Still another restriction

[Poker Clif]

To the best of my knowledge, no new laws or regulations have passed in the last 3 months. Even so, it continues to get harder for US players.

I tried unsuccessfully to make a deposit to PokerStars. I wrote to suupor@pokerstars.com, and got a response saying that my problem using a Visa Gift to Go card would be refered to someone else.

The response that I finally got back was that the Visa people recently changed their policy, and that the card could no longer be used for gaming sites.

I just wanted to make a small deposit, and E-passporte seemed to be the only method left that doesn't require at least $100.

I tried to use my Gift to Go card to open an E-passorte acount, and that didn't work either. So I had to send money directly from my bank to E-Passporte.

Finally (or so I thought) I sent $25 to my bank from E-Passporte. Except that I couldn't, at least not immediately.

I had to open the account and give them my bank account number. A couple days later, 30 cents appeared in my bank account.

Then, I had to contact E-passporte again to verify the two amounts that came to 30 cents, and it took another two days for my bank to have that information, when it was no longer a pending transaction.

Then I contacted E-passporte, gave them the information that the two deposits were 12 and 18 cents, and I thought I was all set.

This was yesterday, August 25, 2007. Then a message popped up that I could use my new account starting on September 5!

Oh, and for all of this convenience, E-Passporte is charging me a $5 fee to send $25. Until recently, with Visa Gift to Go I could have sent as little as $10, and that money would have instantly been in my PokerStarts account.

From now on, I will be VERY careful about taking too much money out of my account at one time. I never want to have to make another deposit again, assuming I am even able or allowed to.