24hPoker excludes American players from its poker network

Solna, 25 July 2006, 24hPoker today announced that it has decided to exclude American players from all gaming services provided by the company. Furthermore it will exclude American players on partner sites in the poker network operated by B2B Poker. The reason for this decision is the ambiguous legal situation regarding gambling on the Internet in the US, where authorities have taken legal actions against certain gaming companies. Moreover the demand for poker networks that only accept non-US players is expected to increase. The decision will come into force on September 1st 2006.

Less than 1.5 per cent of B2B Poker’s gaming revenues come from American players. Taken all in all the decision to exclude American players is expected to have a positive impact, as it will increase the poker network’s possibilities to attract large partners that currently operate in other networks. B2B Poker will continue to focus on the European market and will shortly move its poker network to Malta, currently the only jurisdiction within the EU that offers gaming licenses for online poker. ”Our poker network has a strong European character, all gambling is done in Euro and most of our partners and players are located in Europe. Only a small part of our turnover comes from American players. The measure to shut them off is a small sacrifice for us, compared to the increased possibilities to attract new important partners from Europe especially. At the same time we avoid the risk of being affected negatively from sharper and more explicit gambling bans in the US. There are many European operators that do not accept American players, but are forced to let their players sit at the same poker tables as American players, since they are part of the same poker network. We have already had some inquiries and we know that there is an explicit demand for a poker network that excludes American players”, says Per Hildebrand, CEO 24hPoker.