October 2006 US Online Poker News
For current updates please view our US poker main tracking page.
Updated Tuesday, Oct 31 HALLOWEEN
11:16am – EcoCard has been added to the “US accepted” deposit list.
1:02am – There is merger talks of Ladbrokes merging with Partygaming and 888.com. Gambling911.com has a pretty good article running about it.
Updated Monday, Oct. 30
3:04am – Citadel Commerce (a deposit method) just said business remains as usual with no plans of closing.
2:19am – I just went through and did a major pruning of the entire page. Everything should be up to date. The casino specific page was also updated but is not as comprehensive as this US poker page.
Updated Sunday, Oct. 29
8:28pm – Some of you have written in asking about Tribeca (Doyles Room) skins. We have begun emailing Tribeca networked sites and will report back what we find under the Tribeca portion of the sites not accepting US since most of them do not accept US players. Bowmans and Doyles room are the only two that I know of right now that are open to Americans.
3:16pm – There is talk that we could see a Party Poker / 888.com merger.
6:49pm – There are a couple sites reporting that Bet365poker is open to the USA. This is FALSE. We have confirmed this with Bet365 multiple times.
2:51pm – No major news breaks the past 6 hours
2:22am – Because we believe Western Union will have a huge importance in the future of online poker we have created a guide to WesternUnion Poker deposits. I think casual players who deposit in small increments will be using WU but it’s hard to say because they are a public company.
Updated Friday, Oct. 27
2:25 - Alamo Poker will be following suit of Full Contact Poker and trying to find a way to support US players. They will be getting off the Ongame (PokerRoom) network and looking for another skin to attach themselves to.
Updated Thursday, Oct. 26
8:04pm – Derek, the senior marketing merchant manager from MyCitadel just contacted us to say they are still open to US gambling transactions.
3:27pm – Payspark just emailed us back. They said it will remain business as usual but that they couldn’t comment on the gambling ban. Here are their exact words.
“Unfortunately we can not comment on the “gambling ban” affecting US customers and recommend that you directly contact the merchants.”
Special Moneybookers Update Wednesday, Oct 25
11:54pm – Word is out that Moneybookers has pulled the plug for USA gamblers. This has been confirmed! They are out.
10:30pm – Pokerstars.com is still taking the lead in active real money players. This is how many real money players are currently sitting. Pokerstars (10,220), Full Tilt (6,329), Ultimate Bet (2,821), Bodog (2,454), Doyles Room (1,621), Absolute Poker (1,561) and the non-US accepted Party Poker at (2,322)
3:45pm – We just received a very strange email from Casino Blasters (Golden Palace Poker) saying that they will be expanding into the UK market and that affiliates should do the same. To me it felt like a hint that they would close to the USA which if my gut is right they will within the next month.
Updated Tuesday, Oct 24
5:11 – Talk of Western Union being the saving grace for depositing has been thrown around a lot in forums. WU says it does not allow gambling related transactions but a lot of sites currently use this method with no problem. I tested it out just now and had no problems depositing. It took about 45 minutes for the money to show up into Stars.
12:57 – Full Contact poker has sent out an email telling customers about the new software change in their efforts to continue USA support. Read the Fullcontactpoker news update.
Updated Monday, Oct.23
10:47pm – I just got off the phone with epassport. The guy I talked to said they wouldn’t stop taking US poker players after the 270 time period is up. He didn’t seem to know his facts all that well so hopefully he knew what he was talking about.
10:33pm – Post removed
3:04 pm – Betsson Poker issues press release stating they will stop taking bets from US, Malta and US Virgin Islands starting Oct. 31. They are asking all players to withdraw money before then.
3:04pm SPECIAL UPDATE FOR POKERROOM.COM
3:04pm – We have new word about PokerRoom.com U.S.A. changes. Read the article for full details but it basically gives dates for when US players will be shut out. 
12:49 – Bill Frist odds of winning election are 1 in 100 according to Sportsbook.com
Updated Sunday, Oct.22
7:37pm - Superior Poker is sending out scam emails reportedly. The emails say that VIP.com is closed to USA players and that they should sign up to Superior Poker instead. Beware of Superior Poker if they would stoop down to doing this.
2: 31pm The Feds are asking internet service providers to more closely watch their customers. Haley at Pokernews.com goes into depth about the technical aspects of it. It talks about governmental control over the internet and how they are trying to repress our personal freedom.
