February Archived US Poker Updates
Updated Wednesday Feb. 28
1:51pm – Poker Stars is testing out a new deposit option called the “Free pre-paid Debit/Visa” card. They’ve been running this test for about a week now. Only some players can see the option in the cashier because it is being tested on a select group of players.
2:44am – Not much has been going on the past couple days. There is some issues with France talking to 888.com executives. Seems like they’re going after online poker just as hard as the US. Anyways, I hope you guys didn’t lose too much in the stock market yesterday, shoulda left that money on the poker tables where it’s less risky. 
Updated Monday Feb. 26
1:48pm – Vip.com has stopped taking Canadian players today along with US players.
Updated Sunday Feb. 25
10:17pm – Full Tilt says they have “rectified” their check problems and will now begin sending out players money. They said there is a 2-3 day internal processing and 5-7 day delivery time wait.
Updated Sat. Feb. 24
1:22am – Here is a follow up quote from Casinocitytimes regarding Barney Frank and the repeal of the gambling ruling that we quoted in the 12:53am post today. The good news didnt last long. 
“As you know, he is opposed to restrictions on online gambling,” said Frank’s press secretary, Steve Adamske. “But there is nothing currently underway to repeal the restrictions on Internet gambling in the . There are a lot of reports coming out of Europe and I have no idea where they are coming from. There hasn’t been anyone on our staff talking about that, including the Chairman.”
1:15am – Moneygram is starting to be pushed even harder by PokerStars com. I’m not sure why they want people to use Moneygram so much, besides their lower fees than Western Union (Moneygrams main competitor). They even released a reload bonus today for Moneygram users which is pretty rare for Poker Stars.
1:05am – According to what Full Tilt poker “says” their check fiasco should be fixed by next week along with an express courier delivery added and other major processing updates.
12:53am – For those who have been waiting for a little bit of good news here it is. These are quotes from a Financial website.
“Various rumors prompted a flurry of speculative buying in PartyGaming which lifted the shares to 45¼p before closing 4¼p higher at 41½p.Brave buyers piled in amid reports that veteran Congressman Barney Frank, Democrat chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, wants to repeal the gambling ruling and has called for a two-year amnesty. Last March, Frank said: ‘Adults are entitled to do with their money what they want to do.’ “
Updated Friday Feb. 23
12:38am – Party Poker will block players from France today similar to what they did with the USA.
12:16am – Youteller just sent out an email press release regarding their ewallet. They are going to be accepting memberships by a referral basis only. Here is the latest Youteller signup press release.(link removed)
Updated Wednesday Feb. 21
12:15pm – When the UIGEA was set in place Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet (two US accepted sites) announced a merger. But when will they actually merge so that players from UB will be at the same tables as players from AP? I was wondering this until one twoplustwo poster got a reply from the management saying it will happen in 60-90 days.
Updated Tuesday Feb. 20
3:12am – Doylesroom announced they now are allowing their US players to transfer funds to
Fulltiltpoker.com. They must have worked out some sort of deal with Full Tilt by selling them their player database. If you’re just reading this, Doylesroom stopped taking US players yesterday.
Updated Monday Feb. 19
11:07pm – Fulltiltpoker.com is now pushing the Poker Players Alliance very hard. They are now giving bonuses for players who donate to the PPA. The basic bonus they are offering is a freeroll for joining the PPA all the way up to $1000 bonus for donating $1000 to the PPA. When you go to the homepage you can see the large PPA banner explaining the campaign. I believe Party Poker did something like this months ago before they stopped taking US players.
10:54pm – Doylesroom is now directing players to this site for their official press release for US players. This link is in their software lobby (nouspokerroom.com). It’s too bad I did not expect this from Doylesroom.
5:48pm – Wow it looks like the Doylesroom rumor was true. The story has been changed/pulled 3 times now so hopefully the information is correct. It seems Doylesroom has confirmed they will indefinately leave the US market.
2:35pm - A rumor spread this morning that Doylesroom was leaving the US market, indefinately. This is not true.
Updated Sunday Feb. 18
3:52pm – PokerHost will be moving to the Microgaming Network. They were once on the Tribeca Network but because Tribeca will stop serving US customers, PokerHost decided to move. Microgaming does not accept players from 11 states. It is still unsure what Network other Tribeca poker sites like Doyles room will switch to.
Updated Saturday Feb. 17
12:31pm – We received an email back from Full Tilt regarding our concerns about the delays in checks. We asked them direct questions like “What exactly is causing the delays” and “Does Full Tilt carry cash reserves to cover all players accounts”. Here is the Full Tilt check email we received back.
