Poker Shutdown Affecting Top Online Poker Sites

It has only been a couple of weeks after the poker shutdown from the United States Department of Justice, but its effects are already being felt across the Internet. The poker shutdown has affected the small online casinos as well as the bigger and more established online casinos in different ways.

A Quick Recap of Black Friday

The poker world was shocked to its core last April 15, coined as the Black Friday, when the United States Department of Justice accused three big names in the online poker industry of illegal gambling and bank fraud as well as money laundering. These are the Poker Stars and Ultimate as well as Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker.

Immediately after the indictment, Poker Stars, considered as the biggest online poker site in the whole world, stopped accepting players coming from the United States and started facilitating their cash-outs once they have reclaimed their .com domain. Full Tilt Poker also followed suit.

The shockwave generated by the indictment can be seen all over the Internet as players voiced out their concerns, anger, and bewilderment at what happened.

The Effects

Black Friday has significantly affected the online poker sites that have been named in the indictment. There has been a big decrease in traffic to the sites as well as a drop in the prize pools. Right now, the guaranteed prize pool of Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS has dropped down to one million, and they also report a 28% decrease in the number of contestants as compared to their previous FTOPS, numbering to only about seven thousand participants. Aside from this, the number of contestants in other events and tournaments has also significantly decreased. If before Full Tilt Poker has about a thousand entrants, the number now dropped down to less than five hundred in a week.

The same is also happening at Poker Stars. The guaranteed prize pool of their popular Sunday Millions has also decreased from 1.5 dollars to only a million dollars. The guaranteed prize pool of their Sunday Second Chance tournament has also dropped down from a quarter of a million dollars to only half of the usual amount. They also saw a 22% drop in the number of players and contestants participating at their events.

However, what is one man’s misery may very well be another man’s joy or, in this case, online poker sites. Smaller online poker sites, especially non-US ones, are experiencing increased traffic and players. Titan Poker as well as Party Poker reports increasing traffic, and Carbon Poker as well as Bodog Poker are also reporting the same.

Did you like this? Share it:

Related posts:

  1. PocketFives Ceasing Advertising Deals with US Poker Sites
  2. Online Poker – Are There Any Safe US Poker Sites Left?
  3. Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS XVIII kicks-off Wednesday
  4. Online Poker Sites Announce how Cashouts will Proceed
  5. Merge Gaming Experiences 23% Rise in Traffic Since Black Friday