The State of US Online Poker
after Black Friday
More US poker information:
•
Why
Online Poker Isn't Illegal
•
US
Poker Reviews
•
Legal Poker Sites
•
USA Online Poker
Events of Poker's
"Black Friday"
Arguably the most significant day in online poker history April 15,
2011 is now popularly referred to as poker's "Black Friday" due to
the industry-shattering actions taken by the US Department of
Justice (DOJ). Borrowing a term usually reserved for financial crises,
natural disasters, and massacres the poker community was stunned by
the events of April 15, which saw the DOJ decisively cripple a
relatively stable market in a matter of hours. With criminal
indictments originating in the typically overzealous Southern
District of New York the DOJ targeted the 3 largest remaining poker
networks open to US players: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and
Absolute Poker/UB (further referred to as the "Big 3").
Incredibly, on poker's Black Friday the
DOJ succeeded in seizing the domain names of the Big 3 by taking
advantage of the fact that .com domains technically originate in the
United States via ICANN. This seldom-used tactic is typically
reserved for taking down websites that facilitate outright criminal
activity such as identity theft or credit card fraud. On Black
Friday visitors to the Big 3 websites were welcomed with a DOJ
seizure notice. Within hours, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and
Absolute Poker/UB had suspended real-money play from US residents as
the indictments against their owners and associates were unsealed.
Online poker's Black Friday was perhaps
more devastating to the industry than the passage of the UIGEA in
late 2006 due to the specific poker room targets. While the UIGEA
set threatening guidelines to US banks the decision to offer play to
US residents was ultimately in the individual hands of poker rooms.
The Black Friday indictments displayed a frightening precedent that,
despite online poker rooms being licensed and regulated in the
countries they operate in, the US DOJ can succeed in bullying
autonomous companies into blocking US business. The end result of
poker's Black Friday is a miniscule and uncertain market for US
online poker that will feel the effects of this single day of events
for years to come.
The Poker Industry's
Response
Each of the poker rooms targeted (Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, and
AP/UB) has had distinctly different responses to Black Friday,
ranging from professional and responsible to outright incompetence.
Poker Stars has shown extreme poise in handling the situation,
inevitably halting US play within hours of their domain name being
seized. In the days and weeks that followed they successfully worked
with the DOJ to resume non-US operation, pay out US players, and
regain their domain name. It's strange to imagine but Poker Stars
had direct dialog with the US authorities following poker's Black
Friday and essentially caved in to their demands in order to
preserve their sizable and profitable non-US business. While it may
be frustrating for US players to be shut out of real-money games
they ultimately benefited from Poker Stars' cooperation by receiving
timely payouts of their player balances.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is
Absolute Poker/UB, who has shown negligence, incompetence, and, as
things currently stand, downright theft of player balances. Once the
indictments came out on poker's Black Friday the company appeared to
operate under normal circumstances, allowing US player and seemingly
allowing US payouts to be processed. As it became obvious that US
players weren't continuing to play and were requesting payouts in
droves AP/UB management promptly laid off most of its operating
staff, blocked all gameplay, and refused to process any withdrawals.
Several months after poker's Black Friday no payouts have been made,
the seized domains have been forgotten about, and no games are being
hosted.
Somewhere in the middle is Full Tilt
Poker, who quickly removed US access to real-money tables shortly
after the indictments were unsealed. Following poker's Black Friday,
Full Tilt Poker made an unsuccessful attempt to continue their
non-US operations while US players and their balances were left in
purgatory. In an interesting development the DOJ released an
additional complaint about Full Tilt Poker in September alleging
that high-profile executives like Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Howard
Lederer were being paid outrageous figures despite the fact that
Full Tilt Poker didn't have close to enough funds to pay out all of
its players.
Full Tilt Poker didn't segregate player
balances or prepare for the inevitable "run on the bank" that
occurred following poker's Black Friday indictments. Their
international gaming license was eventually revoked and players,
even those not in the US, still remain unpaid. Fortunately, there
may be some hope for player payouts as Full Tilt Poker was bought
out by a team of investors hoping to resuscitate its non-US
business. Following Black Friday and their incredibly irresponsible
money management the new owners of Full Tilt poker can't be
delusional enough to believe players will trust them enough to
deposit again without fully paying out every cent of player funds.
The Current State of US
Online Poker
With the Big 3 online poker rooms taken
down to US players there was both a gaping void in the market but
also an opportunity for a remaining or brand-new US poker room to
seize control. Unfortunately, Merge, the largest remaining US poker
network, dropped the ball and decided to shut down new US
registrations a couple of months after the events of poker's Black
Friday. Merge management quietly claimed that this would a temporary
move designed to ease the strain on their support and payment
processing. However, after several months of unmet promises to
return to the US market the poker community had become increasingly
skeptical that a return will ever come to fruition. Amazingly, Merge
did indeed return to the US market in October 2011. How long they
remain this time is anyone's guess. Our top-rated Merge poker room
is Lock Poker
(full
review). Other player
favorites such as Bovada
(full
review), which was formerly known as Bodog, were actively discouraging US signups but have now
returned to the market in full force.