Updated Friday Feb. 16
3:27pm – Sci-Fi and Breakaway casino will be pulling out of the US market this week.
1:13pm – Rumor has it that Doylesroom might be switching to the Merge Gaming Network. This was newly formed by Poker.com when they created Carbon Poker a few weeks ago. This is a rumor posted by the CEO of a high end poker magazine in an industry related forum. Hopefully it is true and Doylesroom stays off the Digital Gaming Network.
5:33pm – The latest word on Harrah’s and the WSOP are that they won’t be allowing any advertising from poker sites that accept US players. This means they will not be allowed to advertise their .net sites if they take US real money players. Non-US accepted sites can advertise as they did in the past.
2:26pm – Full Tilt sent out an email to customers saying they have delayed check payments. They are issuing $26 tournament tickets for the inconvenience. We also added a new video to the “video section” above.
Updated Thursday Feb. 15
2:28pm – Tribeca, most notably known for Doyles Room has stopped taking US players today. They were expected to stop taking players in April but have pulled out early. Doylesroom and other skins still wanting to service US players will be out of luck until they switch software networks. Existing players will be allowed to play until Feb. 28. On that date all US IP’s will be blocked. No NEW registrations can occur. All of this info came from gambling911.com
I’d expect Doylesroom to be back up and running under a new software platform in a month or so.
1:48pm – Full Tilt said this in their latest weekly newsletters. To me it sounds like they’ll be releasing one of those prepaidteleco skin-deposit providers.
Keep an eye out for important announcements from us regarding the addition of other new deposit and withdrawal methods for U.S. players, including new options that will allow customers to instantly fund their accounts using their credit cards.”
12:18am - The US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of NY just announced they extended the deadline to decide whether or not to indict the Neteller co-founders. The new date is March 16th. What does that mean? It means US customers won’t be getting their money out of Neteller until they decide on March 16th. They were supposed have the arraignment yesterday, Feb. 14th. 
Updated Wednesday Feb. 14
9:42pm – Golden Riviera Poker stopped taking US players
12:36am – Fulltiltpoker.com put MywebATM on their withdraw list. Previously they were on on the deposit que only.
Updated Tuesday Feb. 13
1:54am – It was confirmed that Doyle Brunson was not arrested. It was rumored that he had been arrested for being connected to Doyles Room, a US accepted site or possibly SEC investigations. It’s amazing the rumors these days but you could smell this one was wrong a mile away.
12:12am – The attack on internet gambling continues to be disguised as an attempt to stop money laundering. This was a very short article posted by the Orlando Business Journal. 
“Internet gambling and even the smallest international wire transfers are about to make the list of transactions. Central Florida banks will monitor under anti-money laundering laws. Regulators plan to add the first of the new requirements this year and will add the second by early 2008, says Clemente Vazquez-Bello, a partner in the Miami office of law firm Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart.”
Updated Monday Feb. 12
The latest rumor is that Doyle Brunson has been arrested. If this were true, although very unlikely, it is speculated to be from SEC investigations. Concensus is this is a bad circulating rumor.
Updated Sunday Feb. 11
2:01am – According to Pokerhelper.com, the former New York Senator Al D’Almato will be announced as a lobbyist for making online poker legal. They will receive funds from US accepted poker sites like Poker Stars to further their efforts.
Updated Saturday Feb. 10
2:02pm – Gamesgrid Poker has stopped taking US players. They were on the same network as Tony G Poker and Mansion Poker which was connected to the Skill Games Network.
1:56pm – Tony G Poker has stopped accepting US players and completely pulled out of the US market.
Updated Friday Feb. 9
10:53pm – J. Todd and the APCW added a new news video about deposit providers, ISP blocking, Betonsports issues, and the FEDS. It’s mostly about industry news but goes over a recap of last week.
7:17pm – No major updates today. I did a little investigating of these “phone card” (Nucharge and Add-funds) deposit methods that some poker sites have been coming out with. I’m not sure how it would legally be any different but they all seem to be issued by a site called prepaidteleco and then customized for each particular poker room.
During a whois search the domain showed up in Panama. When I emailed the “support” on Add-Funds I got a reply telling me to call their support phone number which lead to a 407 area code which is in Orlando Florida. It will be interesting to see how long these guys last because to me, something doesn’t seem right.
