US Players Banned From Red Star Poker

Another one bites the dust: Red Star Poker, Revolution Gaming Network’s online poker operator decided not to accept US players in the future, American gambling news sources reported on Friday.

There is no news yet if the US player ban is temporary or permanent. Players who had signed up before Friday to the American poker rooms will be allowed to continue, although it is not known for how long.

American gambling laws theoretically forbid US players to play poker – in fact any game that is considered gambling – on non-US based operators, such as Red Star Poker. The regulations are suspected to be in the background of the decision. The regulation also bans US players to transfer payments to operators, making real-money bets practically impossible.

Technically it is extremely difficult to filter the US payments according to their purpose. Every day, estimated thousands of Americans actually place real-dollar bets on non-US hosted websites using for example anonymous international payment methods.

Usually, it is up to the operator whether it accepts US players or not. Revolution Gaming Network (formerly known as Cake Poker) did not yet give a reason for its ban of new American players on Red Star Poker.

Industry analysts do not expect a huge decrease in Red Star Poker’s revenue, as they consider Eastern European players to be operator’s main source of income.