No Lovin’ for Luvin Poker as It and Others Must Find New Network to Serve US
Following an abrupt announcement (or lack-there-of) by the Everleaf Gaming poker network that it will no longer be serving U.S. players, a few dozen of its skins may be looking for new homes. Most of these online poker rooms were relatively small.
Everleaf did not exactly make the announcement. Players found out the hard way by logging onto their accounts and then being redirected to the Terms and Conditions page stipulating no more U.S. citizens while those players in France are also now excluded.
Everleaf skin LuvinPoker.com denied earlier reports that the network was the subject of a U.S. government seizure involving its payment processor. A representative for the skin also shot down reports that the U.S. Homeland Security Department had sent out a cease and desist order to the company.
Everleaf had not engaged in payment processing with U.S. customers since last October, opting instead to send all withdrawals through agent utilized person-to-person cash pickup locations. It is widely believed that the rather small poker network could no longer handle the volume of withdrawals associated with this method due to limited agents available.
While some Everleaf skins may opt to stay with the network and service only those players outside the U.S., others might begin looking elsewhere.
It is no secret the Bodog Poker appears to be looking to bring on skins after it recently underwent a drastic remodeling of the poker room software though the company is yet to officially confirm such plans. The Winning Poker Network, formerly Yatahay and home to Americas Cardroom, told Gambling911.com this past summer they would consider bringing on new skins provided the operators could find their own means of payment processing. The Winning Poker Network does not seem to be actively seeking new operators to come on board as its player base is now growing rather dramatically in recent weeks.
Merge remains a viable option and the largest of the networks catering to North Americans at this time while BetOnline.com was also looking to bring on new operators for its proprietary software, though as of this past fall the company informed G911 it was not quite ready to take that route for another few months. They could be inching closer at this time.
Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
