“Liquidity is a big deal in this business,” said Steven Lipscomb, President, Founder and CEO of WPTE. “CryptoLogic has proven itself to be an industry leader that delivers a superior product. This deal ensures that starting with day one of our online gaming re-launch there will be a plethora of cash games and tournament offerings available for our customers on a stable and proven platform. We will launch with a look and feel unique to World Poker Tour and will work with WagerLogic to incorporate additional WPT features that will begin to redefine and distinguish our product and customer experience.”

Like all CryptoLogic licensees, the new WPT site (scheduled to launch in June) will not be open to US players, per the restrictions enacted by the UIGEA in October.

While any legislation to repeal or reform the act faces an obvious uphill battle (once in place, it’s much harder to rally support from elected officials to ostensibly support degenerate activities such as playing poker by repealing or reforming existing legislation that prohibits it), US poker players will take any glimmer of hope they can get these days.

Some poker enthusiasts looking to roll back the UIGEA believe that Frank’s approach (introducing a new, broader act that tackles the broader issue of the right of American citizens to gamble online) is slightly off-target, choosing instead to support the approach of the Poker Player’s Alliance (PPA), which has been lobbying for a carve-out for poker in the existing UIGEA legislation. While the PPA faces the same uphill climb, the theory behind their approach is that it’s much easier (and rocks many fewer boats) to get an exemption for poker and leave the UIGEA largely intact, as opposed to introducing entirely new bills to repeal or reform the UIGEA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyZYTvcVb-U&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbill%2Divey%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

Neteller has withdrawn from Canada. Although, online gaming isn’t illegal in Canada it hasn’t been entirely passed as legal. So, to summarize, Neteller was scared of another UIEGA being passed and decided that instead of dealing with the repercussions that they’ll just pull out now.

So, now us online poker players are forced to use Click2pay, Moneybookers or the new shilly sites that may be popping up. Thanks Neteller.
——

Press release is below for those of you who are interested.

Monday, 26 March 2007 – The NETELLER Plc Group (“NETELLER” or the “Group”) (LSE: NLR), the leading global independent online money transfer business, today announced several significant changes to its services in a number of markets.

The Group continually assesses the risk profile and status of the markets its serves. Recent actions by regulators, payment processors, and online gaming operators have increased the uncertainty around certain activities related to online gambling in some jurisdictions. The Board of Directors of the Company reached a decision, on 25 March 2007, that the risk to the Group’s ongoing business in Canada and Turkey has increased in the light of such developments. The Board has therefore concluded that the Group will no longer process transfers related to online gambling sites on behalf of Canada or Turkey resident customers.

Reduced Service to Canada

• Cessation of Canadian transfers to gambling merchants: the Group will cease processing online gambling related transactions for Canada-resident customers with effect from 12.01 AM MST Monday 9 April 2007.
• Suspension of InstaCASH transactions: As of today Monday 26 March 2007, at 12:01 AM MST, Canada-resident customers were no longer able to deposit funds using NETELLER’s instaCASH service either directly or from any online gambling site.
• Non-gambling services continue: Canada-resident customers will continue to be able to use their e-wallet accounts for non-gambling transactions, including peer-to-peer and pre-paid debit transactions.
• Available customer funds: Customer funds, including those of Canadian residents, are held in a pooled, segregated trust account and will be available for withdrawal by customers, on demand. Canadian customers continue to be able to use their e-wallet accounts for non-gambling transactions.

• Alfonse D’Amato has stepped up to serve as chair of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). While the PPA hasn’t been able to effectively wield much political clout so far in its relatively brief history, it can’t hurt to have D’Amato on our side.
• The Department of Justice has requested and received yet another continuance in its trial against the co-founders of Neteller. While this isn’t good news to players with money still frozen in Neteller, one has to believe that either the DoJ’s case isn’t that strong to begin with or that a settlement deal is close to being finalized.
• Perhaps most hopefully, Congressman Barney Frank is reportedly working to appeal the ban of poker in the UIGEA. As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank definitely carries influence and isn’t afraid to take stands on all sorts of positions. Better yet, he’s not only called the ban “preposterous” but has also raised the possibility of taxing online poker instead, something both site operators and players have been begging for for years, as far as legislating and legitimizing online poker in the US.

This is only affecting merchants at the moment, and I haven’t heard of any problems with players and their ePassporte accounts and funds there. Yet. The writing is pretty clearly on the wall, though, so if you have lots of money at ePassporte (or are depending on it as the primary means to cash out funds), you might want to consider your options.

Since the pull out the major sites that continue to support US players have continued to flourish, gaining customers who were regulars on other sites.  Although this is an option for international players it can be argued that the bonuses and players are tougher at these sites.  Leaving us the option to search for different places to play.

The sites that have pulled out of the US have moved the concentration of their marketing dollars to other big markets, ie. Europe and to some degree Asia.

What can be seen at the poker sites that do not allow Americans is a dramatic shift in the peak hours of operation.  The peak hours (for any country) occur in the evening between 7-11pm.  Observing the graphs at the bottom of the page at pokersitescout shows this dramatic shift.

Prior to the UIGEA the peak hours of operation for Party Poker were from 3-10pm Pacific Standard Time.  Now the peak hours are 12-4pm  PST.
What does this all mean?  Well, a dramatic shift in the number of players at each site.  Thus creating a shift in the ‘optimal’ playing hours.

Now when we log-on after work to a smaller site that focus mainly European Customers (eg: Cryptologic Sites, SunPoker, Interpoker, etc.).  The number of ring-games running is significantly lower.  However, logging on to the same site at Noon, 5-10 times as many tables are running per limit.

It’s still a good time to play poker online from Canada. And having access to all the poker sites is definitely an advantage. The optimal hours of playing have changed and adapting accordingly is important.

• $ 20 donation -> $ 50 bonus
• $ 40 donation -> $ 100 bonus
• $ 100 donation -> $ 200 bonus
• $ 1000 donation -> $ 1000 bonus

The PPA is an organization with the purpose to get Online Poker exempt from the UIGEA. The organization is funded through it’s members donations and the more people that sign-up the more influence the organization may have. Either way a bonus for a donation is a good deal! Hurry promotion ends March 5th, 2007.

Below are just a few of the articles out on the Web detailing the possibile ramifications this has on both US poker players and the poker industry as a whole:

• Sorry, Amy, the Sky is Falling by Bill Rini
• Online Gambling: The Sky Isn’t Falling….Yet by Amy Calistri
• Sky, Meet Head…Head, Sky by ScurvyDog
• Let’s Talk Numbers by Bill Rini