Bovada ends (for now) Western Union deposits

[Dan Druff]

Bad news for anyone who wants to get significant money on Bovada.

As of a few weeks ago, there are no more Western Union deposits accepted.

Western Union was good because, in most states, they allowed deposits up to $2500-$3000 AND covered your fees.

Their only other options were lousy -- credit cards at an obnoxious 4.9% fee, and Moneygram with relatively low ($800 per 7 days) limits and no fees covered.

Now you're pretty much screwed if you want to play poker at mid-high limits there, or sportsbet for anything above a few hundred.

An exact reason was not provided. I was told that "there were a lot of restrictions", presumably meaning that Western Union had gotten wise to them and prevented people from sending money to the offices in the Philippines that were receiving the money. When sending the money, you were instructed not to mention Bovada, poker, or gambling -- something Bovada/Bodog has told customers for years.

badguy23 once posted here that the names to whom you're sending the Western Union deposits are made up, and that those names were basically codes for certain corrupt Western Union offices in the Phillipines to keep a certain percentage of the money, forward the rest to Bovada, and notify them that the deposit had gone through. This makes sense, as it always made me wonder how the "runners" for Bovada in the Philippines would get to the money so quickly -- often just 15 minutes after you would send it! badguy23 also said that some of these offices were stealing from Bovada, and they just dealt with that as a cost of doing business. I'm not sure where badguy23 got this info, but I think I believe most of it. I guess it's possible that Bovada got fed up with the WU offices stealing from them, and may have ended it for that reason.

Western Union withdrawals are also gone.

Wire withdrawals still exist for players in most states, and checks (one per week up to $3000) are also still available for cashout.

Bovada says that Western Union may come back in the future, but will be gone for the time being, likely at least until sometime in 2015.

[big dick]

if I remember correctly w/u was shut down as an option a few years back and then brought back.

[BeerAndPoker]

They have shut it down a few times and brought it back. Perhaps a bunch their runners with names like Marie Ana Rosirita, Salvadore Gonzalez , and Sepulveda Juan have been getting blacklisted as of late that they don't want to bring attention to themselves.

Without WU Bovada is kind of screwed because MG is very limited in the amount they will transfer I think it's like $800 either way on Bovada so I can't see them keeping WU down forever.

[Dan Druff]

They have shut it down a few times and brought it back. Perhaps a bunch their runners with names like Marie Ana Rosirita, Salvadore Gonzalez , and Sepulveda Juan have been getting blacklisted as of late that they don't want to bring attention to themselves.

Without WU Bovada is kind of screwed because MG is very limited in the amount they will transfer I think it's like $800 either way on Bovada so I can't see them keeping WU down forever.

If what badguy23 was saying is correct, those names were all fake, and were just codes for the WU place to keep the money and ship most of it over to Bovada.

But it's possible that WU got wise to this and blacklisted certain sites that were suspected of doing this.

I could even see some bitter gambler going and reporting them to WU after losing.

[BeerAndPoker]

They have shut it down a few times and brought it back. Perhaps a bunch their runners with names like Marie Ana Rosirita, Salvadore Gonzalez , and Sepulveda Juan have been getting blacklisted as of late that they don't want to bring attention to themselves.

Without WU Bovada is kind of screwed because MG is very limited in the amount they will transfer I think it's like $800 either way on Bovada so I can't see them keeping WU down forever.

If what badguy23 was saying is correct, those names were all fake, and were just codes for the WU place to keep the money and ship most of it over to Bovada.

But it's possible that WU got wise to this and blacklisted certain sites that were suspected of doing this.

I could even see some bitter gambler going and reporting them to WU after losing.

I was sort of joking and have heard this too. It's possible the phony names they have set up with a WU location the place decided to start skimping or stealing from Bovada more,etc...

They could have some fall out with the location as well or if some losing player like you said reported the name(s) trying to get a refund not knowing they can't the name could get blocked that way.

The player could know that a refund is not possible but do this just to spite Bovada as well.

Once they get a name or two WU could trace to that location what is going on and cut off a bunch of names or even that WU retailer from using their services completely. When this happens in the process sometimes transactions caught in limbo cause users to have problems such as getting blacklisted for life with WU and Bovada probably don't want that to happen since it just means those people won't use Bovada again so they find a new place to coagulate with.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

another layer to add on to this...I requested a withdrawal last night for $3K and woke up this morning and they were trying to push me towards a bank wire instead of getting a check...they said I could provide them the info within 48 hours to get a wire or they would just process it as a check...

thought that was sorta strange...