Updated Thursday Feb. 8
11:23pm – Absolutepoker adds a new deposit provider called Add-funds. It looks to work by buying “phone time”. It looks exactly like Nucharge. We did a whois search for the domain and it appears to be registered in Canada.
2:31pm – Neteller just released statements about US funds. The US Attorney’s Office had a warrant to seize the funds. There is an estimated $55million dollars of US customers money being held. Neteller said that because of third party restrictions, legal concerns, and court seizures payments haven’t been made to US customers. Neteller is still saying the return of funds is their top priority and with the cooperation of the USAO they would get funds back to their customers.
2:30am – I contacted Neteller today just out of curiosity to see what they were telling people about withdraws (and the chance of never getting them). Talk about avoiding just about every question you try to ask. Finally I just gave up. (Neteller chat log). Also, I added a #7 to the FAQ section above about US Neteller withdraws.
Updated Wednesday Feb. 7
2:59pm – Florian Schweitzer, the founder of Youteller, emailed us today to clear up a few things. The email was still somewhat vague. I also posted some of the quotes from Egaming Review’s follow up story done today.
1:27am – We went ahead and contacted Youteller about the claims that Egaming Review made about them. According to Peter Deveraux, a representative of Youteller, the claims are false (read post below for claims). He said the Oxford based Seed Capital Ltd. may have another authorization but the company listed on the FSA website is their London based company. It seems this was most likely a misunderstanding. I will post the follow up story that eGaming Review publishes when it comes out. I’m sure the owners of Youteller will make sure their name is cleared if indeed these accusations were not true.
Updated Tuesday Feb. 6
12:44pm – Egrmagazine, a leader in online gaming news, reported that Youteller ( a new ewallet) is making false claims. In order to read the news at EGR you need a registered account. If you don’t have an account here are the basics of the article.
Youteller claims to be trademark of a company Seed Capital Ltd in East London but instead after search from EGR they showed up in Oxford. Here is the scary part. When EGR contacted Oxford Technology Management they said they’ve never heard of Youteller. Schweitzer, the guy who seems to be in charge of Youteller, and his company do not seem to be registered with FSA. Egaming Review just broke this story so for now be cautious. In fact, beware of all new ewallets not readily supported by large companies.
Updated Monday Feb. 5
4:08pm – A representative from Full Tilt posted at twoplustwo that they expect to have myWebATM withdrawl options by Thursday. Currently they only have it set up for deposits.
1:43pm – This quote had been posted at a few news sources the past couple days I just forgot to put it up. It’s about US residents with funds stuck in Neteller.
“FBI Agent Neil Donovan says funds from Neteller are being held in court as potential evidence. Some customers may get their money back.”
1:05am - The new ewallet “myWebATM” that Full Tilt added only allows deposits. Players from twoplustwo reported that Full Tilt says on their website that you can withdraw using myWebATM but this is not true. Full Tilt customer support said they are working with myWebtATM to allow withdrawls. Sounds like they need to edit their webpage.
Updated Super Bowl Sunday Feb. 4
3:51am – This could possibly be old news but Poker.com now has Ecocard in their cashier options. I don’t recall seeing that earlier this week.
Updated Satuday Feb. 3
3:38pm - I sent off an email to a manager at Doyles Room to see what their plans were when they are forced to leave their software provider or stop taking US players after the 6 month period (now about 3 left). The general support via live chat said “We don’t have that sort of information” so we’ll see what this guy says. I’ll post the email when it comes it. Most believe they will be going to the Dobrosoft, now “Digital Gaming Network” software.
2:51pm – Silver Sands Casino and poker room closed to US players today.
12:15am – Something called myWebATM (brief review) was added to Fulltiltpoker.com a few hours ago.
Updated Friday Feb. 2
10:56pm – Poker.com sells its player base to Carbon Poker. Poker.com will go back to being an informational site and all players will be transferred to Carbon Poker in due time. This is very odd but I’m sure it has something to do with the recent US law.
Updated Thursday Feb. 1
8:02pm - Western Union was re-added to Poker Stars.
5:31pm – A lot of people were hoping on Wirecard to come through but they just posted this message today. They will not be allowing US based gambling transactions.
“Please note that due to legislative restrictions account holders are not able to transfer funds to or from any online gambling sites. All account holders are able to use their Wirecard account and virtual MasterCard to safely transfer funds to and from any non-gambling Internet merchants accepting MasterCard payments or holding a Wirecard account. If the is your country of residence or nationality or your computer is located in the you are considered a account holder and you will not be able to transfer funds to or from any online gambling sites.”
