According to onlinepoker.net, Poker Stars has issued a statement, the first since the domain seizure took place on Friday.
PokerStars has already switched its online operation to pokerstars.eu.
The article points out that the US market represented 50% of Poker Stars customer base.
Here is the statement:
“As you may have heard, we have had to suspend real money poker services to people based in the U.S. due to legal developments there.”
“The developments are confined to the U.S. and do not have any impact on your ability to continue using our services. Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern. For all customers outside the U.S. it is business as usual.”
However, understandably it was players within the US who were most concerned over the situation, many of whom have accounts at the poker room ranging from a few hundred dollars up to tens of thousands for the professional players.””
“Please be aware that we are currently experiencing a very high volume of emails, so our response times are delayed. We will answer player emails as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.”
and yet still they’re advertising pokerstars.net yesterday on nbc at the national heads up poker championship. go figure.
Those shows were filmed months- in some cases, even years- back.
Some forms of Poker on TV existed *solely* as advertising vehicles for the online poker rooms… Even as cheap as they are to produce, there is no other advertising type that could support those shows and make them financially viable for the network like online poker ad dollars did.
The poker boom has been winding down anyway, but this is really the headshot for certain types of poker on TV. It will also have a big impact on the WSOP, since so many of those seats were from satellites.
It’s hard to say what is what right now and I don’t think we will know some things until the dust has some time to settle. We know the sites that were busted are still operational overseas, it’s doubtful that they will be allowed back into the U.S. market.
The big question remains: Is Online Poker Illegal In The U.S.? if so why is the DOJ looking the other way? How will this impact the recent DC legislation? and will it continue to move forward?
It’s going to be (is) very interesting how this is all going to play out.
We need the help of all Poker players. There is now a facebook page that has been started to deal solely with this seriously impacting latest poker issue. It is to be the players voice where they will receive ALL available information and contribute their views. It is committed to firstly retrieving all monies owed and then the long term stability of the game. We care about the players not the owners of the sites or Government. Please support by joining the page and tell others. Once we get the numbers on the page we have ideas to share.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/USA-online-poker-forum/123902074354258