[badguy23]

They have shut it down a few times and brought it back. Perhaps a bunch their runners with names like Marie Ana Rosirita, Salvadore Gonzalez , and Sepulveda Juan have been getting blacklisted as of late that they don't want to bring attention to themselves.

Without WU Bovada is kind of screwed because MG is very limited in the amount they will transfer I think it's like $800 either way on Bovada so I can't see them keeping WU down forever.

If what badguy23 was saying is correct, those names were all fake, and were just codes for the WU place to keep the money and ship most of it over to Bovada.

But it's possible that WU got wise to this and blacklisted certain sites that were suspected of doing this.

I could even see some bitter gambler going and reporting them to WU after losing.

WU is done everywhere this started at the start of football. WU was sending people into these offices that were taking and sending these transfers and auditing them. WU was blacklisting anyone who sent money more than a couple times to CostaRica Philippines or Nicaragua. they would refund your deposit if you used cash but if you used credit card and it got stopped wu was making people fill out all this paper work to get a refund. There is a number you can call to see if you are black listed at wu. Seems some books such as 5dimes seen the writing on the wall and have started taking bitcoin and vanilla reload for deposits. WU is the one who cracked down on this as they must of been getting heat from the gov.

[Corrigan]

badguy is god

[Dan Druff]

If what badguy23 was saying is correct, those names were all fake, and were just codes for the WU place to keep the money and ship most of it over to Bovada.

But it's possible that WU got wise to this and blacklisted certain sites that were suspected of doing this.

I could even see some bitter gambler going and reporting them to WU after losing.

WU is done everywhere this started at the start of football. WU was sending people into these offices that were taking and sending these transfers and auditing them. WU was blacklisting anyone who sent money more than a couple times to CostaRica Philippines or Nicaragua. they would refund your deposit if you used cash but if you used credit card and it got stopped wu was making people fill out all this paper work to get a refund. There is a number you can call to see if you are black listed at wu. Seems some books such as 5dimes seen the writing on the wall and have started taking bitcoin and vanilla reload for deposits. WU is the one who cracked down on this as they must of been getting heat from the gov.

Just curious, where are you getting this info?

[Forum Wars]

WU is done everywhere this started at the start of football. WU was sending people into these offices that were taking and sending these transfers and auditing them. WU was blacklisting anyone who sent money more than a couple times to CostaRica Philippines or Nicaragua. they would refund your deposit if you used cash but if you used credit card and it got stopped wu was making people fill out all this paper work to get a refund. There is a number you can call to see if you are black listed at wu. Seems some books such as 5dimes seen the writing on the wall and have started taking bitcoin and vanilla reload for deposits. WU is the one who cracked down on this as they must of been getting heat from the gov.

Just curious, where are you getting this info?

http://www.osga.com/wordpress/offsho...-payments.html

This reasonably recent article seems to jive with what you guys are saying. Note the part in bold (mine) makes it pretty clear that between Bovada (as Druff surmised on last week's radio show) and Western Union it was basically impossible to not get your money back. Probably still isn't if the Western Union thing in bold above is true...at least until Bovada capitulates. I don't think that's coming too soon. Probably gonna take some time for Bovada to find some more corrupt agents overseas and then the limits hopefully will get raised again. It's a cycle, almost.


Western Union Crackdown is Affecting Online Gambling Payments

Posted by Jim Quinn on 02 Oct 2014 at 06:06 pm | Tagged as: OffShore Insiders

We have heard from several players during the first few weeks of football season regarding problems with sending money to online sportsbooks using Western Union. The problems mainly revolve around money being sent to a correct name and location with the correct MCTN but the funds are blocked and in some cases have been held by Western Union.

One member who is a long time player online called in frantically with a problem that had never happened to him in 10+ years of playing offshore. His Western Union deposit had been blocked and the name he was given was being investigated for fraud. This player was able to have his funds immediately returned. However, another long time player had the same issue and his funds were held ‘pending Western Union’ investigation. One player was even being told that he had to fill out three different forms to even apply to get his money refunded after Western Union deemed the name he was sending to had been “involved with fraudulent transactions”, which I am pretty sure is the standard code words that the home office has instructed field reps to use when a name is identified as receiving money for an offshore gambling house. In addition, it feels like Western Union is going a bit above and beyond what they are required to do while erring on the side of caution, thus pretty much blocking anything that has a hint of gambling and blacklisting the corresponding parties.

