To much criticism, Pokershare.com the new innovative poker room brought to you by Ultimatebet have recently announced they will no longer accept US players...

The e-mail correspondence to their players reads as follows:

"Dear ***** ****,

We would like to thank you for being a member of PokerShare. We are writing to inform you that due to a policy change as of November 1, 2005 North American residents are no longer able to play in the PokerShare cardroom.

We have closed your account, DMFW. If you had a cash balance in your account we have initiated a withdrawal for you to refund these monies in full. Along with your cash balance we have converted any Tournament Entry Chips (TECs) and included them in the withdrawal of funds.

If you are owed money, you will be receiving a check in full for your entire account balance to your address on file. Balances in excess of $500 have been sent by FedEx. Smaller balances have been sent by regular mail.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Sincerely"

Many of there registered players in the US have hit the forums expressing their dismay about the decision and further speculating why they made the decision. Essentially, the Pokershare concept offers players a loyalty program whereby they get a percentage of the poker room profits back in equity or shares in the company. Pokershare was recently acquired by poker giant UltimateBet and players at both poker rooms play on one seamless network.

In our opinion, poker players living in the US playing poker and owning shares in a online gambling operation was the main reason why the company stopped taking US bets. This is in effect illegal. Speculation is that this shortcoming could have a huge effect on Ultimatebet their big cash cow.

We have seen time and time again, online gambling not accepting US customers. Ultimately, these companies never survive, the majority of the online gambling is in the US, not to say Europe is not an option but competition is Europe is fierce and the player base is significantly smaller and more diverse.