3:00am – This is for any Hollywood Poker affiliates. They will no longer pay you into neteller if you are stationed in the USA. You will now need an international address to get paid.
Updated Saturday, Oct.21 3:29pm
9:12 – The 11 states who are affected more so than others were added to the main section of this page.
3:29pm – Calvin Ayre, the Bodog owner / billionaire is buying up companies. He just bought betwwts.com, a sportsbetting site. I guess now’s the time to buy.
Updated Friday 2:15am Oct. 20
2:15pm – Just so everyone knows Mansion poker is only taking poker players and not USA casino or sportsbook users. I think this trend will happen for most casino/poker room inter-mixed sites.
12:48 - No major press releases were issued in the past 6 or so hours. Still waiting on getting some better information from PokerRoom.
Special Neteller Update – Oct. 19, 2:54pm
Neteller just released another press release. It looks like they will comply with US law and stop transactions within the 270 time period. The plans of Neteller won’t be implemented for quite awhile so for now it’s business as usual. Here is the link to the press release. Warning its a .pdf click here.
Updated Thursday1:48am Oct. 19
5:24pm – New video added to the Video gambling ban portion directed by J. Todd
2:36 pm - Allinpoker was added to the accepted list.
iPoker has a skin called USAPoker.com which is supposedly still open. I can’t seem to figure how they swung that one since the other iPoker sites (Titan, Noble) are closed.
2: 24am - A placed called OKUSApoker.com opened up. They are a skin of Jungle poker and have all sorts of weird anti-Bill Frist promotions running. Very low player traffic (around 500 players)
All ActionPoker Network sites have been moved to the Non USA Open list
Special PokerRoom.com / Europoker.com Update Oct.19 2:55am- This is the official update on PokerRoom.com. Only existing players will be able to login, deposit and play. PokerRoom is not sure how long they will allow existing USA players to continue playing at this point. It could be 1 day or 5 years from what they told me.
Updated Wednesday 6:00am Oct. 18
SportsInteraction Poker which is part of the iPoker network has been added to the “USA Friendly Poker” list. Looks like not all iPoker network sites will be shutting down.
Updated Tuesday 6:06am Oct. 17 –
9:37pm – A new video on the news piece from CNBC was added to the poker ban video section on this page.
1:14pm - Full Tilt is making upgrades to handle an increased player capacity so they will be offline for a little bit today.
Cardcrusade added to accepted list.
Updated Monday 12:01pm Oct. 16
11:41pm - Skill Games Ltd. (gamesgrid, naked poker, tony g poker) sent an email saying they will continue taking bets from Americans.
Updated Monday 8:02pm Oct. 16
Helia from eWalletxpress.com personally contacted us today to say they will continue transactions for US players.
Today I noticed some government officials in my website stats. Yikes, I hope they’re just looking for a place to play. 
At Ultimate Bet when you scroll over the player avatar it no longer shows the country of origin. Hmmm
Last updated – Monday 3:20pm Oct. 16
No real updates so far today. PokerStars seems to be getting the most players right now. Here are the table stats. Stars – 59,600 players, Tilt – 14,843, Party – 8,000 at 3:27pm
Last updated – Monday – Oct. 16, 2006 2:08 am
Special Update 12:10am – I just heard on a forum that Party Poker could possibly be looking for ways to re-enter the US market. I’ll believe that when I see it. Talk about a wild rumor.
Moneybookers gives us word they don’t plan to close.
Mansion poker reverses decision and is now open to USA.
Some Prima sites not accepting US players at all and some are not accepting US players from states where gambling is specifically addressed. (FL, IN, IL, KS, LA, MA, MN, MO, MT, NV, NY, OR, RI, SD, TX, WA, WI, UT or HI)
Last updated – Sunday – Oct. 15,2006 6:09 am
PokerRoom.com and the bwin group have been moved to the non accepted USA lists. They are working on technical aspects to block USA players.
Last updated – Saturday 4:56pm Oct. 14
Poker Stars has reversed their decision and is now in the accepted USA list. Pitbull poker has also been added to the accepted list.
Last updated – Friday – Oct. 13,2006 4:17 pm
Rumors have it that Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are merging.
The list and this page have been completely updated from the pre-bill signing.
