Online payment processing outfit Skrill will cease handling transactions for Canadian gamblers effective January 2. Poker player Benjamin Sulsky took to the 2+2 poker forums to post the contents of an email sent Tuesday morning notifying him of the cutoff date and that payments from merchants would cease effective Jan. 31. Skrill claimed to have arrived at this decision after having “reviewed its operations” but provided no further specifics.
Skrill’s skedaddle from Canada follows the strange hokey-pokey routine recently performed by Playtech offshoot Titan Poker, which last month alerted its Canadian players to the fact that it would cease operations in the Great White North effective Dec. 22 (for what it’s worth, one day after Playtech plans to migrate the poker operation of UK bookies Ladbrokes to Playtech’s iPoker network from Microgaming‘s MPN). But on Dec. 5, Titan’s official Twitter account announced “good news” for its Canadian players, who were told they could “keep on playing, depositing, withdrawing and winning poker, so hit the tables!” Titan players have even been offered bonuses to encourage them to stick with the indecisive iPoker skin.
The precise rationale behind all this Canuck confusion remains something of a mystery. There have been no significant legislative developments on the Canadian gambling front and, apart from grumblings from some provincial gambling monopoly CEOs about international online gambling sites drinking their milkshakes, there’s been precious little public discussion about online gambling north of the 49th parallel.
Just last month, Skrill won approval to process transactions for the companies serving New Jersey’s fledgling online gambling market, leaving open the possibility that a condition for licensing was a phased withdrawal from operations in grey markets like Canada. Skrill also recently changed ownership, and new owners CVC Capital Partners might not have the same stomach for risk as Skrill’s previous management.
