Neteller withdraws from the US gambling market

It’s official - the question that the online poker market has been asking ever since the UIEGA legislation late last year was when would Neteller pull out and stop processing online gambling transactions for US residents has been answered.

We were expecting a bit more time before Neteller inevitably exited the US gambling market, however there hand was forced earlier this week by the aggressive actions of the US Justice department who arrested Neteller’s two founding members. These two guys are no longer actively working for Neteller but they remain shareholders in the company. Both men were charged under money laundering charges related to funding online gambling accounts and specifically related to sports betting which is covered under the 1961 Wire Act. It’s interesting to note that the charges brought against these two really had little to do with the recent UIEGA legislation.

In reaction to this Neteller suspended trading of their shares on the stock market while they considered their actions and found out more information on the charges. Then as expected the announcement has just been made by Neteller that it will no longer allow transactions from US residents via their Neteller accounts to online gambling companies.

It should be noted that this is only for US residents and people outside of the US are still able to use their Neteller account as normal to fund their online poker accounts. It is also worth noting that US residents may still have a Neteller account, however they will not be able to make transactions to or from online gambling accounts.

This is all very similar to the situation many years ago in 2001 when Paypal blocked transactions from their members accounts to online gambling accounts - there was similar panic then but the industry survived and it will again with Neteller’s withdrawal from the US market.

There are still plenty of alternate ways to deposit and withdraw into your online poker accounts and we have written an article on just that subject which you can read here Alternatives to Neteller for Poker Players

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