ePassporte Shutdown Rumor Doing the Rounds

April 14 - Since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was signed into law in October 2006, poker players from the United States have been finding it increasingly difficult to transfer funds to their online poker accounts and withdraw their winnings. For a while, US players depended on Neteller, one of the industry's leading online processing companies, however, this ended when the company was forced to pull out the North American online gambling market under a deal with US authorities.

Many online poker fans turned to ePassporte after Neteller exited the market, as it remained one of the few payment processing companies that still catered to the US market.

However, this past weekend has been rife with rumors at various online poker forums and chat rooms that ePassporte is in the midst of a shut down, with the company telling some of its merchants that it his experiencing "technical difficulties".

Clients at Cake Poker, for example, were issued an email by the popular online poker site that read: "We have received notice from ePassporte today that they are unable to provide Cake Poker with merchant ewallet services. We have since confirmed that this situation is not unique to Cake Poker and is, in fact, industry wide."

A leading gambling portal published a letter by ePassporte to its merchants, explaining that the company was dealing with "a widespread investigation of internet gambling, including poker" by the US Attorney's Office for the District of Southern New York.

According to other rumors at online poker rooms, the ePassporte problem is not limited to the United States market, and is, in fact, a worldwide problem.

By Saturday, clients were reporting on online poker forums that there were able to withdraw their money through ePassporte, although it remains to be seen for how long.