[Button Potato]

Party Poker have issued an official statement saying: "After taking extensive legal advice, the Board of PartyGaming has concluded that the new legislation, if signed into law, will make it practically impossible to provide U. S. residents with access to its real money poker and other real money gaming sites. As a result of this development, the Board of PartyGaming has determined that if the President signs the Act (the Internet gaming bill is known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006) into law, the Company will suspend all real money gaming business with U. S. residents."

Full Tilt have issued an 'open letter' via their website that says, in part – In the short term, we assure you that your online experience at Full Tilt Poker will not change. You will still be able to deposit and withdraw money from the site using the same methods and payment processors you have always used, and your money will remain completely safe and secure. We cannot predict how the online poker experience may change in the future, but we do not expect any immediate impact from the legislation, as the banking industry has 270 days to implement new rules after the bill is signed.

It is also important to note that, once signed, the new legislation will not criminalize individuals for playing poker online. Instead, the bill will eventually attempt to prevent the transfer of funds to online gaming.

Poker Stars have issued a statement saying they haven't decided what to do yet.

Although we cannot find an official statement on a company website, or through e-mail, multiple media outlets are reporting that Paradise Poker have announced their intention to stop taking action from American players through their parent company, Sportingbet. The only official statement on the company website says that Sportingbet are still evaluating the legislation, and will release a statement shortly.

Ultimate Bet: have replied to inquiries saying they expect to continue to be business as usual, and don't anticipate any changes.

Absolute Poker: Responded to inquiries (in part) by saying "We want to assure you that Absolute Poker games are still available and that you can continue to enjoy the site as you always have. The new law does not change the legality of playing online games nor will make us close any US customer accounts."

Bodog:Responded to an e-mail with a lengthy reply, the crux of which was "It is definitely our full intention to continue doing business with customers in the United States."

[99%evil]

Basically, "we're not going to travel to the US anymore, we'll spend our billions overseas, wer'e riding this money train as long as possible, we'll just keep to non-extraditing countries"

[imthatguy]

Pokerroom
Official Statement regarding US legislation (Oct. 03, 2006)
On 30 September 2006 the US Congress passed the SAFE Port Act which also contained certain provisions known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (the Act) that will affect the processing of payments between US customers and online gaming companies, including PokerRoom.com. The legislation is expected to be signed into law by President Bush within the next two weeks.

PokerRoom.com is currently in the process of obtaining further advice with the objective of fully understanding the applicability and impact of the Act to our US players. However, until the act has been signed in by President Bush, your gaming at PokerRoom.com and CasinoRoom.com will not change and you are still able to both deposit and cashout through the processors available on the site. The funds in your account are yours and no matter what the outcome of this act, your money can and will be transferred to you at your request.

Further announcements will be made in due course.

[TheMightyJim2k]

The following is the info I have and an opinion as to what I think you should do. This is only to help people that are confused and should not be mistaken as the "right" or legal thing to do. If you have other suggestions or info please contribute as I am still not 100% if this is the best course of action, but is what I feel should be the safe thing to do give the info I have been gathering over the last two days....

Crypotogic sites are out.
Titan is out.
Sun Poker is out.
A few more as well. I would guess that Mansion may be out as well as they are listed on LSE.
888 is out, Paradise may be out.
Party is out when the bill is signed.

FullTilt for now looks to be in. PStars is up in the air. UB says they are staying in, but they are listed on the LSE so that may not last.

WSEX is definitely in.

Right now cashouts on the websites that are no longer allowing play by US players are a disaster. Many players can't log on and the companies are saying that they may not be able to take care of all of the online transfers and will be mailing checks over the next 3-4 weeks.

Firepay has upped the cost of a cashout to $10 in order to gouge the panicked players. Neteller seems to be holding strong so far.

My advice is go to 2+2 and look under the legislation heading and find out what the status of your site is (there is a sticky thread with most of the official releases at the top of the legislation forums). If they are shutting out US players tomorrow (10/4) you should probably go ahead and try to cashout. If they are saying they will shutout when the Pres. signs you probably want to cash out within the next couple of days.

