Little Has Changed Two Years After Black FridayPace Slow For I-Poker Returning To U.S. On Large Scale |
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Black Friday happened two years ago, but not much has changed since that fateful day.
Former American customers of (old) Full Tilt Poker are still without their money, some of the largest online poker sites in the world aren’t taking action from Americans, and the poker economy as a whole is, arguably, still recovering from the sudden hit on April 15, 2011.
According to PokerScout.com, which tracks traffic for poker networks still offering games to Americans, the most recent seven-day average was just 3,171 American players — a far cry from the glory days of the U.S. online poker landscape during the mid-2000s.
Laws that offshore poker sites allegedly violated are slowly being rendered meaningless as some states have looked to authorize online gambling for their own benefit. Large gambling firms headquartered in the United States — such as Nevada’s Caesars Entertainment Corp. and MGM Resorts International — have been given the opportunity to profit from the American market once all the political and regulatory wrinkles are ironed out.
A few states — Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey — are inching closer to their respective Internet gambling industries, ones that could bring in players from other jurisdictions that have also figured out ways to tax and regulate the Internet betting industry.
Some thought Black Friday would create enough momentum to pass a federal bill authorizing at least online poker, but that never materialized for whatever reasons. Not that a bill from Congress is desperately needed; it just would have sped things up for the industry.
Despite leaving the U.S., PokerStars has remained dominant in the online poker world, acquiring Full Tilt Poker in the process of settling with the American government. PokerStars has already started to go head-to-head with some of the U.S. casino companies.
Signs point to an eventual reboot of a United States web poker environment with lots of players, but if the two years after Black Friday are any indication of the pace of things, such a resurrection could be years and years away. A second poker boom seems far off.
There seems to be a tendency to look at how the industry has fared as a whole since Black Friday, but poker players themselves have been the ones who have truly suffered.
Many individuals who once made a living grinding from their computers in the U.S. were forced to relocate abroad to continue playing. Those who simply played for recreational purposes don’t have the same access to the games that they once enjoyed. But it’s the players with funds still locked up due to the alleged Full Tilt Ponzi scheme who have arguably faced the worst. Washing that bad taste out of the collective mouth hasn’t happened yet, even two years out.
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