Show’s over in Arizona
ClubWPT Gold has withdrawn from the Arizona online poker market, giving players just a few days to submit prize redemption requests. Arizona players received the news on Friday, just before games were shut down on Saturday, August 8.
The online poker site – or “sweepstakes” site as they would call it – said that the decision is related to “state regulatory action.” All purchases and postal requests were immediately halted and games were made unavailable as of midnight Saturday.
Players can still access their ClubWPT Gold accounts, but only have until 11:00pm local time on Thursday, August 13 to submit prize redemption requests.
Sweepstakes poker
ClubWPT Gold is considered a “sweepstakes” online poker room, one which uses technicalities to get around laws against offering real money poker. In general, sweepstakes poker sites have two types of in-game currency: gold coins and sweeps coins (names can vary). Gold coins are play money, allowing people to participate in poker games for fun, no risk involved. Sweeps coins are used at different tables, where real money prizes can be won.
Sweeps coins cannot be directly purchased, but can be earned through daily bonuses, promotions, mail-in requests (there’s where the sweepstakes name comes in), and gold coin purchases. That last one is how sweepstakes poker sites effectively become real money sites while not breaking the law. Players can buy sweeps coins to essentially play for real money, but they are really buying gold coins and just getting the sweeps coins as a free gift.
ClubWPT Gold used to work like this, but changed its system last year. Now, players can buy “hand analysis” packages which award “chips” as a bonus. Each package gives players a set number of hand analysis credits, allowing them to have their hands broken down by a GTO tool. It’s a real, legitimate tool, but is also used as a vehicle for players to acquire chips to play in games that award real money prizes.
State warning heeded
The state regulatory action that ClubWPT Gold reference goes back to July 10, when the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG) issued a cease-and-desist letter to five unregulated gambling operators, including ClubWPT Gold. The other four were BetOpenly, Bookmaker, Kutt Inc., and Raffle Creator.
In the letter, the ADG accused ClubWPT Gold of enabling “Arizona individuals under the age of 21 to engage in pay-to-play online poker tournaments for prizes while using deceptive ‘no purchase necessary’ language. Online poker is illegal in Arizona. The Department alleges that Club WPT Online Poker engaged in illegal felony conduct: promotion of gambling; illegal control of an enterprise; and money laundering.”
The site tried to get around this by requiring players to be at least 21 years old, but it seems that it was continuing to feel the pressure, so it made the decision to withdraw its product from Arizona.