Then I would sit tight for about a week and wait to see which of the big sites stick around. For now FullTilt, WSEX, and maybe Pstars look like the best bets with UB claiming they will still be around.

This is just my feeling from following all of the info on 2+2 for the last two days. Please look these things up for yourself as this is not a legal or certain opinion. just my feelings and thoughts on what should be done. Obviously if you disagree do what you feel is best. Hopefully we will all be able to keep playing without much hassle soon.

[joshuadalton]

Take it for what it is worth, but Matusow seemed to think that Full Tilt will be sticking around because they are privately owned.
This is taken from stuff he typed into the chat feature at the table where he was playing.

Originally Posted by TheMightyJim2k

The following is the info I have and an opinion as to what I think you should do. This is only to help people that are confused and should not be mistaken as the "right" or legal thing to do. If you have other suggestions or info please contribute as I am still not 100% if this is the best course of action, but is what I feel should be the safe thing to do give the info I have been gathering over the last two days....

Crypotogic sites are out.
Titan is out.
Sun Poker is out.
A few more as well. I would guess that Mansion may be out as well as they are listed on LSE.
888 is out, Paradise may be out.
Party is out when the bill is signed.

FullTilt for now looks to be in. PStars is up in the air. UB says they are staying in, but they are listed on the LSE so that may not last.

WSEX is definitely in.

Right now cashouts on the websites that are no longer allowing play by US players are a disaster. Many players can't log on and the companies are saying that they may not be able to take care of all of the online transfers and will be mailing checks over the next 3-4 weeks.

Firepay has upped the cost of a cashout to $10 in order to gouge the panicked players. Neteller seems to be holding strong so far.

My advice is go to 2+2 and look under the legislation heading and find out what the status of your site is (there is a sticky thread with most of the official releases at the top of the legislation forums). If they are shutting out US players tomorrow (10/4) you should probably go ahead and try to cashout. If they are saying they will shutout when the Pres. signs you probably want to cash out within the next couple of days.

Then I would sit tight for about a week and wait to see which of the big sites stick around. For now FullTilt, WSEX, and maybe Pstars look like the best bets with UB claiming they will still be around.

This is just my feeling from following all of the info on 2+2 for the last two days. Please look these things up for yourself as this is not a legal or certain opinion. just my feelings and thoughts on what should be done. Obviously if you disagree do what you feel is best. Hopefully we will all be able to keep playing without much hassle soon.

[Nexttime]

Originally Posted by TheMightyJim2k

Firepay has upped the cost of a cashout to $10 in order to gouge the panicked players. Neteller seems to be holding strong so far.

Wow. Those B*stards. I never used firepay and now I never will. Kind of glad I pull my money out of my various accounts last month.

[JM]

I've only heard from one Cryptologic site, William Hill. I've got accounts at several others, and none of them told me they were closing my account as Will Hill did. Of course the difference is that Will Hill isn't just an online casino/poker room while I'm pretty sure the other crypto sites all are.

[TheMightyJim2k]

not to rain on your parade but they are all def. closing. You can check on 2+2 to see the emails they have sent to other customers. Also I have a thread in the online poker forums with a link that lists the status of all of the online sites that are known.

The crypto sites are all pulling out from us players starting tomorrow and have already started denying us accounts from logging on. It seems their policy going forward is to mail checks to players with their remaining balances. I would email customer support for all the crypto sites you have money on and find out what you can do to get it back.

[JM]

Originally Posted by TheMightyJim2k

not to rain on your parade but they are all def. closing. You can check on 2+2 to see the emails they have sent to other customers. Also I have a thread in the online poker forums with a link that lists the status of all of the online sites that are known.

The crypto sites are all pulling out from us players starting tomorrow and have already started denying us accounts from logging on. It seems their policy going forward is to mail checks to players with their remaining balances. I would email customer support for all the crypto sites you have money on and find out what you can do to get it back.

Not a big deal to me, I rarely play at them anyway, but I have accounts at pretty much all of them. I tend not to keep any money there anyway unless I'm actively playing. Just odd that I got notification from Will Hill so long before the bill moved through Congress, but nothing from any others since it went thru.