U.S. Restrictions

Hi mr_english

On September 30th 2006 the U.S. Congress passed the SAFE Port Act which also contained certain provisions known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 that affects the processing of payments between U.S. customers and online gaming companies. The legislation was signed into law by President George W Bush on October 13th 2006.

We regret that the U.S. has taken this step to make it virtually impossible to offer real money entertainment to U.S. customers. It is doubtful that the U.S. authorities will achieve their stated goals by introducing such legislation. We believe that a properly monitored forward-looking regulation would be much more effective than this general ban.

Entirely due to this new law, we are disappointed to announce the following restrictions for all customers within the U.S.:

Depositing Restrictions
As officially stated before, we have been working on a technical solution to restrict all customers within the U.S. from depositing new funds at PokerRoom.com. This solution will be implemented on October 25th.

Real Money Restrictions
We will have implemented the technical solution to restrict all customers within the U.S. from accessing our real money games starting Monday, November 6th. After that time you will still be able to login to PokerRoom.com, enjoy all of our play money games and withdraw funds from your account at your convenience.

Cash-Outs
Your funds will continue to be safe, secure and yours, and will be transferred to you at your request. The option to cash-out will remain available to you.

Unused Tournament Tickets
Valid tournament tickets are as good as cash and will be refunded to your account once the U.S. restrictions are implemented on November 6th. It may take some days for all tickets to be processed into cash, and only valid tickets (not expired) at the time of the U.S. restriction will be refunded.

Player Points / Loyalty Points
Player points and loyalty points will be inaccessible to all U.S. customers once the changes go live; but this does not mean that your points will expire. Your hard earned points will be stored indefinitely, in the event of real money play becoming available again. Until the U.S. restrictions are in place on November 6th you are free to use your points in our loyalty program.

Pending Bonuses
Pending bonus tasks will be void after the U.S. restrictions come into effect on November 6th, as it will not be possible to collect player points via our real money games. Until the Real Money restriction is in place you can continue to collect points to clear bonuses in your account.

At PokerRoom.com, we are of course very sorry for this development and we hope that we get the chance to meet all our U.S. players again in Real Money games, as we are aiming to offer real money games as soon as the legislation allows us to. We will do our utmost to continuously keep you up to date with future developments.

PokerRoom.com

Yep, received the same email today as well. It's really a shame; I liked their software and never had any problems with customer service.

We knew they would wait for the Poker Classic - But I am surprised they have this implemented so quickly. I hope FCP's time table for moving is a quick one.

Changes to the ONPC due to US Legislation
Hello Poker Players,

This is to update you about changes to the Ongame Network Poker Classic poker tournament that have been made as a result of the new Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the United States.

As all Ongame Network operators will no longer be accepting new US players after Monday October 16, we have eliminated the guarantees for a $5M purse and a $1M first prize. We expected approximately 60% of ONPC participants to qualify or buy-in directly during the last three weeks of October – this is an established pattern for high buy-in tournaments. Now, even with the Qualifier Frenzy and numerous other global marketing initiatives, we will not achieve an acceptable level of participation.

We will proceed with the ONPC as a $100,000-Added event this year. Ongame Network will add $100K to the existing (and still growing) prize pool of almost $2,000,000. Payouts will be percentage-based, as per the bottom section “If total players > 1001” detailed at www.ongameclassic.com/details/payouts/

The ONPC will continue as planned with its innovative format of an Online Final on November 4, a pause when 45 players remain, and then a Live Final in Barcelona on December 2. Players will continue in Barcelona with the same chip stacks they had when the online tournament paused. Ongame Network will pay for the flights, hotel and VIP treatment for all 45 live finalists.

Direct ONPC buy-ins for $5,000+200 will be available as of Monday, October 23, and the Qualifier Frenzy will commence as planned on October 20.

US players who have money or tickets in their account are welcome to use them for participating in the ONPC, either through qualifying or a direct buy-in. We will allow US players who have tickets to the Online Final or any qualifying stages to redeem their tickets for cash in their account, as long as this is done before the Online Final on November 4. Contact the Ongame Network Operator whose site you play on to have your ticket refunded.

US players can play in the ONPC’s online and live finals. We will work with players who finish in the money to ensure they get paid in a responsible manner.

Ongame Network believes that this is the best way to proceed, as we do not want to just outright cancel the event when so many players have put so much effort in to qualify for this tournament. We regret that this new US legislation has forced us to take this action, but hope that a $100,000-added multi-million-dollar poker event with a live final in Barcelona still proves compelling to players when we cannot proceed as originally planned.

If you have questions or concerns about this, please let us know by e-mailing ongameclassic@ongamenetwork.com


REDICULOUS!!!

bump