Who stays and who folds …

2Tone · #1 10-06-06, 01:15 PM

If I were to have guessed, I would have imagined that Doyle’s Room and Full Tilt would have been the first to close up shop to Americans. Doyle’s Room in particular –it is going to be very hard for him, an American resident/citizen, to claim he is not “in the business of wagering” when the site is named after him! Full Tilt has the same issue, though to a lesser degree.

Meanwhile, Titan is a relatively smaller, privately-held site operated entirely off-shore, with much lower profile corporate officers who are (I assume) not based in United States. And yet they fold even before the bill is signed into law.

Though I think it is premature, I can see the justification for Party and 888 closing. Traded on the London Stock Exchange, hoping for eventual legalization at which they can swoop back in, etc. But why Titan would cave when Absolute and Bugsy’s are not is beyond me.

Boobie Lover · #2 10-06-06, 01:23 PM

I may be wrong on this, but aren't the previous owners of EmpirePoker (who I think are traded on the London Stock Exchange) the owner the iPokernetwork (Titan, Noble, etc.)?

Talking Poker · #3 10-06-06, 01:31 PM

Noble, yes; Titan, no. You are confused because the previous owners of Noble (before they sold to the previous owners of Empire) basically cloned their entire site when they sold it to Empire and named it Titan.

And 2Tone - I have the exact same reaction as you. I was nervous about Full Tilt (and I still am, long term). While I disagree with Party's reaction, I can sort of understand it, because they are publicly traded. I think a better approach would have been to make a statement about what the new law is going to do to the online poker industry and how they are going to deal with it. Based offshore, they are not breaking any laws by allowing U.S. players, so I just don't get why they were willing to throw away 70% of their business overnight. Yeah, that's not gonna hurt the stock price at all.

Meanwhile, why privately owned non-U.S. companies (Interpoker, Titan, etc.) would close the accounts of U.S. customers BEFORE the bill even becomes a law - This astounds me. I can only assume they have information that I don't, because this seems like a horrible, horrible business decision to me.