In what may prove to be the smartest
move coming out of poker's Black Friday
BetOnline (full
review), a long-tenured name in other areas of online gaming,
opened a new independent real-money poker room with access to US
players. BetOnline
is going completely against the downsizing trend of US online poker
but is seizing an opportunity to pick up the pieces left by the
indicted rooms and the voluntary closures of Merge and Bodog. With a
long-tenured history of player trust, licensing, and strong support
coupled with a sizable built-in player base from other gaming
platforms
BetOnline may emerge as one of the few winners of poker's Black
Friday.
One of the keys to succeeding in the
current US poker landscape is simple and quick payment processing,
which BetOnline
has succeeded with thus far. They are currently offering both both
credit card and checking account deposit to US players, which are
probably the two quickest and ubiquitous deposit methods available.
Largely due to its easy deposits and built-in sports clientele
BetOnline has
become a draw for its extremely loose player base.
With the UIGEA
putting a stranglehold on deposits back in 2006 and essentially
drying up the deep well of new loose players US poker rooms with
soft tables have been few and far between.
BetOnline, at
least temporarily, seems to be a throwback to the early online poker
days of flop percentages exceeding 30-40% at every table. Overall
player traffic has really increased substantially since launch with
now dozens of active tables up to the $5/10 NL level and at least
5-10 per limit up to the $1/2 NL level. With Merge and Bodog
disallowing new US signups
BetOnline at
least meets and likely will soon surpass their competitors in terms
of traffic.
The only other poker network I feel
comfortable recommending is
Cake Poker (full
review), which didn't change any of its policies following
poker's Black Friday.
Cake Poker
still accepts all real-money US players. While payment processing has been slow with
paper check payouts taking at least 4-6 weeks to process every
withdrawal has eventually been paid.
Cake Poker has
always flown a bit under the radar but has quietly offered a solid
overall experience, excelling particularly in cash games. With a
sizable non-US player base
Cake Poker
continues to have loose cash tables and enough player traffic to
allow for several full tables at each limit up to the $1/2 NL level.
As a player,
Cake Poker has
done nothing following poker's Black Friday to make me any less
comfortable than I always have been with them. They've stayed out of
controversy and quietly continued to offer an above-average
experience.
There are a couple of small networks
that have remained in the US market following poker's Black Friday
that I'm not currently comfortable recommending. Both either have
liquidity issues, extremely low traffic, or have been targets of DOJ
seizures. The current US online poker market is small but stable,
fragmented between those accepting new signups and those trying to
get by on existing players. There haven't been any major shakeups in
several months, which allows US players to catch their breath a bit
after Black Friday. In BetOnline,
Lock Poker,
Bovada,
and
Cake Poker new
US players have at least a few solid options that have been stable despite the
tumultuous events surrounding them.
The bottom line: BetOnline
(full
review),
Lock Poker (full
review), Bovada
(full
review),
and
Cake Poker (full
review) are all still open to new US players and I feel
comfortable recommending them.
Post-Black-Friday Outlook
For as devastating as the events were of poker's Black Friday I'm
struck by a strong sense of déjà vu having seen the event of 2006's
UIGEA firsthand. While Black Friday had a disturbing effect on the
specific poker rooms targeted the fallout for the rest of the
industry was relatively minor. Poker rooms already not servicing the
US were obviously not affected and those that did but weren't seized
came to their own conclusions, a la 2006. While Bodog and Merge left
the market BetOnline
made a bold move by opening up to the US, which has paid off
handsomely thus far.
Cake Poker
also decided to stay the US course and was the only other stable US
network left until Merge reentered the market in October. I
recommend Lock
Poker for new US Merge players.
Despite the shrinking US online poker
market seemingly being held together by toothpicks and duct tape
since Black Friday the fact remains that it still exists this is an
incredibly resilient industry. US players can still play online
poker, although no one can predict with any certainty how long that
will remain the case. It's possible but isn't likely that sites like BetOnline,
Lock Poker,
and
Cake Poker
alone will accommodate the US market indefinitely. Since 2006 US
online poker has only downsized and there isn't much left to
eliminate.
The long-term road that US online poker
appears headed down is that of legislation, highly backed by
Harrah's and big Vegas casinos. While it may seem backwards those
mega-corporations support any and all actions, including poker's
Black Friday, against the current form of online poker. If the
government takes out existing poker rooms it only saves them the
trouble of wiping out their competition. It's a fact that Vegas
casinos contribute massively to politicians that have conveniently
proposed favorable legislation. On the surface, any form of online
poker that has a US license would be a great thing but I'm not sure
how many of us trust anything that politicians, big casinos, and the
US government have a hand in.
•
Read our full reviews of all remaining
US
poker rooms
•
Details of why
online
poker isn't illegal
•
Our in-depth
poker
strategy section
|
