Stars pulled out of Washington

[wufwugy]

PokerStars to Stop Serving Washington State Residents - Internet Poker - Online Poker Forum

Dreadful news for me. If FTP pulls out, I'm royally fucked.

[bhaley66]

Ya no shit me too, i just got the email...

[BooG690]

Look at them getting ready for the United States' upcoming legislation.

[Hawk]

fuck me, i just started playing there again.

fuck me? fuck that, fuck the state for this dumbass law.

FFFUUUUU!!!!

[bhaley66]

So I wonder how long till FTP does this?

[jyms]

What the fuck is wrong with your country?

[bhaley66]

lol, lots

[spoonitnow]

What the fuck is wrong with your state?

fyp

[jyms]

Yea sorry, state. We don't have as much separation between province and country as you do.

[wufwugy]

fuck me, i just started playing there again.

fuck me? fuck that, fuck the state for this dumbass law.

FFFUUUUU!!!!

If FTP pulls out, I'm going to be about as close to uber freakout mode as possible. Hopefully they wait until I can relocate

[bigred]

^Usually chicks freak out when they don't pull out

[Micro2Macro]

now lets get things regulated and see what else happens.

[givememyleg]

well fuck

[philly and the phanatics]

i thought washington was on the pill

Welcome to Instant Rimshot

[spoonitnow]

Yea sorry, state. We don't have as much separation between province and country as you do.

that's because we're the united by god states of america

and if you don't like it we will fucking bomb you

[meeloche]

Isn't washinton state a democrat state?

[Hawk]

Yeah, but it's not about morals (the angle you'd expect republicans to take), it's about politicians getting paid by the casinos/tribes and passing it off as a "think of the poor helpless children" law.

[StarGrinder]

Yeah but there's still bingo halls and scratch off junkies though, but for god sakes stop the poker!

[bhaley66]

Yeah but there's still bingo halls, casino's and scratch off junkies though, but for god sakes stop the online gambling!

fyp

[dneureiter]

Yup in the same boat. Took a week off and was ready to have a nice October. On fulltilt for the time being but I miss stars . Article I read suggests fulltilt will follow stars but the smaller sites may still serve us.

Yea no real logic for state other than
a)we like moniez
b)pokerstars doesn't give us money

Scratch tickets are so much worse than poker too and they're at every gas station register in the state..

solution: move to canada

[wufwugy]

I'm positive the article suggesting FTP will follow got that idea from opinions from 2p2 threads.

I have a whole lot of speculation here based on several different reasons, but my guess is that it all boils down to Stars pulling out because they are looking to go public, they made this decision at some time during the Rousso appeal, and that they would pull out if the state court decision went the way it did.

If FTP pulls out I will be surprised. They have been doing a lot of things differently in the US and WA with regards to advertising and banking/transfers, I believe the owners are in a much different position, and it would be a retarded business decision to pull out IMO. The only reason I see this decision for PS being somewhat prudent is the whole going public thing. Nothing else makes a lick of sense

Or maybe I'm totally wrong. If I don't stay positive I'll probably take a bat to my monitor

[swiggidy]

wuf plays poker? How do you have time with all your forum posting?

[wufwugy]

wuf plays poker? How do you have time with all your forum posting?

I can do both simultaneously without much difficulty

In fact, if I don't do other stuff while pokering, I get bored

[boost]

Being publicly traded is the reason party pulled out... so ya, what wuf says makes sense.

[wufwugy]

Well, they're not public now, there's just rumor that they've wanted to in the past. Their withdrawal from WA just makes absolutely no legal sense if based on the verdict given that nothing about the law actually changed. They can't have made this decision because they thought they're criminals if they didn't.

It could be that they think that US licensing will be in their favor if they pull out of WA, but that's fucking retard. But I wouldn't put it past the morons running Stars since they've been showing us quite clearly that they don't know what they're doing

If FTP pulls out I'll obviously be infuriated because of my residency, but I'll also be irked at the stupidity of the owners. The last thing that will ever happen is Ivey and Harman and Jesus getting arrested for poker activity. FTP holds all the cards, and will never get in criminal trouble over these issues. The person who orders their arrests will have signed the death warrant on his own job

[aka_red]

even if they aren't looking to prosecute those who play online in Washington you are still-at risk for being a charged with a felon.y'

[andy-akb]

I'm positive the article suggesting FTP will follow got that idea from opinions from 2p2 threads.

