V.I.P.COM NORTH AMERICAN BANS HAVE ONLINE GAMBLERS CONFUSED

2 March 2007

Surprise announcement has Canadians in particular puzzled

This week's surprise announcement by the reputable VIP.com group has players and industry observers alike trying to figure out what the corporate marketing strategy could be.

A + rated VIP.com and its sister books are no longer accepting new clients from the United States and Canada, says the company.
Canada-based users will have access to their accounts until April 1st but new deposits will not be accepted. But existing U.S. customers that have deposited in the past may continue to use their accounts as normal. Phone wagering will no longer be offered in what seems to be a move to reduce the risk of US action under the Wire Act in that country, however customer service by phone will continue as normal.

VIP Poker, a popular site on the Microgaming Poker Network, is affected by the decision and joins the ranks of poker rooms no longer accepting new U.S. and Canadian players. The poker information portal PokerListings.com was told by a Microgaming poker spokesman that the decision by VIP was an individual company policy that was "...mostly because of the new law they [USA-UIGEA] implemented."

One of the most puzzling aspects of the new VIP group restrictions is that the ban seems to apply to all Canadian players but new U.S. players only, with existing U.S. players still able to withdraw, deposit and play as usual. Affiliates, who received similar notifications, seemed equally confused this week. Canadian clients will apparently have until April 1st to wind up their VIP.com affairs, which at least enables players to extract their account balances in an orderly fashion.

VIP.com has reportedly been uncharacteristically slow in paying out players and affiliates in recent weeks, a situation partly explained by the turmoil in the third party financial processing industry following UIGEA and the Neteller US shutdown.

Some light was thrown on VIP.com thinking in later statements by CEO Alistair Assheton, himself a respected and experienced industry executive, who told the media: "We’ve taken the steps to close down telephone betting, a largely unprofitable business for us representing 2.5 percent of our business, and yet [taking up] 20 percent of our staff resources.

"We’ve also turned our business towards our existing player base, and are stopping new registrations from the USA and Canada – both in an effort to ensure we can continue to offer a high quality service to our existing players.

"Many players have been with us for many years, and we intend to be able to continue serving them for many years to come. We’ve taken the choice to allocate more of our resources to them, and to stop taking US and Canadian new accounts while the legal uncertainty rages on. We intend to carry on with business and to give our customers everything they have come to expect from us."

Assheton emphasised that VIP.com will still accept new international gamblers outside the US and Canada.

The Curacao-based VIP group was part of the US-facing companies in the Leisure and Gaming plc group, a London-listed public company that had to shed its US-facing companies for a dollar in the wake of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the United States last year.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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