Well, this gets odder still
There have been a few theories about why NEW games were no longer available to US players, but here is the first cast iron PROOF that there is now a policy of RETROACTIVE game removal for US players. This slot "my slot" was nothing more than a clone of the popular Thunderstruck game, and this is VERY OLD INDEED. "my slot" was introduced a couple of YEARS ago, so is very clearly an OLD game, far older than the multi-player wheel of wealth.
In this vein, the next big RETROACTIVE facility removal from US players must surely be the MPV tournaments. This is by no means a NEW feature, having been around for 3 years.
What exactly IS old enough for US players to be allowed to keep playing.
MGS have clearly lied AGAIN in their eventual "confession" that the ban was ONLY going to be imposed on the NEW games being released from Dec 2009 onward.
I offered an opinion that this was simply the start of a gradual process of phasing out the US player altogether, by the progressive removal of games and features from US facing MGS casinos offering "grandfather rights" to US players who had accounts prior to the cut-off on NEW player registrations imposed by MGS.
Removal of "my slot" is the next stage of this progressive removal of facilities. The removal of the 6 AWP games and 2 "bingo" games from the download lobby is for "technical issues", but is this really cover for the eventual removal of ALL the AWP games for US players at least. Removed for ALL perhaps due to the difficulties posed by selevtively blocking them for US players.
As far as third party contractural and licensing is concerned, "my slot" should not be affected, since it is simply a Thunderstruck clone, where the PLAYER provides the "skin", so it would be down to the contractural relationship between the player and himself if he allows US players to play his "my slot" creation
This WOULD hold water as an explanation for Hellboy being blocked from US players, since it is licensed from Dark Horse. Interestingly, there are a few other games that could be withdrawn on the basis of licensing, such as Tomb Raider (licensed from Eidos). US players may see these also vanishing from their lobbies in the run up to the inevitable overnight decision to lock out US players COMPLETELY.
I would think the most likely time for MGS to make this move would be the new date for full implementation of UIGEA (1st June I think). It would therefore be prudent for US players to complete all WR & empty their accounts at the end of May, and see what happens in early June. A couple of weeks off from playing may be better than a month or more spent extracting remaining balances from locked out accounts.
