The Mass Exodus
Is anyone frustrated yet? As payment processors are dropping like flies, we’re quickly running out of choices. I spent the last weekend looking at my options only to get more and more pissed off. This is a truly misguided piece of legislation, but that’s for another rant. What I’m really mad about is…I really wish some of these companies would stand up to “Big Brother” the same as some of the poker rooms. It made me proud to play at Full Tilt, Poker Stars and Doyle’s when I heard them say it’s “business as usual”. To the rooms that decided to drop out of the market, good riddance. I hope when the legislation is revised, or an exemption for poker is passed, that U.S. players remember who stayed and who turned tail and ran. As for payment processors, ePassporte looks like it may be the only legitimate system left out there. I’m not crazy about their fees, but I’m bound and determined not to let the moral majority in this country dictate what I can do with my money in the comfort of my home.
(As a side note, I did get lucky using a debit card from my local bank. I don’t know if there’s a loophole since it’s not a credit card, or just my bank being cool about it, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before that avenue is closed as well.)
So What’s Up?
I’m sure the arrest of Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre (founders of Neteller) on January 15 scared most of these companies out of the U.S. market…..but why? Fear of arrest, when you don’t even live here? No more trips to Vegas for vacation? What is it? I’m just amazed by the mass exodus. All of these companies, including the poker rooms, knew they were skirting the law in the U.S.. With only a few exceptions (Nevada, Indian reservations and State Lotteries), running a gambling institution is illegal in this country. That’s why we were sending our money to Costa Rica, Gibraltar, Canada and the U.K. in the first place. I mean…come on!!! The reason there are no online poker rooms or payment processors in the U.S. is because it’s illegal. So why turn yellow now? Just because the gambling prohibitionists convinced congress to puff up it’s chest? This whole industry was an outlaw blazing new territory on the internet. Now what started as a shadow industy has become a damn revolution! You can find poker on television 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
While the senators and congressmen that allowed this legislation to pass should be ashamed, I also think the companies that turned their backs on U.S. players should be ashamed as well. It’s when the going get tough that you find out who you can count on, and many of these operators showed us where they stand. They were hot to trot when the 23 million online players were easy to come by, and scattered like roaches when things heated up.
Kudos to the poker rooms that decided to hang in there.