We are not a lawyers and there is no specific reference to confiscated funds on the Western Union website, but from what we have been able to find out, Western Union cannot legally keep players’ money. From what we understand they certainly don’t work too hard to refund it, but at some point they have to. In searching the OSGA database, every person who has had funds held by Western Union has eventually been paid back by the company.

As the industry’s leading online gambling watchdog group, we occasionally get these types of issues here and do our best to offer advice. But the fact that we had the exact same complaint from nearly a dozen players prompted us to dig a little deeper with the sources that we have offshore.

We found that Western Union is eyeing transactions to ‘developing nations’ in excess of a couple of hundred dollars. Our sources confirmed that Western Union has been the focus of a crack down this year, apparently due to a directive from the head office. It seems that Costa Rica and Nicaragua are two countries that are especially affected. One operator told us that the local Western Union offices have had auditors suddenly stop in and check transactions and associated names that have multiple transactions. Another operator told us that local Western Union outlets are “under constant WU Corp oversight audit” right now.

This is not too shocking, as part of the terms and condition on the Western Union website include ” . . . your use of Services does not violate any law, including, without limit, laws relating to money laundering, illegal gambling activities, support for terrorist activities or fraud”. And of course, in the U.S. the sending of money by a financial institution, such as Western Union, is in violation of the 2006 UIGEA law.

The bad news is that in the first few weeks of football is when the processors and the systems that are in place get especially stressed. We have heard that some of the sportsbooks that rely heavily on Western Union have lost up from 50 to 60% of their capacity and their processors are under constant audits. But as the season winds along, it should get easier for players to send money and harder for auditors identify receivers simply due to volume.

So what does this mean for the consumer that chooses to play and send money offshore?

It does not mean that players need to abandon Western Union. But it does mean that players should only send money in their name, should send the money as quickly as possible once the recipient name is received and should keep transactions in lower dollar amounts (less than $700). If players still choose to send money person-to-person, as an alternative, they can use MoneyGram. Several of the outlets that have run into multiple problems with Western Union are urging players to do just that. Again the problem here is unfortunately the options to US customers “aren’t very broad”, as we were told.

If more information becomes available, we will update this story. Anyone who has been affected by this Western Union crackdown is urged to comment on this story below.

[Sanlmar]

There is a war brewing between Bitcoin & Western Union.

The campaigning wars sometimes get a little dirty. A decade ago, Pepsi Co. and the Coca Cola Company were seen making fun of each other in the name of creative marketing



Western Union has been in the money transfer business since 1871. They were accomplishing this with telegraph. In a sense, Western Union transmits virtual currency.

The company’s success has made the firm a favorite choice for a variety of criminals seeking fast, anonymous money movement. WU knows that but now they cannot be holier than thou unless they tidy up a few loose ends. They will leave the criminal mischief to Bitcoin (gaming) and then load the legislative gun.

Western Union has recently been granted a patent on virtual currency. This evidences the fact that their focus is finely tuned. So let's accept the fact that they are keenly aware that Bitcoin is a threat. Walmart, ApplePay need to be dealt with too.

One of the best ways to kill your competition is through lobbying & legislation. Enter my favorite state, New York.

Preet Bharara is the US District Attorney for the Southern District of New York and he has taken this stage to make quite a name for himself :
Time magazine as one of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World
Bloomberg Markets Magazine’s "50 Most Influential”
Vanity Fair’s annual “New Establishment” lists

Prosecuted:
Times Square bomber, Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaada spokesman & Brother in law
Bernie Madoff & 85 insider trading convictions
Bharara charged 11 founding members of online poker companies & pretty much is responsible for killing online poker in the US
I will never forgive him for crushing Daniel Tzvetkoff's dream.
Crushed Silk Road

You simply do not want to be on this guy's radar. Ok, who's next.

New York Department of Financial Services is looking at leggislating & issuing Virtual Currency licenses. This is all under the guise of addressing money laundering. Some people are referring to this as "Bitlicense" but gift cards, Amazon, Walmart, PayPal & Western Union are all being examined & their assholes are puckering.

If Western Union plays this smartly they can handcuff Bitcoin & preserve their business.

Thus, the Winston Wolf style clean up by Western Union IMO.

This flight to Bitcoin gaming is not going to end well.

amirite?

[HowQuaint]

Now you're pretty much screwed if you want to play poker at mid-high limits there, or sportsbet for anything above a few hundred.

If you are a whale, there is a chance that they will give you bank wire deposits. I have them.

if I remember correctly w/u was shut down as an option a few years back and then brought back.

This has happened on many sites, including Bovada.

Just curious, where are you getting this info?

I'd love to know this myself...