So the Winning Poker Network pulled out of NJ, Nevada, and Delaware today (http://www.onlinepokerreport.com/124...aves-nj-de-nv/), but perhaps the bigger story is not one of their rooms are licensed anywhere as far as I can tell. No Kahnawake, no Malta, no nothing.
I've never seen an online poker site without some type of license, even if it was from a corrupt, paper tiger outfit.
I write things about poker at my Poker Blog and elsewhere on the Internets
A message to players in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware
Our goal at Black Chip Poker is to build a poker community where players come first. But we also strive to play fairly. As a result, our network has decided to stop serving players in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware due to the availability of a regulated poker market in those states.
Winning Poker Network has traditionally offered online poker players around the World access to play the game they love, even where there is no expressed licensing/regulation of local operators.
Within the US, the States of Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have stepped up to allow their respective residents to play on licensed, local State poker sites. Those States have chosen to meet the demand for online poker locally, exclusively.
Accordingly, the Winning Poker Network has determined to decline offering services to residents seeking to play from those three States which have expressly legalized online poker, effective immediately. Players already accessing WPN who reside in those States will have access to their accounts to close out their balances. Real money play from residents in those states will no longer be permitted.
LOL at this bullshit statement.
They are acting like they're pulling out of the market as a tip of the hat to the states who offer legalized online poker to US residents.
In reality, the Winning Poker Network has to hate that this legalization thing is happening, as they will eventually be completely irrelevant once the majority of the US has access to legalized online poker.
This looks like it was done out of fear. They don't want these states to press the feds to take action against them because they're an unlicensed room competing with licensed rooms, so they decided to pull out. Very obvious.
Interesting how they are not licensed anywhere. Not that this really matters, because these licenses are all laughable and meaningless, but still interesting. Were they ever licensed?
They used to be licensed by Kahnawake.Originally Posted by Dan Druff
Same exact reading of it, that they are worried about a crackdown. Keep in mind that with the regulations there are now specific laws that apply to unlicensed sites.
I was told the Costa Rican servers may be "solid" enough now that they don't need to use the Kahnawake servers anymore and therefore don't need to pay for licensure either. I find it odd that they are just foregoing the bullshit license and don't seem to care.
I write things about poker at my Poker Blog and elsewhere on the Internets
A guy with a Santa Claus beard is claiming that this is all bullshit, and that they are privately asking NV/NJ/DE players to just change their state:
His name is Steve Brogan, from Las Vegas. He posted the following on Pocketfives:
Keep in mind that Brogan claimed that he only had $12 on the site.I just received a call from Customer Support at BlackChipPoker (BCP) giving me the update. The company sent out the email because they felt that they had to. But I was told not to worry. This would affect only new players from Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. I was told that I could continue to play, to deposit and to withdraw. They said that they were going to change the state that I reside in for California for me so that my account will still be active and that I should no longer be concerned.
Brogan writes for P5's so I think he's credible as a source, but this policy creates more questions than answers.A guy with a Santa Claus beard is claiming that this is all bullshit, and that they are privately asking NV/NJ/DE players to just change their state:
His name is Steve Brogan, from Las Vegas. He posted the following on Pocketfives:
Keep in mind that Brogan claimed that he only had $12 on the site.I just received a call from Customer Support at BlackChipPoker (BCP) giving me the update. The company sent out the email because they felt that they had to. But I was told not to worry. This would affect only new players from Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. I was told that I could continue to play, to deposit and to withdraw. They said that they were going to change the state that I reside in for California for me so that my account will still be active and that I should no longer be concerned.
Are they offering this to everyone? Maybe winning players don't get this e-mail? Maybe they can't cover cashouts so they just come up with some workaround? Maybe Brogan's account balance is so low they don't want to have to cut a check for it?
I write things about poker at my Poker Blog and elsewhere on the Internets
A guy with a Santa Claus beard is claiming that this is all bullshit, and that they are privately asking NV/NJ/DE players to just change their state:
BTW, I wasn't making fun of Brogan for only having $12 on the site. I mentioned the $12 because it shows that they are even interested in doing this for low-limit players, and not just the big time grinders.
Oh, and he tweeted this to me:
Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaady.I was told that many players had already been contacted prior to the press release (large balances?) but not all.
I'm a Vegas reg who's played a few hundred thousand hands of MSNL and MTTs on WPN over the last year or so. Someone from WPN contacted me a couple weeks prior to this press release, telling me that I should change my address because they were going to stop serving Nevada. I appreciated the heads-up, but I blew it off because I was planning on cashing out my WPN roll before the WSOP anyway.
I haven't changed my address yet, and I was just able to sit at a cash game and play an orbit. So either the ban hasn't yet taken effect or it's not based on IP address / geolocation. Between this weirdness (it's almost as if they saw what Party did post-UIGEA and are trying to ape it in a very half-assed way) and my latest cashout being way slower than usual (requested it in late April, still hasn't been processed...), WPN is throwing up all sorts of red flags for US players. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!
Another update: still haven't changed my address yet and I'm putting in a cool $1k of MTT action on WPN here in the sunny Vegas Valley. Let the good times roll!
I put in a cashout this weekend, Ill update how it goes
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