Updated Friday April 13
3:42pm – Poker.com added ePassporte to their deposit skew today.
1:40pm – UltimateBet/Absolutepoker just sent out a new email regarding the pros that promote their sites. Here is the most important quote from the email.
“The businesses will no longer actively use Professional Poker Players to endorse either Dotcom brands in the US domestic market, but will continue to do so Internationally. However Leading Pros such as Mark Seif, Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and others continue to work for Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. The marketing decision on the Dotcom Brands in the US and does not in any way affect US players.”
Updated Thursday April 12
9:39pm – Doyles Room is going to be joining the Microgaming Poker Network. While many of the Microgaming sites accept US players, Doyles Room will not begin accepting US players again.
4:48pm – There was an article on Barney Frank on Reuters today. It said Barney will have the repeal ready in 2 weeks. To sum up the article he said the repeal will be to “test” the water to see what kind of reaction it gets from the public. He also said he’s not going to try and make a carveout for poker. He also said he could only repeal the banning of credit cards because that was in his jurisdiction. Overall the article seemed somewhat negative. 
Updated Tuesday April 10
Interesting Statistics Part II – # of Real Money Cash Players during Certain Dates
Please refer to the US poker site traffic report for the chart
The one thing I do have to say about these numbers is WOW. Party Poker has almost regained the same figures they had pre-US ban as far as real money players. I’m sure their expenses are going to be very high this quarter after having to translate their software into quite a few languages but it’s still very impressive. It’s cyclical during this time of year for there to be less players on the tables because of summer time but the numbers still look pretty high.
I threw in the stats for Everest Poker because while they used to accept US players they have always been predominantly focused on International players. Look how high their numbers have increased in the past few months. Poker over seas is blowing up no doubt about that.
P.S. Im not a stock analyst nor do I invest in gambling stocks but I’m sure these figures could be helpful one way or another. Thanks to Pokersitescout.com for letting us analyze your player volume stats.
Updated Monday April 9
8:10pm – No major updates today but here are some important events coming up in the next week or so. On April 12th we have the Poker Players Alliance webcast at the PPA website. Also on April 16th the Neteller hearing is going to happen. Tomorrow I’m going to recap the statistics on player volumes at US accepted sites for any of those who like to track that kind of stuff. I’ll also throw in some player volume stats on Party Poker for those that like to invest in gaming stocks. The stats might come in handy. 
Updated Friday April 6
2:40pm – A new APCW video was added to the US video section. It recaps the Gary Kaplan arrest, latest news on Barney Frank, the WTO rulings and some other important news that happened this week. Also a site called Pokersyndicate reopened to US players this week.
Updated Thursday April 5
9:37pm – I had posted a few days ago that Poker.com had implemented a “Fast Check” option for deposits. Turns out I jumped the gun and they are getting ready to implement it very shortly.
3:14pm – Ultimatebet will be adding Add-funds to their US deposit list shortly. It was suprising to see they didn’t add this when Absolutepoker did due to their merger.
2:45pm – It sounds like poker players have more support on their side. A Congressman, Ron Paul, said in an email letter to a twoplustwo member that he will support Barney Frank in the repeal of the Unlawful Gambling Act. Some more great news. 
Here is his exact quote……short and to the point.
“Hello, I am Congressman Ron Paul’s legislative director. You are receiving this message because you contacted our office regarding Internet gambling. Dr. Paul intends to work with House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank to repeal the ban.“
2:30pm – The Poker Players Alliance has issued an announcement for this upcoming week. On April 12th 3pm they will be hosting a webcast where any poker players can ask questions for 3-term U.S. Senator Alfonso Damato whom is now the Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance.
This is really great in my opinion and I’m very excited to see what he has to say. I think most poker players are well informed about all that’s happened so we’ll be able to tell if his answers are BS or not. BTW, the PPA now has 319,306 members! If interested go to pokerplayersallianace.org for more info or to listen in on the webcast.
12:41am – Everyone remember Youteller and how it was supposed to launch in March? Guess what, it’s not March anymore and the Youteller’s website still says “We will be launching in March.” Ok so I can understand they are having difficulties setting up and let’s say it’s just taking longer than they expected. Most “Legitimate” companies would at minimal keep their website somewhat up to date.
Mind you there’s only 4 pages of content that actually direct to legitimate pages so I’m sure they’ve got plenty of staff to keep things nice and fresh. Thats just another inclination to me that Youteller, might not be so legit after all. I have emailed Florian, the owner of Youteller, to see what the deal is. This was on April 2nd so we’ll see what kind of response, if any he sends. Stay tuned……..
Updated Tuesday April 3
2:35am – I received an email today stating that Poker.com has added a “Fast Check” option in their cashier for all players. For some reason I was having trouble connecting to the software so I couldn’t confirm it. Now I believe only them and Bodog have this option available but Bodog is saying the option is only available for their “loyal” players…..which I assume really means their higher rollers?
Updated Monday April 2
1:50am – After being temporarily suspended from use Add-funds is now back in action at AP as a pre-paid deposit option. Live support couldn’t give me a reason why they had stopped using this option for a few weeks.
Updated Sunday April 1
1:57am – The founder of Bet on Sports, Gary Kaplan, was finally arrested. They found him in the Dominican Republic after he was on the run for about a year. He is facing up to 20 felonies. On that note, Bet on Sports customers have yet to be paid for funds frozen in their accounts months ago.
