Practical workarounds for US players

[SteelWheel]

So let's concentrate on the realistic workarounds for the lack of access to NETeller by US players.

I've seen a few people here and there allude to setting up a residence and bank account in Canada or the UK, in order to transact business as usual. I had even done some initial digging into this myself, when the UIGEA was signed into law. But I admit to being a bit in the dark as to exactly how to proceed on this (to say nothing of being a bit lazy...).

Would anyone mind sharing their knowledge of how to go about doing this? Seems like setting up a private mail box (or similar) and a bank account outside of the US is the way to go.

I do wonder how well this is going to work out over the long haul, since the fish are unlikely to take similar steps to these, so the games will never be as good as they once were. But we'll see how things go. For now, I'd just like to be able to set up a way to be able to come and go with my money (the way the US used to be. Sigh....).

[PropPlayer]

Who cares if the first are USA fish or not?
Just play at sites that don’t take US players using your work around. Personally with all that is going on I feel much better playing at sites like Party, Ladbrokes, Victor Chandler, etc right now. I’m not keeping much of my money in FTP, Stars, AP etc. Just get a work around and avoid USA friendly sites is my advice.

[ekdikeo]

Those close to the Canadian border could easily hop across, setup a mailing address and a bank account, and come back home. Well, "easily" isn't so easy anymore, now that a passport is required to get in or out of the country.

[Yakuman]

Some sort of workaround may be the final solution to this mess for US players. As I pointed out before, workarounds are popular enough to attract mainstream media attention:

"Even PartyPoker saw an increase, as U.S. users figured out how to get around the ban on the sites. The company's U.S. audience increased to 1.3 million in December from 1.18 million in November, according to Nielsen//NetRatings."

http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...006_page_2.htm

Some have claimed to get in via findnot.com's proxy server, but we haven't heard whether they can get in or out yet. With Party, I can see how you can get money in there (phone cards), but how would you cash out?

It seems the only way to keep one's chains from being jerked as a "US player" is not to be registered from the US. But how?

[csi]

Well I have been doing lots of thinking about this lately and I have found a solution to access the poker sites. I'm from Canada and I have similar problem with bodog poker like the US players do with Party. For some reason bodog will not allow Canadians to play on their site.

Anyway, I you sign up with findnot.com and use one of their proxy servers you can get in. I also have friend's address I can use too, but this doesn't totally solve the problem.

Hypothetical here, let's say you have a fake address, and use a proxy, and are able to get into a site. YOu also find a way to deposit money. However, let's say after you have been playing a while you want to cash out. If at any time the site like Party requests picture ID to validate who you say you are which actually happened to me 6 months ago, you are now in trouble because your driver's license or whatever ID you use won't match your bogus address.

Then they will just freeze your account and you can kiss your money good bye. Not saying this will happen for sure but It's a real possibility, especially if they track your IP address to a proxy.

[Yakuman]

Here's the rub: you need to have an offshore address and a financial account registered to it. How to do this is not clear.

[SteelWheel]

Huh? The issue (at least at present) has nothing to do with the physical location, or ISP from which a user accesses an online poker site. I'm highly confident that if I were a UK customer of Party Poker, I would have no problem accessing Party Poker from a US location/ISP. Anonymizing your internet traffic is not (yet, at least) necessary.

What is necessary, is an apparently legitimate address and bank account in a non-US location. I'm assuming that Canada and the UK are the best options, since there would be no language issues.

The real question is: Is there a way to set something like this up, preferably without having to go to the UK or Canada to do so? I don't think the photo ID thing is the real problem. Here in the US, I could (if I so chose) change my address on a driver's license to a "private mail box" at one of the local packing/shipping stores. One could do the same thing in another country--get a private mail box, and then set up a bank account associated with that "address".

If a photo ID is truly the issue, this would obviously make Canada a better option than UK. But I'd doubt that you need an actual "driver's license". In most states in the US, anyone can get what is essentially a "non-driver license". Just go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, fill out a form, show a utility bill, bank statement, or some such thing, and they'll snap your picture and hand you an official driver's license--except that the "license" clearly states that no driving privileges are conveyed to the bearer. This was the "solution" to the growing problem of non-drivers in the US needing some sort of identification that at least appeared to be more substantial than library cards or college IDs.

I would assume that the provincial governments in Canada have some similar mechanism...but then again, I'm not a Canadian citizen, so I don't know for sure.

So again, I'm asking if anyone in the US has gone through any of these hoops to create the veneer of a "resident" status in Canada, UK, or perhaps Australia or New Zealand?

[Billman]

[ QUOTE ]
Huh? The issue (at least at present) has nothing to do with the physical location, or ISP from which a user accesses an online poker site. I'm highly confident that if I were a UK customer of Party Poker, I would have no problem accessing Party Poker from a US location/ISP. Anonymizing your internet traffic is not (yet, at least) necessary.

[/ QUOTE ]

You would be highly wrong. Most operators have IP blocking enabled. Just like when Neteller knows you're not in the US accessing your account the poker rooms know what geographical location your IP address is assigned to.

[ QUOTE ]
The real question is: Is there a way to set something like this up, preferably without having to go to the UK or Canada to do so? I don't think the photo ID thing is the real problem. Here in the US, I could (if I so chose) change my address on a driver's license to a "private mail box" at one of the local packing/shipping stores. One could do the same thing in another country--get a private mail box, and then set up a bank account associated with that "address".

[/ QUOTE ]

A much better, though more expensive, option is to set up an offshore corporation. For about $2000 in legal fees for setup and about $800 a year to maintain your corporation. Other than the setup fees, $800 is about what you pay in CA as a min tax on a LLC anyway so it's a wash. If you're a serious player and making a good living at this game, $2000 and $800 a year should be chump change. You then have a legal entity that is based outside of the US and you can always use your lawyer's address as your mailing address when creating accounts. Most companies that set up offshore accounts will also assist you in setting up offshore bank accounts as well.

[rdgabino]

www.easyswissbanking.com

[Rigel]

[ QUOTE ]
www.easyswissbanking.com

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a very interesting idea and would seemingly work. Swiss bank accounts certainly aren't subject to whatever new regulations the feds set forth. As long as you can access them easily by neteller, it might be a winner. Anyone actually tried this?