Online Video Poker - Future Uncertain in the USA

[Lewis]

The future of online video poker in the USA could at best be considered uncertain right now. The passage of UIGEA was tough enough, but it looks as if the US government is deadly serious about enforcing these new laws.

Last week, the two founders of NETeller were arrested. For those of you who play online regularly, you're probably already familiar with that company, but for those of you who don't play regularly, NETeller is an e-wallet service, similar to Paypal, but their industry-of-focus, so to speak, was online gambling. After the founders' arrests, NETeller stopped allowing online gambling related transactions for USA residents.

Most other online payment processors soon followed suit. Many online casinos don't allow USA players at all anymore, including Playtech-powered casinos like Golden Palace and Casino Tropez. Microgaming casinos allow US based video poker players, but 11 USA states are on a sort of blacklist because they have specific laws regarding online wagering.

Bodog Casino still takes US players, as far as I know, and their video poker games tend to be excellent. Their casino is powered by RTG software, which allows the operator to adjust the pay tables on the games. Bodog has set their pay tables in a really generous manner, including full pay Pickem Poker, which is, to me, one of the easiest games to master, strategy-wise.

Casinos powered by Vegas Technologies (formerly Odds On) are also still accepting USA players, but I've heard rumors that some of these casinos have connection problems. A couple of better known Vegas Technology casinos include English Harbour and SuperSlots. I'm not personally familiar with either of them.

But regardless of who is accepting US based players and who's not, if a player can't deposit or withdraw money, playing video poker online becomes impossible. At least real money play does.

To me, it's unfortunate that the USA seems to be leaning in the direction of virtue being more important than liberty, a distinction that Dinesh D'Souza tries to make in his writing. D'Souza and other conservatives who try to legislate morality seem to not understand that there isn't a conflict between virtue and liberty, because liberty IS a virtue.

[Thomas]

From what I read, the NETeller guys are both facing up to 20 years on prison.

The French are also looking to crack down.

Damn, Internet gambling may completely be going the way of the dodo. Let's hope porn isn't next.

[Lewis]

The NETeller situation is getting crazier and crazier too. I'm seeing reports that the EFT's that are pending are now going to be pending even longer. And if you had a NETeller debit card, and you're in the USA, you can no longer use that either. I also read that Bank of America is denying EFT transfers from NETeller.

The US government has bottlenecked the flow of funds to and from online casinos. Their eventual goal is to stop that flow altogether. Judging from the success they've seen so far, I think they'll succeed. At least until online gambling in some form is legalized here in the USA.