June and July 2009 US Updates
July 29
1:48am – How affective has the UIGEA been you ask? It’s crap actually when you look at the numbers, and actually funny how US players continue and say screw the legislation. The Poker Players Research came out with a study that said there are 10 million real money players. That’s about 3.33% of the US population. The closest country to even keep up with the US was the UK with 1.9 million which comes out to about 3.1%. Both pretty much the same percentages and both thriving online gambling countries. One difference, the US has restrictions on depositing but we somehow still find a way to keep the percentages equal. 
That’s a big F U to Senator Frist.
July 26
2:59pm – Ok so here is some good news on the legal front. According to casinoadvisor.com Senator Menendez will release a bill which will attempt to make legal online gambling in the United States. This means that we will have Barney Frank’s bill attempting to do so, and Menendez’s bill as well. The bill is expected to compliment much of what Barney Frank is trying to do with his bill, but with a more “poker” focus. His hopes are to have legalization by the end of the year.
12:50am – Instant Echecks have finally been re-instated at Absolutepoker and Ultimatebet after a couple weeks of being down.
12:41am – There have also been suspicions of superuser cheating at Pitbullpoker. Along with that some apparently affiliates have claimed to have reports of “skimming” on rake as well. Pitbull is a smaller company that started to grow after the UIGEA but hopefully these allegations are cleared up for the sake of online poker, not only Pitbull Poker. This kind of crap is terrible news when our opponents spin it against us as we go towards regulation. But like all news, it can be spun the opposite way. Legalization would mean less shady activity.
12:38am – J. Todd has the link to the video where Barney Frank is talking at the WSOP. I’ll be honest, I’m not going to watch the video. While I obviously support the PPA, Barney talks too vaguely for me. Same stuff for the past 3 years really. J. also discusses more protectionist laws in other countries in this weeks video.
July 21
5:52am – There was a study published by Betfair about how much people in the US and the UK were playing poker because of the “recession”. It always boggles me how some of these studies are even published, as they never consider other variables that may be in place. Anyway the study of 1000 players said they were playing ~50% less than they were last year. The study makes it sound as if people are playing less but in fact the average playing span of a poker player is less than a year. I consider the stats a success and can look at any site out there that tracks player traffic to see that people are playing MORE than ever before at a simple glance. The only useful thing to come out of the study said that 88% of of the 44% of poker players aware of the echeck money seizure last month were concerned their money was at risk. In any case if I were a poker operator I’d be doing special promotions and sending out emails to players assuring them of the safety of their money.
July 19
6:37am – For whatever reason Absolutepoker has removed echecks from their cashier option. I was told to contact phone support if I wanted to use this option. If you remember back a couple weeks ago, they were the only site to have this option, now they seem to be having difficulties while the likes of Pokerstars.com have ironed out echecks and got them running smoothly again.
July 18
11:07pm – Here is J. Todds weekly recap.
July 14
4:41am – One of the processors that handles echecks for these large poker sites is seeking return of funds from the New York DOJ. The PPA announced it plans on helping them get the money back as it technically is the “players” money and not the poker sites.
July 8
1:53am – Yesterday iMEGA was in appelate court to repeal the UIGEA, calling it unconstitutional. iMEGA tried to push the vagueness of the law but in general Joe Brennan of iMEGA said it was “a tough panel” various times in a statement made over at 2+2. Joe did sound a bit deflated in his statement on what happened during their session. He said it could be weeks or months before we get a decision.
July 5
2:57am – Pretty boring stuff going on in the poker legislation world. Actually unless you’re in Vegas right now for the WSOP there is almost nothing going on. Barney Frank will be there for a press conference today from what I hear so some more news about his future plans will begin to be published in coming days. Speaking of which J. Todd talks about the delay of Barney’s bills in his video and more internet censorship which involves something called Betstopper which would actually help us in our efforts for legalization.
June 28
7:00pm – Egaming Review is reporting that the bill to overturn the UIGEA by Barney Frank will not be voted on until after summer (sometime probably in September). 
6:49pm – The European Union is now threatening possibly billions in sanctions per year over this UIGEA through means of the World Trade Organization. More of this from our buddy J. Todd’s video.
June 24
1:24am - Pokerstars made another big push today to get echecks back on track. Looks like for the most part FTP and Stars have echecks back for most players.
12:22am – This is just in. iMEGA has announced that lawyers for the Department of Justice and iMEGA will be heard on July 7th in a hearing to overturn the UIGEA. Joe Brennan Jr. of iMEGA says he feels very confident the judge will rule in their favor. This is definitely something to set the calendars for.
June 20
6:00pm – Here is the J. Todd’s weekly video. In it he covers how the US news and businesses are starting to support online gambling. Reporters bash unsupported evidence on a CNBC clip. Very good clip. J. also talks about what is happening with the Barney Frank bill. The bill is getting submitted to the subcommitte where Bob Goodlatte (the author of the UIGEA) sits on the committe. Not so great of news.
12:51am – There has been a drastic decline in those searching for echeck problems as processing for echecks begins to go back in order. The sites are getting echecks back up and running quite quickly for most players.
June 17
3:48pm – The rollouts continue slowly. Pokerstars is still being slow about it and check withdraws are taking some time, probably because of the backlog of cashouts being requested. Overall not all that bad and things are slowly getting back to normal, for now. As always be smart and don’t keep your whole bankroll online and be patient! Stuff like this is just going to happen.
June 15
11:19am – The rollouts of echecks continue as I personally have the option available once again at Fulltiltpoker.com. Reports are that they are still sparatic but most players should have them back in use within the week. Pokerstars still seems a bit slow at regaining them.
June 14
9:14am – Here is an update for echeck deposits and withdraws.
