It Appears Epassporte Leaves Poker Processing Business

[pokeraddict]

It looks like epassporte is gone as an option for U.S. players and maybe everyone. Several sites have already removed them as an option and nobody has been able to get one processed for the last 10 hours or so. A well respected poster broke this at 2+2 a few hours ago and it appears to be true.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...d.php?t=177351

This is a disaster for U.S. players and U.S. friendly rooms. As I learn more I'll pass it along.

[RobWin]

Hell, I never even realized that epassporte was available to US players...

[anniemac]

Epassporte went when Payspark did. I used to use Epassporte and it's been gone a long time for US players.

[pokeraddict]

Epassporte went when Payspark did. I used to use Epassporte and it's been gone a long time for US players.

They processed poker transactions until today. They didn't just bail on U.S. players, they bailed on everyone.

[jetset]

Cake Poker and Full Tilt Poker have both been advised by ePassport that the company is withdrawing from the US poker market due to a "widespread" New York AG's office investigation.

There's been no public statement from ePassport direct to the public yet, but this looks pretty certain.

[jetset]

eWALLET FIRM DEPARTS U.S. POKER SCENE

ePassporte calls it a day, citing US enforcement activity

The California based e-wallet service ePassporte appears to be about to exit the United States online poker market, although as InfoPowa went to press Sunday this had not been confirmed by a general public statement from the company.

However, both Cake Poker and Full Tilt Poker have been advised by ePassporte management that "...a widespread investigation of Internet gambling, including poker" by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Southern New York" is responsible for the decision, according to online media reports from Poker News.com.

Back in the day when Eliot Spitzer controlled the New York AG's office it conducted a number of busts involving online gambling and ancillary services, such as the prosecution against Neteller.com's founders which was eventually settled for well over $100 million.

"Although we do not believe we have done anything illegal, we do not wish to be associated with anything that might be considered illegal by the United States Government," a communication sent to poker operators by ePassporte on Friday is understood to have read.

A Cake Poker email to players advised: "We have received notice from ePassporte today that they are unable to continue to provide CakePoker with merchant e-wallet services. We have since confirmed that this situation is not unique to CakePoker and is, in fact, industry wide."

Full Tilt Poker told its players: "We have recently been notified by ePassporte that they are no longer able to facilitate deposits or withdrawals between ePassporte and Full Tilt Poker player accounts."

[winbig]

Since when does NY speak for the rest of the country? Just ban NY, not the whole USA.

BTW, You can add Pokerstars to the list as well. The epassporte option is still there but when you click on it, a window comes up telling you that it's not available, and has been that way for 3 days now.

[bb28]

Add Doyle's Room also to the list.

[pokeraddict]

Here's a classic from G911:

ePassporte representatives routinely post under aliases on the TwoPlusTwo message boards bashing Gambling911.

http://www.gambling911.com/ePassport...r-041208A.html

I'm sure that is in response to G911 getting completely bashed in the thread at 2+2 that broke this news. I think we have a lot of ePassporte shills here too since G911 gets bashed here as well. Bryan, can you look into these epass shills and ban them please?

I certainly have to agree with what they have said in the past about epass though as before Neteller pulled out of the U.S. I don't think I ever would have trusted them.