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A Bit of Good News


2007-08-04 11:33:23
By: Gene Bromberg

Thousands of poker players endured over six months of uncertainty when Neteller froze the accounts of its U.S. customers. If you had a few hundred bucks in your account it was a minor nuisance. If you had tens (or even hundreds) of thousands sitting there, it was a catastrophe. One well-known pokerplayer who made the final table of a WPT event had his prize money deposited into his Neteller account...and had over $800K seized when Neteller suspended U.S. operations.

Well, at long last, those outraged customers have their money back. The arrest of Neteller's founders triggered the company's decision to leave the U.S. market, and last month both agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with the Department of Justice. Word soon got around that Neteller would start distributing funds back to its customers and, after a few delays, those transfers started happening on July 30th. Players started posting on blogs and forums that their money had finally found it's way back to their banks.

There's a video on YouTube from the new CEO of Neteller apologizing to its U.S. customers for freezing the accounts. Neteller still won't/can't do business in the U.S., but shares in the company are once again open for trading on foreign stock markets. It's unfortunate Americans can no longer use Neteller for their transactions, but maybe that will change someday soon. Lots of people predicted the funds seized by the Feds would never be returned, so hope springs eternal.


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