# What's happed to online poker since the US players were forced out? Gone to hell or kept cranking?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happed-to-online-poker-since-the-us-players-were-forced-out-gone-to-hell-or-kept-cranking/612769>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [February 13, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happed-to-online-poker-since-the-us-players-were-forced-out-gone-to-hell-or-kept-cranking/612769 "2012-02-13T23:45:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happed-to-online-poker-since-the-us-players-were-forced-out-gone-to-hell-or-kept-cranking/612769/1 "2012-02-13T23:45:10Z")

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Just curious. Is it still the mightly cash engine it used to be?

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**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happed-to-online-poker-since-the-us-players-were-forced-out-gone-to-hell-or-kept-cranking/612769/2 "2012-02-14T00:22:04Z")

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I think online poker suffered two serious blows around the same time. One was when the Feds clamped down on American players. The other was the scandal that rocked Ultimate Bet when it was discovered that someone high up in the company (he had an account number less than 100, which means he was either a developer or a founder or someone in management) seemed to be getting inside information about how a hand was going.

Both of those turned me off about trying to play online poker for cash. Having said that, though, I play a lot of online poker for free. The site I play at (Poker Stars, where the SDMB game is hosted) is pretty crowded all the time.

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happed-to-online-poker-since-the-us-players-were-forced-out-gone-to-hell-or-kept-cranking/612769/3 "2012-02-14T00:58:50Z")

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PokerStars for money is rolling along quite well.

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**Author:** ![Carnacki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)\
**Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happed-to-online-poker-since-the-us-players-were-forced-out-gone-to-hell-or-kept-cranking/612769/4 "2012-02-14T02:45:24Z")

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> [@RickJay](#):
>
> PokerStars for money is rolling along quite well.

Except in the US, it would appear, based on the statement on the front page of their website.