I have a whole lot of speculation here based on several different reasons, but my guess is that it all boils down to Stars pulling out because they are looking to go public, they made this decision at some time during the Rousso appeal, and that they would pull out if the state court decision went the way it did.

If FTP pulls out I will be surprised. They have been doing a lot of things differently in the US and WA with regards to advertising and banking/transfers, I believe the owners are in a much different position, and it would be a retarded business decision to pull out IMO. The only reason I see this decision for PS being somewhat prudent is the whole going public thing. Nothing else makes a lick of sense

Or maybe I'm totally wrong. If I don't stay positive I'll probably take a bat to my monitor

I really feel like this is optimistic thinking. Stars most likely pulled out because they can longer make the argument that the Washington law was unconstitutional. Up until this point, when asked why they served Washington players, they could point to their legal team and say they had the best legal advice, and were told that the law was not valid. They cant do that anymore. If they want to get licensed, they cant blatantly disrespect the law and while it seems they are by not pulling out of the US, there hasnt been a major case to challenge it, so they can still proceed here while saying they acted in good faith. In my opinion, this sucks for Washington, but is promising for the country because they wouldnt be doing this if they didnt think it was likely that the country would regulate sometime soon. I also dont see any reason for them to go public as they are clearly a cash cow. Further, if they were going public, I am sure there would definitely be some more rumors going around about the possibility.

If this is the case, which I strongly feel like it is, then Full Tilt will almost definitely follow through. The only reason they wouldnt would be the result of a simple EV calc: They need to balance the revenue they make from Washington with the potential revenue they would have under regulation multiplied by the chance that serving Washington after this decision would prevent them from being licensed. Its obv not that simple, and most likely the site is going to err on the conservative side. The potential profit for a regulated site is massive, they dont want to fuck with that so if they are smart, they should pull out of washington as well.

[wufwugy]

even if they aren't looking to prosecute those who play online in Washington you are still-at risk for being a charged with a felon.y'

I guess that's technically true, but I recall when this law was first passed, the rhetoric that came out of the politicians and justice system was that they're not looking to do that. Different 2p2ers have different stories. One I remember was one of them called the police station, told them his neighbor was illegally playing poker on the internet and asked if they're gonna arrest him. They laughed and hung up

They also said that when they find indiscretions, they're gonna send a cease and desist message to the player before making any arrests. That's the biggest bluff I ever saw. If it's a fucking felony you don't write a goddamn letter asking them to stop. No player will ever ever spend more than just a couple nights in jail over playing internet poker, and that's the worst case scenario. The officials who pursue legal means against the players will get their shit pushed in, and they know it. That's why it has not happened, and why it won't. Also, any player charged with internet poker playing has an automatic superb team of attorneys headed up by the PPA

It's possible though, but I'd say you're more likely to get paralyzed in a car accident than charged with anything regarding online poker

However, leaving the state is a good move. Zilla, be sure to write the governor why she's losing your ability to bring money from around the world and spend it in her state. I'm doing that whenever I get a chance to leave.

[wufwugy]

I really feel like this is optimistic thinking. Stars most likely pulled out because they can longer make the argument that the Washington law was unconstitutional. Up until this point, when asked why they served Washington players, they could point to their legal team and say they had the best legal advice, and were told that the law was not valid. They cant do that anymore. If they want to get licensed, they cant blatantly disrespect the law and while it seems they are by not pulling out of the US, there hasnt been a major case to challenge it, so they can still proceed here while saying they acted in good faith. In my opinion, this sucks for Washington, but is promising for the country because they wouldnt be doing this if they didnt think it was likely that the country would regulate sometime soon. I also dont see any reason for them to go public as they are clearly a cash cow. Further, if they were going public, I am sure there would definitely be some more rumors going around about the possibility.

