If you’re a Caribbean Poker player in the United States, this is your heads up that you have less than a month to play at Bodog Casino (or their poker room or place some sports bets with them). The popular Bodog brand is pulling out of the US market at the end of the year when their contract with Mohawk Gambling runs out. Now it isn’t the end of the Mohawk contract that prompting the move. That’s actually their new license in the UK.
See the UK Gambling Commission is a bit concerned about the US gambling laws. Even more concerned after the April 15th Black Friday Poker Shutdown where the US feds seized the domain names and bank accounts of four top online poker rooms. Since three of those poker rooms haven’t recovered from the seizures, the UK rather suggested that Bodog might be better off out of the US and since their contract was ending at the end of the year, they agreed not to renew it.
Now, this isn’t the same level of crisis for US players as something like the Full Tilt Poker shutdown was. After all, this is a planned withdraw and Bodog can’t keep its reputation up if it can’t honor its commitment to players. So US players can withdraw their winnings from their accounts. Or they can take up Mohawk Gaming’s offer of keeping their accounts and letting them move over to a new Mohawk brand casino.
While the US will be sad to see Bodog leave the country, the company plans to expand in the EU, UK and Asian markets. And if the US ever does get more reliable gambling laws, I’m sure Bodog will be glad to come back in.