It was five years ago today and I remember it very well. I woke up around 11am, showered, and ate some breakfast preparing myself for a long day of grinding Pokerstars. I've gone through several phases as far as what games I play online over the years and at this time I was 20+ tabling the 180 man sit n gos.
I get to my computer around 1pm and log into the Pokerstars client only to see this weird message saying how I am no longer allowed to play on Pokerstars due to legal changes in my country.
At first I thought maybe it was just Pokerstars so I log into Full Tilt and see the same thing. In that moment I was in a state of shock thinking that the cash cow known as online poker was finally over. The previous two years I dedicated a lot more time playing poker then back in the golden era prior to UIGEA passing in 2006 that forced the publicly traded sites like Party Poker out of the US market. I call this the golden era because it is when the games were the softest by far and wish I played more in that time I just would quit up a few buyins in mid stakes NL after an hour or two and call it a day when I should have went for more money.
UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was something snuck onto a safe port security bill at the last minute. This didn't make playing poker online illegal for Americans (except for sites like Washington) but it was supposed to prohibit sites outside of America from accepting our business so I wasn't committing a crime by playing.
Getting back to the story...
My natural instinct after what I've seen this early afternoon was to go read what people were saying on various poker forums and do a google search of news in the past 24 hours for online poker to see what has been going on. Later that evening I remember listening to emergency Donkdown Radio and then a new site Quadjacks that decided to copy the idea making it a 24 hour, around the clock thing for the next several days.
It was a bit surreal for a few days that I no longer can do something I loved and made money at in the comfort of my own home. This really upset me and still to this day I feel disgusted in the way our political system works here in America which goes way deeper then internet gambling but their isn't much we can do about it.
While I was upset and still in shock the reality is after UIGEA passed in 2006 anyone who played online from America should realize their was always a strong possibility something like this might happen and it did.
The most positive thing for me in this moment was that a majority of money I had online was on Pokerstars because a week after Black Friday happened I loaded up the Pokerstars client seeing this popup box:
I immediately cashed out everything and was paid a few days later directly into my bank account.
The next few months I followed all the new legal stuff hearing about all the shady things that went on with the big poker sites (Pokerstars/Full Tilt/AP/UB). The DOJ was building a case for years and waiting for the most opportune moment of slip up before handing out indictments and they did just that when their was enough proof of money laundering going on (buying/bribing banks, falsifying transactions as something other then gambling,etc.).
Once Pokerstars paid out so fast everyone that had money on Full Tilt was wondering what was taking them so long?
Why can't they just send us the money we are due in a timely manner like Pokerstars did?
The truth is Full Tilt was always a little slower with things then Pokerstars and their support wasn't as good BUT now they were about to become the next conspiracy when it comes to light that Full Tilt has no money.
Full Tilt was a company spending way too much in a lot of ways from TV Poker shows, overpaid pros, poor accounting, having money stolen from shady processors,etc... When you look at their business model it's not really a surprise they didn't have that much money, however, if Black Friday never happened FTP would have lasted a bit longer since they made enough per month to cover expenses.
A huge percentage of players on Full Tilt were Americans so this was a damaging blow to to a site that was handing out money all over the place with their horrible business model. . I'm not saying FTP could survive forever without making cuts but they still had more time if Black Friday didn't happen when it did.
Eventually, Pokerstars buys FTP and a bunch of money due to players gets paid but it took a few years for this to happen. The UB/AP money was gone forever but anyone who had a lot of money on those sites at this point I don't feel that sorry for. If you felt the risk was worth it fine but after the hole card scandal I refused to give UB/AP my business.
I also have a hard time feeling sorry for people who left 90% of their net worth on a poker site unless you just binked some huge scores. Pokerstars and Full Tilt was never designed to be your personal bank.
Black Friday was a dark era for poker in America and the truth is who knows if it will ever return country wide. The fact is online gambling is not that big of an issue where people want to throw enough money into lobbying to make it happen legally. We've seen a few states legalize it which is a start but the problem is the player pools are so small. When you have small state populations this is bound to happen and you also have to take into account the damage Black Friday did in regards to putting a bad taste in the average individuals mouth with online poker.
We have seen a few states legalize online poker in their jurisdictions over the past couple of years. This is the first step but the problem is the player pools are so small. A lot of this has to do with state populations being so small but other things such as people being left with a bad taste in their mouth not wanting to play online anymore are big keys too. Many top players left the country to continue the grind and Pokerstars has grown a ton Internationally ever since Black Friday happened. They are by far the biggest site and will continue to be even after all of the bad changes they've made that hurt players.
Ever since Black Friday I've played less poker in general but still dabble on the sites accepting Americans. It's a different process with slower payouts, less rakeback, tougher fields, and even some cashout fees. I've also played more live poker then I did prior and will be getting back into doing that soon since I haven't done much of that this year.
Will their ever be another online poker boom?
I don't see it happening for several years, if ever. We've made very little progress over the past 5 years on a federal bill when online poker was still relevant but anything is possible I suppose.