Is Online Poker Safe In 2011?
The events of April 15th, commonly called the Black Friday of online poker, plunged the US online gaming community in gloom, scared Canadian players and made the rest of the world apprehensive. The US federal government cracked down on Absolute Poker, UB Poker, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, seized their domain names and indicted 11 people associated with these sites on multiple counts on bank fraud, illegal gambling and money laundering.
Ultimately, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker withdrew from the US market, but assured their US players that they could withdraw their money. UB Poker and Absolute Poker, however, continue offering real money poker services to their players, but no longer allow them to fund their account or withdraw cash, which makes poker players wonder if online poker is safe in 2011.
The good news is that online poker is just as safe or unsafe as the rest of the world is, especially in 2011. Full Tilt and PokerStars might have bid goodbye to the American market, but they are still offering online poker services to the rest of the world under the domain names FullTiltPoker.co.uk and PokerStars.eu. US players on these sites had an unpleasant experience, but unpleasant experiences are part of living and one cannot definitely say that Black Friday has made online poker unsafe in 2011. Online poker can very safe provided poker players take a few simple precautions.
The oldest online poker sites are generally the safest poker sites although one cannot say that the new ones are all rogues. Simultaneously, online poker sites that have been around for decades and have attained an excellent reputation in the industry are generally safer than those that have just cropped up on the World Wide Web.
New poker players must take the time to study the reviews of various online poker sites and check if they have excellent track records and histories. Players had better steer clear of poker sites that have plenty of scandals and scams in the pages of their history. If an online poker site’s founder is a person of questionable character who has been arrested several times, one cannot consider the poker site safe.
Players must also test the online poker room’s customer care service before registering at it. Email the customer care service and give up the idea of registering if there is no quick response. All online poker sites offer customer support systems; however, the most trustworthy of them offer 24/7 email, phone and live chat support. The safest online poker sites are those with the promptest customer support systems.
Players should also ascertain if they can safely use the banking methods supported at the site. Nothing is more frustrating for a poker player than registering at a site only to find out that none of the banking methods at the site work in his/her locality. Security is also an important factor to consider, so players should ascertain that the poker room uses the latest in poker gaming security to protect player information and money.
