Originally Posted by
ownmatusow
Poker Sites should be looked at exactly - and I mean exactly the same way you would look at a bank before doing business.
Find out if your money is insured, safe, accessible ect before ever depositing.
If you select a poker site that you wouldn't feel equally comfortable holding your money as your bank - likely a bad idea.
How many of us would deposit thousands of dollars in an offshore 3rd world country bank that wasn't FDIC insured ?
When online poker is legalized and regulated - they regulations they will fall under will likely be 99% those of a bank. A poker site is actually a bank that just shuffles around who owns what - while they keep the vig and utilize the deposits as lending opportunity profit - just as a bank does.
Can you imagine how many scams and schemes would be out there if our banking was regulated as online poker was for the last few years - very scary.
Poker sites are so close to banks with regards to process - I'm surprised some of the large banks are building subsidiaries to branch out into legal poker - they would likely be much more positioned to manage a sites funds better than the Locke pokers of the world.
Just to clarify Im not aware FDIC insures any bank not within the US anyway so your statement is a bit of a misnomer.. Id have no trouble depositing at a bank in Canada, or several in the Caymans, and for that matter my one bank I use here in AZ has branches in Mexico (the lone exception to the whole FDIC issue).
Rod