This is from our blog:
January 18, 2007
Neteller.com officially pulls out of the US market
Nick @ 1:01 am —Filed under:
General;
Just a day after reporting that
Neteller’s founders were arrested,
Neteller has officially announced it is pulling out of the US gambling market.
The
statement by Neteller reads:
Effective Immediately
Due to recent US legislative changes and events, effective immediately, US members are no longer able to transfer funds to or from any online gambling sites.
All US members will continue to be able to use their NETELLER e-wallet account to safely transfer funds to and from non-gambling merchants and are not required to close their account or withdraw their funds.
After yesterday’s news it was only a matter of time before Neteller announced this. The US Government’s arrests basically fast forwarded the inevitable, Neteller had always said that it would comply with the UIGEA when it was first passed but it was biding it’s time until the law came into play.
This is a historic moment in the online gambling industry, similar to when
paypal announced that they would also stop gambling transactions all those years ago. Neteller stepped up then, so now what remains to be seen is what suitable replacement will be available. After all, this is a business that was processing billions of dollars worth of transactions per year. Surely a private company will be more than happy to take the business off their
hands. In the mean time, I suggest all US players to use the “Instant eChecks” feature that the majority of the
poker sites offer, whereby they will directly take money from your bank account and place it into your poker account instantly, and charge free. At the moment this is a fine alternative, unless banks decide to enforce more strict policies to comply with the UIGEA.
For Neteller customers in the US, your money is still safe and accessible for withdrawal.
Yes, your money is safe with NETELLER. All members can hold their funds safely in their NETELLER accounts until such time as they decide to move the funds. The changes in gambling merchant transfers do not affect the ability of US member to maintain funds in their NETELER e-wallet accounts.
NETELLER protects all members’ funds (all deposited, in-transit and un-cleared funds) by holding the value in independent trust accounts. As the largest independent online money transfer business in the world, we maintain our head office in Europe and are a publicly quoted company on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. NETELLER UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
All non-US customers of Neteller will not be affected by this change.