National City closing my account due to online gaming

[wezvidz]

I've been playing poker for money since December 2004. I've played on a wide variety of sites and got started by cashing in a freeroll for $2, built that up to everything I've made to this day (mid 5 digits).

I've cashed probably 30 checks from various online sites at National City with no issues whatsoever. I used Neteller for a long time and probably made 50 transfers to my checking account, no issues.

Two months ago an old Prima site I played on gave me a $500 bonus in some promo they were running. Needed to clear a bunch of hands so I just gambled with it and ended up running it up to 16k or so in total. The only way to cash out was via EcoCard, and I did so successfully, wiring the money to my checking account in two seperate $8k chunks about a month apart.

I got a call last weekend from a branch manager at my bank needing an explanation of what these wires were (post 9/11 environment, I guess?). I was honest. Short conversation, I figured all was well.

In the mail today was a letter stating that effective June 4, I should stop using my checking account. June 8th I would get the balance of my account mailed to me. They are closing my account. I called to find out WTF was going on and talked to a manager who only knew vague details, but said online gambling is against their policies, and my account was being closed for that reason. She couldn't tell me whether it had always been like this or only since last fall when the legislation passed. She also said I could reopen a new account (!! then what is the point of this one closing), but it would also be closed if I was seen to be doing any online gambling transactions.

Anyone had experience with this at National City or another bank? I guess this may have been a long running policy, because I have never been able to deposit to sites via my debit card. Maybe they just never knew what all the checks were from? This is all just a big inconvenience and I can't believe they're doing this without a warning or anything.

Finding out more Monday but I'm kind of irked. God bless the USA.