October & November 2010 Updates

Please visit the US poker sites page for recent changes.

November 29

4:36am – The bill in NJ to allow online poker has just been amended. This time they are going to deny players from across the pond, and internationally. Apparently this is to avoid WTO and DOJ challenges according to iMEGA. While you’d think free trade and allowing “World Trade Organization” agreements would actually be avoiding “challenges” we have to remember back years ago when the US blocked players from the US from playing on all sites including licensed European ones, so it would now be hypocritical to say the USA can make money off the US and players from Europe without allowing all gaming sites into the New Jersey market. The entire thing is a big knot I don’t think can be unwound without cutting a lot of line.

November 23

4:55am – J. Todd did some really good interviews for this weekly show. If you’re a player, skip the first section about bewinners as it doesn’t apply as they are not US accepted. Anyways as a recap he was at the Global Gaming Conference and did an interview with John Pappas from the PPA (basically he said the “stars had to align” for a bill to pass this year, and he didn’t seem to enthusiast about future years), and Ray Lesniak about legalizing online gaming in New Jersey that looks like its going to happen before the end of the year.

Happy Turkey Day.

November 20

2:28pm – In continuation with my last post, it seems ewalletxpress has been seized by the US government. This will likely mean frozen funds if true. Also, Bodog.com is lucky to have added echecks this week because ewalletxpress was their main processor. Without echecks they would basically be left with nothing, just credit cards. I think it would be interesting to do an update to the traffic chart next week with lots of commotion going on lately so I’ll probably update that with some new numbers.

November 17

9:58pm – Ewalletxpress a fairly popular depositing and withdrawing method is going to be shutting down to US customers. GET YOUR MONEY OUT ASAP! You won’t lose it, you just don’t want to get it tied up in ewalletxpress. It might even be smart to deposit into a gaming site and withdraw via a check as I’m sure ewalletxpress is getting massive amounts of withdraw requests at the moment. (This apparently is not a rumor this time as ewalletxpress has had false alarms prior)

November 12

3:25pm – Fulltiltpoker left Washington State today. This comes shortly after Pokerstars exited the state. Sites that continue to accept WA players include AbsolutePoker

November 11

1:33am – I’m a bit late on this but J. Todd discusses some important topics this week involving the US and online gambling. Election results and what it means for online poker, and also more Kentucky issues.

November 3

12:31pm – Reading 2+2 revealed some people having problems withdrawing from Full Tilt lately. Also, there was quite a bit of chatter over banks getting involved with people they suspected to be playing poker. Note to anyone out there. When you make dozens of $100 transactions banks tend to think you have some sort of fraud going on in your account, or your card was stolen etc. Be smart….Also, if someone at my bank asked what a transaction was for no matter what it was for I’d tell them it’s completely private matter.

October 22

10:05am – I just wanted to make the update that I forgot awhile ago. A visitor emailed me asking about Kentucky and which sites were banning the state. The only one is the Cake Network. All other networks said they accepted Kentuckians. Most sites just changed their stance when the governor failed in his attempts to take all those gambling domains.

October 17

6:05am – There was no news posted the last two weeks because I was at the iGaming Conference over in Budapest. I don’t think I heard one person talk about the UIGEA or related stuff. There was a little talk about Sportsbook losing a processor which hit them hard, but that didn’t last long as they’re back up and operational in full capacity. J. Todd discusses the Washington State ban. Also the PPA discussed players concerns recent news and the future of online poker last week. Up to 10 years was given for an estimate for federal licensing of online poker by the PPA…..