Bovada Bans Grandfathered Players in Five States
Bovada sent out an email to players in five states today. It stated that accounts with addresses in Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey and New York will be closed on October 2, 2017.
These five states were already barred from creating new accounts. This decision was made years ago. Players with existing accounts were permitted to stay at Bovada. Banking was generally limited to Bitcoin. Before the addition of that option, cash transfers were the deposit and withdrawal option of choice.
The scenario turned out to be a tease for poker players in these states. Bovada moved poker to Ignition Casino in August 2016. Players in Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey and New York that were grandfathered in at Bovada were not permitted to create accounts at Ignition Casino. This effectively banned these Bovada players from poker.
Bovada reopened poker last month to all players. These grandfathered players were allowed back into the poker site. That is no longer the case. These players must withdraw all funds by October 2.
PokerScout showed a bump in traffic at the PaiWangLuo Network after poker reopened at Bovada. It will be interesting to see if the banning of players in these states has any effect on that.
Online poker players in these states can still find action. BetOnline is a reputable site that does not have any banned states. Bitcoin-only sites like SWC Poker are another option. Intertops is also available to players in most states.