If this is the case, which I strongly feel like it is, then Full Tilt will almost definitely follow through. The only reason they wouldnt would be the result of a simple EV calc: They need to balance the revenue they make from Washington with the potential revenue they would have under regulation multiplied by the chance that serving Washington after this decision would prevent them from being licensed. Its obv not that simple, and most likely the site is going to err on the conservative side. The potential profit for a regulated site is massive, they dont want to fuck with that so if they are smart, they should pull out of washington as well.

It is optimistic thinking, partly because I need to remain optimistic

Pulling out over potential licensing is retarded. Nobody's gonna care about what PS and FTP did before a new law comes around, they're only going to care how much money the lobbyists bring them. Politics is a hush hush game that disregards the past and follows the money. This doesn't mean that the sites aren't fucking idiots who don't know how to play the game, though. PS has made some awful decisions lately, and this is one of them.

FTP holds all the cards, they can do whatever they want in US, and will be one of the first licensed, I just hope they know it. It all depends on how stupid the people running them are.


Also, the appeal argument is dumb. It doesn't work for anything that the justice system cares to enforce, and if it worked for this then the opposition was looking for a way out anyways. Also, a bunch of little actions taken by the two sites suggest that PS is more focused on the EU market while FTP on the US market.

Several months ago, PS lost their WA region processor, and never picked up another one. FTP never lost theirs for that long, and I got a WA region transfer from them post-verdict. IF they were planning on leaving IMO they would have done it already. I'm doing my best to remain positive and preparing for leaving the state. I won't be in much position to leave for a while though, so it's scary. At the very least, this has been an eye opener to me about no longer taking things for granted.

[wufwugy]

Seriously though if FTP leaves and I somehow can't get a thing going on Cereus, I'm in a wooooooooooooooorld of hurt. Need to remain positive

[Keith]

this is indeed serious, Wuf ventured out of the commune and has been posting on 2+2 about it.

[Ash256]

Wuf ventured out of the commune

He's also not posting essays in the libertarian clusterfuck thread. Time for a tempban to keep him in line imo

[bhaley66]

Full Tilt says the following:

In light of recent legal events, Full Tilt Poker notifies all of its players from Washington State that we are closely monitoring and have been assessing the recent legal developments that have occurred in Washington along with our advisors.

While the option to play real-money poker games of skill is still available on Full Tilt Poker, we will have further information about the status of real-money play by Washington residents in the near future.

In the meantime, please rest assured that your funds are safe, secure and accessible at all times.

We are committed to protecting our players' ability to come play within our virtual online cardroom, and will continue to provide the best online poker room available worldwide.

Regards,

Jon
Supervisor
Full Tilt Poker Support

[wufwugy]

Sounds like they're planning on leaving

Which is so goddamn stupid I can't contain myself. The law hasn't changed one fucking bit. But who knows, that could be the type of rhetoric they'll always use on this kind of issue

[bhaley66]

Ya, sucks. I'll wait a week or so before I deposit there to see what happens I guess...

[bhaley66]

I just got my rakeback request accepted too.

[aka_red]

anyone got any word on how oregon looks? its closer to home and ideally id like to be there. but am in sac for the time being.

[wufwugy]

you might have a problem with a rb account if you dont deposit soon.

[bhaley66]

Should I be alright waiting till friday? Just got accepted today.

[wufwugy]

ya

[wufwugy]

Response from FTP



Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your concern and have passed your comments onto management.

For now, it's business as usual. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Best regards,

Lara

[BooG690]

http://www.flopturnriver.com/pokerfo...ml#post1984681

So now payment processors are getting punished. This will probably lead to Cereus and FTP pulling out. No good.

Btw gaiz, to this discuss this exact case (payment processor), use the thread I linked to. FTR will be eternally grateful.

[bigred]

Response from FTP



Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your concern and have passed your comments onto management.

For now, it's business as usual. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Best regards,

Lara

Lara sounds hot. You should ask her out and then write a 10 paragraph essay about how women are whores when she doesn't respond.

[Galapogos]

Other people in the commune are super funny but no one makes it seem as effortless as bigred.

[bigred]

Other people in the commune are super funny but no one makes it seem as effortless as bigred.

I outsourced my posting to 20 monkeys. Smooth sailing ever since.

[BennyLaRue]

Other people in the commune are super funny but no one makes it seem as effortless as bigred.

Yeah, from the size of his ass now, it must be effortless.