[gamblerNC1]

Many of us here have been too hard on WPEX management, my self included, though I still feel they have made many counterproductive moves. The reality of online poker is none of the sites that cater to US players are growing in the present business climate.

From what I can gather from the trends at Poker Scout, almost all the sites are flat lining or seeing a slow downward trend, bar a few upstarts like Cake Poker. The problem seems to be that more money is coming out the online poker economy than is going in. I read an article a short time back that estimated the US market has seen a 35% traffic decrease since the new law. Little was offered in the way of proof so take it with a grain of salt, but it seems to me to be close to accurate.

The real problem that WPEX and all poker sites are up against are the difficulty of moving money. I don’t see how any promotion, gimmick or tinkering is going to change this, if rake free poker did not get the job done. The wait for checks gets longer and the expense for the sites continues to climb.

The realistic outlook for all these sites are not how to grow but how to hold on to the business they have. Unfortunately, WPEX does not have much to hold on to. What traffic they have is there is because of the 100% rake back, which in this climate has proven impossible to maintain. Unless a better, faster and cheaper way is discovered to move money online than I think Fred is going to find himself the mayor of a ghost town, no matter what changes the management at WPEX makes.