Everleaf Gambling Group withdraws from US Sector.

A new year and yet another gambling group departs the US market. This time it is Everleaf Gambling Group. The reason is they received a cease and desist letter from the Department of Homeland Security. They asked for and received advice from the Lottery and Gambling Authority of Malta (LGA), who advised that as a result of nature of the threat as well as the current climate, they ought to withdraw from the United States marketplace as soon as possible.

The important thing here is that their domains and money weren't seized like in the past. They only received a letter and on advice from the regulator they left the market. If the Department of Homeland Security can just send a cease and desist letter and the networks leave the industry, then online poker for US players is over. The understanding most poker players have is participating in poker online is perfectly legal and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, only restricts financial institutions from handling funds both to and from these US poker rooms.

The question is why did the Everleaf Gambling Network receive the letter. Where they doing something unacceptable or were they in violation is someway? That is still to be exposed, but we do know one of many processors they along with other poker networks used were seized by the government some time ago. Numerous players on the Everleaf Network were complaining about slow payouts for a while. Their deposit and withdrawal methods were limited for players from the US. To be clear, there are additional sites having funding difficulties also, but not quite to this extent.

Why did they leave instead of fight to stay in the sector. One reason could be that US poker players made up less than 20% of their total players and it wasn't worth it to fight for such a small portion of your players. Other networks have a much higher percentage of players from the US. Will they fight to stay in the market when or if their letter arrives? They have a lot more to lose so perhaps they will.

There is not any doubt this is a big development and it can get considerably bigger if more letters are delivered. The time has come for something to be done. The government must pass some kind of law or injunction to allow people to play poker online with US Poker SItes. It's true that the Justice Department's recent ruling to permit individual states to operate online poker inside their borders can help, but it is several years away.