U.S. Poker Players Lose ePassporte

While the company itself has not made a public statement yet, several sources in the online gaming world have reported that ePassporte, a major e-wallet for online poker players, has stopped allowing poker transactions for U.S. customers.  After the Neteller debacle that spanned the first half of 2007, ePassporte became the most popular method for U.S. players to get money to and from online poker sites. 

The news spread quickly Friday night, as internet forums were bustling with questions as to whether the rumors were true.  Soon, people began seeing ePassporte either disappearing as a deposit option from several poker sites, or temporarily frozen due to “technical difficulties.”  Customer calls to ePassporte were met with denials, as customer service reps said there were simply technical problems.  Other than that, all was supposedly well. 

Then the following message appeared on the Cake Poker deposit screen: 

“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.” 

The message from Cake was later sent in an e-mail to all customers. 

Saturday, a letter surfaced that was supposedly sent by ePassporte to online poker rooms.  In part, it said that “a widespread investigation of Internet gambling, including poker” was the cause for the action.  This investigation is by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the same USAO that went after the Neteller founders.   

The letter went on to say, "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." 

Also on Saturday, customers of Full Tilt who attempted to deposit using ePassporte received an e-mail which read, “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. We apologize for this inconvenience which is unfortunately outside of our control.” 

To most, this had become more than rumor or possible technical issues and now appeared to be very real, primarily because it had been confirmed by more than one poker room.  At least a couple well-respected members of the online poker community have also confirmed that they have seen a communication from ePassporte which states they will no longer process gambling transactions by U.S. customers. 

It does not seem as though the ePassporte funds of poker players will be stuck, as there is no evidence to this point that the company is having the same problems with the U.S. Department of Justice that Neteller had.  ePassporte still services merchants from other industries, so it does appear that the only problem for poker players is that they won’t be able to use ePassporte for their gambling transactions.  Players have reported that they are still able to withdraw money with their ePassporte ATM cards.