Bumpy Road Ahead

Playing Poker online is still a bumpy road since the backdooring of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 Bill to ban it. President Bush signs said bill into Law on Friday the 13th. The latest shot across the bow of online poker players is the message from FirePay indicating they will decline any purchase transactions from US FirePay accounts holders at any gambling merchant site (see message below).

Subject : New FirePay policy for US account holders

On September 30, 2006, the United States Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

Once President Bush approves the Act. FirePay (www.firepay.com) will no longer allow US consumer payments for online gambling merchants.

* Beginning the day President Bush signs the Act, FirePay will decline any purchase transactions from US FirePay account holders at any gambling merchant site.
* Ten days after President Bush signs the Act, FirePay will decline any transfer attempt made by any online gambling merchant to a US FirePay account.

This is very ominous indeed. So far Neteller, my preferred method of making deposits to Poker sites, is business as usual. However, that could change at any time with little or no notice.

Second strange happening: I received an e-mail 2 days ago from Crazy Poker indicating that they were going to offer 33% rake back at their site. Today I received another e-mail indicating that they may not be able to let American Citizens play on their site but if you were to e-mail them they would help with a work around. Sorry, I don’t have a copy of the exact wording but this is pretty much the gist of the e-mail. This is very strange indeed.

Finally, I have read at a couple of sites that Sun is paying the September rake back to American Players and they are indicating they may soon open their poker room back up to U.S. players. This may be just smoke and mirrors by Sun to appease a large player base that they divorced themselves from but it is interesting, none-the-less.

IMHO, I recommend that you deposit funds at sites you intend to clear bonuses on or at sites that you just prefer playing at. This will give you a leg up in case anything changes with depositing funds at poker sites in the near future. I am of the opinion that we will be able to get our money out of a site somehow, even if it means them mailing us a check. It may take longer but evenutally we should have our money in hand.

To sum things up. I think we are in for a few more surprises before everything shakes out and I think you will be a step ahead of things if you already have money deposited at Poker sites.

Check out this blog for a well thought out post on the gambling bill: Dragonystic