The fallout of the seizure of the three largest US online poker
sites on
Friday April 15
by the Department of Justice continues unabated. The fallout is
taking different forms and affecting different aspects of the
online poker industry.
Online poker sites have begun to voluntarily announce that they will cease to accept players from the United States. Two big online poker sites made the announcement on April 27. These are Sportsbook.com and PlayersOnly.com. Effective May 1, 2011 American players will no longer be able to wager at these online poker sites. American players who already have accounts can continue to wager, deposit, and withdraw. However new American players will not be able to create accounts at these online poker rooms. Apparently the same policy is being applied to the other online gambling verticals offered by these sites.
Poker Players Alliance is a body that is fighting for the legalization and regulation of online poker sites in America. According to its report 50,000 professional online poker players have entered the job market following the forced or voluntary closure of leading online poker sites. Worst hit are players with debilitating disabilities who cannot go to land based casinos to play poker. Online poker sites not only provided a convenience buy also anonymity that was essential to the psyche of such players. ESPN has featured an article in which two such players, Stephanie Martin and Brian Ford have spoken about their troubles.
Online poker tournaments have been badly hit. It was not that long ago when the online poker site PokerStars.com had announced its major online mega tournament SCOOP with guaranteed prize pools of $45 million. How badly the event will be affected by the absence of American online poker players can be judged by PokerStars.com reducing the prizes to $25 million. The high buy-in No Limit Hold’em Main Event was to have a prize pool of $5 million. It will now have a prize pool of $2.5 million.
The only good news is that PokerStars.com has started allowing its American players to withdraw their balances though it has cautioned them that there could be delays in the processing. This follows an understanding arrived at with the Department of Justice. FullTilt.com is expected to make a similar announcement soon. AbsolutePoker.com is still negotiating the terms with the authorities.