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And Now Bleak Monday
This week started out with more seizures on Bleak Monday making another depressing week for online poker in the US.
Poker sites are again second guessing the future or rather lack of it in the US, while the land based US casinos rub their hands sensing a shoo-in.
Here is our round-up of the weeks events in online poker and some thoughts about the implications for online poker players around the world and in the US.
Last week Doyle Brunson announced he was leaving DoylesRoom the poker room that is his very embodiment online. This also makes it a somewhat confusing as “the room formerly known as Doylesroom” poker site.
Almost as if Doyle knew something was afoot at the DoJ, they seized Doylesroom.com among a bunch of other .com domains and also some funds on Monday … which we are now calling Bleak Monday. However they like other sites are now using non .com domains and continue to operate … but for how long one wonders ?
DoylesRoom statement after DoJ seizures goes some way to alleviating player concerns but again this is not a particularly inspiring climate for recreational players to want to risk their bankrolls at the remaining US facing sites.
On the upside there are fresh rumours today that some of Full Tilt Poker accounts have been unfrozen, that in short means they will be able to begin paying out US players.
more … Some Full Tilt Funds Unfrozen by US
Following on from the seized .com sites moving their operations to non .com domains this has led other non affected US facing sites to follow suit, notably Bodog changing to its .eu domain.
more … Bodog hedge bets with move to .eu domain
We would expect more domains to take similar precautions as it is far too easy for the DoJ to seize domains with the domain registry for .com’s being based in the US.
In yet more complicated regulatory and legislative environments Carbon Poker have announced they are no longer accepting players from New York State.
The following states in the US have been blocked from signing up for real money play on the network:
Missouri
Louisiana
New York
Maryland
Washington DC
Existing players from these states will not be affected.
Also Merge have announced that they are now closed to France, as of 24th May French players cannot sign up and play on Merge. Although existing French players may have been able play for real money, within 24 hours they will no longer be able to access the deposit section or real money games and will only have the option to withdraw.
more … Merge Discontinues New York State signups
While it would be easy to gloss over all these changes as sites just playing safe I can’t help wondering if they have ALL sensed bleak times ahead with the DoJ now seemingly unlikely to leave ANY US facing sites unmolested.
I fully expect as do many others in the business for all the remaining US facing sites to face at the very least .com domain seizures and likely some bank accounts to be siezed too.
Unfortunately things just have that bleak sense of inevitability about it.
Nevada Online Poker Bill Passes Senate Judiciary Committee basically setting up the road ahead for regulated online poker controlled and profited for and by the US land based casinos … At least in Nevada.
Again its not taken long for the vultures to circle and rally the troops now they have the prospect of a neatly US only controlled market with those “pesky” non US online poker sites out of the way.
It’s just a damn shame the PPA and the land based casinos couldn’t see their way to being a bit more pro-active when the rest of the world was offering a perfectly safe and regulated product.
I guess all bets are back on with my “Pokerstars to buy into Vegas” prediction last year
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