Interesting (and positive) info from The Poker Chronicles ... link

[Rigel]

sorry if this has been posted- this is the best update I've seen of what's going on behind the scenes. Looks like the industry is here to stay. Interesting about poker sites setting up foreign bank accounts for premier players:

http://www.thepokerchronicles.com/

January 22, 2007
A Little More Info
Today I remembered that I know a manager at a large online casino/sportsbook. I gave him a call to ask what the situation was. He told me I could summarize what he said here, but couldn't mention his name or the casino he works for. I wanted to post his email address here in case people had questions, but I guess his schedule is busy enough now trying to limit the damage caused by Neteller's recent actions.

He said he talked to Click2Pay earlier today and they are going to continue taking U.S. customers. I was correct in guessing that their support is worse than normal lately due to being overwhelmed by new customers, but I had no idea the extent of it. Apparently it's to the point where they have a tremendous backlog of new accounts and they temporarily shut off registrations because of that. They should be opening them back up in a couple days. That seems like a pretty dumb idea to me, but their registration system is very labor intensive, even on their end, so I can see how they got to this point. If I were running the show I'd just let the backlog grow and sort it out later, but whatever. I'll be curious to see if people are able to set up accounts there a week from now.

My friend's opinion was that Click2Pay has essentially no business outside of gaming and therefore has no reason to comply with U.S. laws. He said basically what I've been saying, that the only private companies that will stop taking Americans are the ones whose founders can't live without coming here.

His casino is considering adding ePassporte. Apparently their fees are a little on the high side, which is why they aren't as widely accepted as Neteller, Click2Pay, and some of the others. He talked to them recently and they plan on continuing to service American customers permanently, even after the regulations are published and are working on contingency plans for anything the U.S. might do. My friend seems to think that the e-wallets have the advantage in this cat and mouse game. I'm not so sure about that myself.

Some casinos, his included, are now starting to register foreign bank accounts for their VIP customers, of which I am fortunate enough to be one. I will automatically have a checking account set up and be given a debit card with which to access it. That's brilliant, but I don't know how well that will work for poker. I'm not sure how that will help a new random schmuck get up and running on PokerStars. Maybe sites could automatically create a new British bank account for every customer, I don't know and didn't really think to ask.

He pointed out that his casino is currently able to accept many credit cards, and as one of my commenters pointed out, so is PokerStars. I have no idea how, but I do know that credit card companies have been trying to stop this with mixed success for over five years now. The fact that they're often inable to makes me think that the banks are correct and any regulations will be hard to comply with.

He also seemed to think that Western Union will remain an option. I have no idea how the hell that could be either. How hard would it be for Western Union or the FBI to put a stop to that? You just sign up at a casino, tell them you want to Western Union them money, and see who the recipient is. Then you tell WU to no longer allow transfers to that recipient. It would seem that the U.S. definitely would have the upper hand there, as I'm sure WU would comply immediately. It's baffling to me that that hasn't already occurred.

He also said that bank wires are still working fine and the people at his company who deal with that stuff think they will continue to. You're wiring from an American bank to a foreign one, and there's no way in hell the U.S. can simply ban all transactions to major banks overseas without facing serious international resistance, or so they said. Again, I know enough about technology to never say anything is impossible.

He mentioned some of the other payment methods. Payspark he said is owned by some big bank and has stopped taking Americans. Has anyone else confirmed that? I signed up with them maybe a week ago, but never really used it. Moneybookers he didn't know about because they don't use it, and I've heard conflicting reports from people. I have an account there from long ago and it seems to be functional, maybe I'll try tossing it into a casino.

And all the rest you've surely already heard. I'm interested in knowing what you guys are using to deposit.


Posted by themaroon at 11:33 PM | Comments (15)