Bodog Continues to Frustrate Vendors, Players
Stories of Bodog refusing to honor contracts with vendors and advertising vehicles continued to surface over recent days with a number of affiliates complaining to Gambling911.com.
Affiliates, while still receiving installment checks from Bodog (BodogLife.com) were complaining that "customer conversions were way down" and that the company was changing its payment terms without notice.
The troubled online gambling firm - once a powerhouse among Gambling911.com sponsors - was taken down from the site last week. It has been unable to process payments to and from gamblers since Forbes reported that bank accounts were seized from the US Government over the last six months.
According to the article on Forbes.com, $24 Million in funds has been seized by the US government over the past six months, funds the feds claim are in bank accounts used to fund operations and make payments to US-based customers of Bodog. Court documents obtained by Forbes cite that the seizures began in January of this year, and had continued through July.
"Processing is an issue industry-wide," a source tells Gambling911.com. "But in the case of Bodog, nobody (the processors) wants to do business with them due to their high profile and the problems they are having with the US Government."
This same source tells Gambling911.com that Bodog is discussing its options, including pulling out of the US market after football season in February of 2009, though it remained unclear if they would keep current US customers - or whatever is left of them.
BodogLife.com has been able to take money in over recent days, which should help some online gambling and poker affiliates in the short term, but payouts are few and far between.
Bodog is one of the few sports books with a successful standalone online poker room though Cake Poker's success has been attributed mostly to its affiliation with online sports betting companies.
Elsewhere, news that the US Government has been monitoring posting forums has led to difficulties in sports betting sites being able to accept Moneygram and Western Union deposits leading into the new football season. This deposit option was cancelled by several websites in recent days.
