Venerable online gambling operator Intertops has stopped accepting new player registrations from the United States. Existing players are not believed to be affected by the decision, but the site’s Terms & Conditions now contains a clause saying “Intertops reserves the right to refuse new registrations from the United States.” An Intertops rep confirmed the new signups edict via live chat, but there’s as yet been no explanation provided for the switch. The Merge Gaming Network enacted a similar block on new US signups shortly after Black Friday, apparently to allow it to better handle the influx of players it received when the big three poker operators left the US market. (The ban was lifted several months later.) There’s no indication that any other skins on the Revolution Gaming Network intend to follow Intertops’ lead.
After last week’s torrid flurry of competing press releases, there’s been little word from either the Microgaming Poker Network or its former skin 5050Poker regarding the latter’s abrupt exit from the network. Last week, Microgaming stated its desire to improve the lot of its recreational players by announcing a new rake system, set to take effect July 1, which favored operators that brought in new depositors. While it was making this announcement, Microgaming imposed a reduction on the number of tables simultaneously available to 5050Poker’s players from a maximum of 10 all the way down to two. That this reduction has apparently not been imposed on other network skins such as Ladbrokes, as well as the fact that 5050’s Microgaming-powered casino and bingo products are still available, leaves little doubt that the demise of rakeback-generous 5050Poker – whose players, in the site’s own wording “mostly belong to the category winning players” – was the result of a targeted killing rather than collateral damage.
