With the decision by Microgaming to pull out of the US market, with it goes all poker rooms that accept US players. This includes Intertops, Doyle’s Room, 32 Red Poker, Crazy Poker, Royal Vegas Poker, Poker Time, Ladbrokes, Betway, Unibet, Pokerwize, Jennings Poker, Gnuf, and Eurolinx. Not all of these poker rooms did take US players, but the ones that did, no longer do. With the continual threat by the Kentucky government to seize the URLs of more than 140 online poker rooms if they do not ban IP addresses coming from Kentucky.
The Microgaming website, itself, has even been blocked to US visitors with a message that says, “Site not available.” While the buzz was earlier this week that certain Microgaming sites would not ban US players, this rumor is false. Even just last weekend, Intertops claimed they would continue to accept wagers from within the US, being the online home of many US gamblers. Yesterday, though, they withdrew all previous statements.
Intertops claimed that they did not use the Microgaming Online Registration and/or Online Banking and would not be affected by the Microgaming decision. However, they have since been advised to “shut down ALL US registrants,” promising to discontinue new registration from the US.
US players will still be able to bet through the sportsbooks, but will not be able to access the poker rooms or casinos. Since the onset of the UIGEA in 2006 there have ways around getting into sites with a restricted IP address. Players have been able to use a proxy to hide their IPs, but even this is being addressed and sites are now using a proxy detector with their IP blocking service. This is a measure being put into effect by Microgaming.
As far as the UIGEA goes, there are plans to repeal the whole thing once president elect Barak Obama gets into office, but some political strategists don’t see it as a priority with all the other economical issues up for consideration.
What remains a mystery, still, is whether or not other online gaming companies will continue to follow the anti-American trend and pull out of the US gambling market. Only time will tell.
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