PokerRoom is out

peritonlogon · #1 10-16-2006, 08:49 PM

http://www.pokerroom.com/pokah/forum...p;setRead=true

Information for U.S. players
October 16, 2006 at 10:59:40 Post 1
Hi there

We would like to extend our most sincere apologies for the lack of information over the weekend.

We will do our best to answer as many of your questions and concerns as possible, however we may not be able to address them all today.

Please see below for information on the U.S. Legislation:

On 30 September 2006 the U.S. Congress passed the SAFE Port Act which also contained certain provisions known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (the Act that affects the processing of payments between US customers and certain online gaming companies.

This legislation was signed into law by President George W Bush on Oct 13, 2006.

Entirely due to this new law, we are disappointed to announce that customers within the U.S. will not be able to play Real Money games or make deposits to PokerRoom.com. This will be implemented once the necessary technical adjustments have been performed. Information regarding this will be communicated to you all at the earliest opportunity.

May we reassure you that the funds in your account are safe, secure and yours. Furthermore, your funds can and will be transferred to you at your request. We regret that the U.S. has taken this step to make it virtually impossible to offer real money entertainment to U.S. customers. We are doubtful that the U.S. authorities will achieve their stated goals by introducing such legislation. We believe that a properly monitored forward-looking regulation would be much more effective than this general ban.

This is the unfortunate hand that the U.S. government has dealt us. However, we will do our utmost to continuously keep you up to date with future developments.

Kind regards,

Mod

Brice · #2 10-16-2006, 11:01 PM

I guess this was to be expected.

Cactus Cactus · #3 10-16-2006, 11:29 PM

i just called them and they said that US customer will not be able to deposit anymore. If you have money in there you will still be able to play.

But then again your article says that they won't allow any more poker... who knows?

peritonlogon · #4 10-17-2006, 12:22 AM

It's important to note that this is PokerRoom's only public communication so far. As such, they don't want to scare away players too soon or, if they feel they are breaking the law, indict themselves by giving a time frame, instead they say something like 'we're going to comply as soon as we're able'. So, my idle speculation is this: PokerRoom is going to use the same 30 days that HollyWood is, as in, that is how long it will take them to upgrade their servers... god knows they have not mastered their servers yet.

Thebes · #5 10-17-2006, 03:36 PM

Late last night (4am) I got to see their support try to dance around this in their lobby. They kept saying US players could still play real money, but would not acknowledge any question about this press release. They would not address anyone who they were telling a half truth and US players were going to be banned from playing in about 30 days. BTW, at least one American did make a deposit via moneybookers.

Re: their servers, anyone who's played them in the last couple of weeks can attest to the fact that their servers are genuinely having issues. I doubt if they could code their way out of a monkey's #$%

Sadly, I liked their software, it dealt with my poor starband connection much better than ftp's does. Can't say I will miss their support, crashes, missing money or slow bonus clearing though.

Cactus Cactus · #6 10-16-2006, 11:49 PM

come on guys the 3rd biggest network is shutting down. How is there no action for this thread

burningyen · #7 10-17-2006, 12:00 AM

I'm going to miss the games. Can't say I'm going to miss the software.

DrewOnTilt · #8 10-17-2006, 12:16 AM

[ QUOTE ]
come on guys the 3rd biggest network is shutting down. How is there no action for this thread

[/ QUOTE ]

because we are used to news like this by now. Sad but true.

Dunkman · #9 10-17-2006, 12:16 AM

[ QUOTE ]
come on guys the 3rd biggest network is shutting down. How is there no action for this thread

[/ QUOTE ]

Because it's been pretty certain that this was gonna happen for some time now.

Lawman007 · #10 10-17-2006, 12:16 AM

[ QUOTE ]
come on guys the 3rd biggest network is shutting down. How is there no action for this thread

[/ QUOTE ]

Because a lot of people won't face reality until every single online poker site has been closed to Americans. Until then, whenever another one announces it is closing, they will either ignore it or say, "they're crazy, the law doesn't make it illegal for poker sites to let Americans play," or some other such nonsense.