1. Pokerstars has already begun sorting out the problems. Players will begin to notice the option available again. They are slowly re-implementing the echeck option. Some players have it solely to deposit, some don’t have it all, and some have it to both deposit and withdraw. Either way, Pokerstars is on the comeback as to having echecks. Also slow payouts all still being reported at Stars but many are being required to send in a bank statement for the payout to occur.
2. Also apparently to a couple players, echecks are once again available to Full Tilt players. Withdraws are expected to take up to 20 days. Again, not available to all players. I went to verify my personal account but was getting a strange “Unable to process your account” when trying to access the cashier.
3. Absolutepoker.com is still not having any issues with echecks for new and old players.
4. The Cakenetwork (I contacted Doyles) says they have not solved their echeck processor problem yet and do not have an estimated time as to when it will be available.
June 10
9:20am – On a side note, I want to say congratulations to the Compatiblepoker player who won the $735,000ish https://www.compatiblepoker.com/bad-beat-jackpot/bad beat jackpot at Carbon Poker and the other player who won for sitting in on the table. Amazing!
9:15am – John Pappas of the Poker Players Alliance has stated that they are going to file an injunction on behalf of the players, in regards to the money seized in this echeck/check seizure by the Southern District of New York (SDNY). While it’s the players money, the good thing is the poker sites will obviously take the hit if the money is lost as they ensure players their money is safe. The SDNY is citing the wire act for the seizure that they did without a warrant, which as we know only applies to sportsbetting.
June 9
9:48pm – The Poker Players Alliance has released the official statement about echecks seizures. Here it is. I’d do cliff notes but the article pretty much sums it up very well. Also, Full Tilt released a statement saying they would have echecks back up and running in a week or two. If you want to play using echecks currently you can still do so at Absolutepoker.com.
12:53pm – Pokerstars is finally reimbursing money back to players accounts for bad checks from this echeck problem. Also there is rumor that the Poker Players Alliance is working to try and get funds unfrozen. The latter is pure speculation and I’m not even really sure how the PPA would be connected with something like this.
June 8
4:05pm – Still no official press release from Pokerstars or Full Tilt nor anything coming from New York’s US Attorney General’s Office in regards to echecks. I called their US press office in New York as soon as the office opened but got what I expected, “We can not comment on current or possible ongoing investigations”.
June 7
3:31am - I have confirmed myself that Absolutepoker.com and Ultimatebet.com’s echecks are working again. I successfully made a $100 deposit to both sites. After making the deposit I asked support if they could give any information. He only said they were having problems temporarily but it is now fixed. At this time all other sites are still having issues including Doylesroom, Fulltiltpoker, and Pokerstars. Some sites are misreporting that Doylesroom is not having any issues but this is untrue. Also I asked my friend who is the head of the fraud and depositing department at Pokerstars and says they will likely issue information on Monday.
June 6
8:29am – I have asked someone I met in the Bahamas who handles fraud and depositing for Poker Stars to see if he could give us any information about echecks. He may not be able to respond publicly to such a large situation. It should be noted that Gambling911 removed the disclaimer about not having full information on this being a US attorneys office in NY doing and now state it as fact. I called their office to see if I could get any information but forgot it was Saturday so I’ll need to call back Monday.
12:21am – Here is another hourly update on echecks from scanning forums and news articles. Apparently one of the bank accounts used by the check processors that these major sites use was frozen along with all the checks. Pokerstars is informing players that new checks won’t bounce. Brandon Berndt the affiliate managing director of Aced.com (part of cakenetwork) said the company everyone was using probably went belly up and echecks will likely be back up once they get a new processor on board. I personally just find it hard to believe that all these sites are using the exact same processor, with no immediate backup processor.
On the other hand Gambling911 is now reporting that the US Attorney’s office of New York is the reason behind echecks going down. I’d give you the link but there is no substance behind that quote as they state, “Please be advised that this story is developing and we are doing our best to get information out to our readers. None of the details related to this investigation are known at this time.”
June 5
7:57am - I’ve asked a few people and still no word as to exactly why echecks went down. In a nut shell no sites are accepting echecks. The only site I found to accept them is Pitbullpoker.com but their verification takes 14 days, not too helpful. Pokerstars withdraw checks are bouncing while Full Tilt Poker’s checks are not and the money is being redeposited into players accounts.
I actually already have a PICclub account but if it were me having deposit withdraws I would register at Doylesroom.com (you get 33% rakeback as well) and use this ewallet. They apparently are UIGEA proof and I’ve used them and still wonder why more people dont, both players and large rooms like Stars and Tilt. They are a solid ewallet and easy to use.
12:36am – Absolute Poker is now having issues with echecks. None went through yesterday. No sites are accepting echecks that I am aware of. Your best bet now is Playeronly.com using a credit or debit card because of their high success rate.
Im not going to comment on whether this is UIGEA related of just processor related until I talk to some more people tomorrow. I will say that, yes, something very similiar to this has happened before but the deadline for banks to come into compliance with the UIGEA is nearing and they could be acting in lines with the law and this may be a start. It’s still too early to say anything for sure.
June 4
4:56pm – Absolutepoker.com is the only major site that I can find that hasn’t shut down echecks today. Hopefully they don’t get shut down as it could be possible the sites that were shut down were using the same methods and they just need to switch.
1:18am – I just got word from Doylesroom (cakenetwork) that echecks are also disabled there as well. Looks like this is a US situation. I can’t give a guess as to whether this option will be restored or not but these sites found a workaround once, I’m sure it will come back.
1:13am – Apparently players are having problems depositing with Echecks at both Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker. Per the norm, both rooms are giving out the stand response, “we are working on fixing it”. This could just be an hourly thing or a permanent thing. As echecks are one of the most popular methods to deposit at US poker sites I hope they get this fixed asap.
