Yesterday PPN announced that they would be leaving the Cake Network and the US Market. This is yet another Poker Site/Skin that has made the decision to leave the US Market on the heels of 'Black Friday'. Sites such as Poker World, Victory Poker, Sportsbook.com, Players Only, and even the entire Merge Network have all left the US market following 'Black Friday'. The Merge Network is supposed to be a temporary move, yet they have still not re-entered.While there have been rumors about Merge re-entering the US Market, they still have yet to do so.
The interesting thing about PPN leaving the US market is that the owner of PPN, Chuck Kidd, is also the owner of two Payment Processing companies(MyPaylinQ and Pic-Club) that process payments for US Online Casino's and Poker Sites. The official Press Release did not mention either MyPaylinQ or Pic-Club and only mentioned PPN. PPN had already switched from a dot com domain to a dot eu domain in the last few months. The move was likely a move to protect itself from a Gov. Seizure of the PPN domain. If Chuck Kidd decided that changing the domain and the other precautions were not enough to keep PPN in the US market, then it makes me wonder if MyPaylinQ and/or Pic-Club will remain in the US.
The remaining sites continue to struggle to find Payment Processors that can consistently get player's their Cashouts. Chuck Kidd has stated that Pic-Club and MyPaylinQ process payments for Everleaf, Bodog, and quite a lot of smaller Networks. With the sites already having trouble finding Processing funds every processor lost is a huge blow to the industry. The reasoon Merge left the US market temporarily was partly because of the difficulty they were having processing Cashouts. They still haven't re-entered so they may still be having trouble securing a Processor willing to process for the US customers that make up the majority of Merge's player pool.
It remains to be seen if MyPaylinQ and Pic-Club will remain in the US Market, but it is clear that Online Poker is in pure survival mode at this point. In the last year we've seen the 3 largest US Poker Sites indicted and leave the US market, Processors seized including UseMyWallet/QuickTender, Smaller sites like True Poker and Doyles Room have their processors and domains seized, and countless other Gambling transactions frozen.
While US residents still have choices, the sites to choose from offer smaller player pools. As Poker Players and US Citizens we need to protect our right to play Online Poker in the comfort of our own home. We need to continue to tell our Congressmen that as US citizens we should have the same freedoms that citizens in countries such as Mexico, England, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, and so many other countries have that we currently do not. Visit the PPA Action Center to show your support for freedom and for Online Poker today. To read more about what sites are available to US players, PPN leaving, and the Official Press Release visit US Poker Rakeback
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