Microgaming Casinos block US players after Black Poker Friday Shock

Black Friday will live on in infamy as the day that online poker players across the USA will recall with sadness.  For years since the passing of the UIGEA in the USA, online poker rooms and online casinos continued to operate with reckless abandon. It was generally perceived to be ‘grey area’ territory and few moves were initiated by several gaming operators to stop catering to the USA public. A series of lengthy litigious processes saw several gaming aficionados stepping up to the plate and offering evidence against big name poker rooms such as Poker Stars, UltimateBet, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. Prosecutions took place, assets were seized and lengthy legal proceedings are now set to get underway. Owing to the fact that USA banks and financial institutions are unable to transfer cash to online gaming companies, these and other poker rooms bit the bullet. Now it appears that software gaming operators too are taking no chances and blocking IPs of USA players.

Microgaming Opts to Block

The severe punitive measures being dished out to gaming operators allowing USA citizens to gamble at their websites has meant that fewer risks are now being taken. The value of USA customers is seen less as an advantage as it is a burden today. Microgaming – the world’s leading software gaming developer – has decided to unilaterally block all USA players from its large and ever-growing player base. As it stands, Microgaming has not accepted new US players into its base. That they were permitting online casinos to service only existing US players is testament to their caution in this day and age. But Microgaming is a little more business savvy than its competition.

Microgaming realized that the UIGEA would complicate online gaming in the USA. As far back as 2006 it accepted that it would be targeted by the US DoJ and the FBI as a result of allowing USA players to gamble at its casinos. But the Kentucky seizure of multiple domain names – including Microgaming.com – meant that caution was the order of the day. What Microgaming did, was to allow individual operators on its network to choose whether to permit new USA players to join. This stands in contrast to Playtech which unilaterally sacrificed the USA market when the sweeping changes came into effect. Microgaming blocked some 13 states from gaming online in the aftermath of the Kentucky seizures. The rest of the states were deemed a ‘grey area’ and their residents would be allowed to continue gaming, but new player registrations were forbidden.

The Change as it Stands Today

Now Microgaming has done another about-turn. No USA player is allowed to gamble at any Microgaming casino. This will obfuscate the authorities and allow for the instant removal of all USA players from all Microgaming casinos. Existing player funds in the casinos will have to be repaid, but time is required to put that into effect. The onus now falls squarely onto the shoulders of USA customers when deciding which online casinos to wager at. Selecting any online casino from within the USA is likely to yield increasingly negative outcomes.