Since the actions taken by the U. S. Department of Justice on April 15 – which have become known as “Black Friday” in the poker community – the parade of online and live poker pros to more poker-friendly countries has become commonplace. A recent article in a major magazine focuses on this exodus.
In a Bloomberg Business Week article by Caroline Winter, professional poker player Matt “AllInAt420” Stout and an online poker playing friend, Joey Cappuccio, are followed as they set up shop in sunny Costa Rica. Stout, a sponsored pro at Lock Poker who has earned over $1.2 million in his live tournament career, and Cappuccio decided to make the move to Costa Rica in reaction to the sudden removal of the three biggest online sites – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network sites Absolute Poker and UB.com – from American players. Following the 2011 World Series of Poker, the duo picked up and relocated to the Central American nation to continue their profession.
In the Bloomberg article, Stout is quoted as saying, “It took me a while to admit to myself that things (the U. S. situation regarding regulation and legalization of online poker) aren’t going to get resolved anytime soon and that we were eventually gonna have to do something about it.” Thus, Matt and Joey uprooted themselves from the United States and landed in Costa Rica, with the help of a new organization assisting poker pros looking to find a base of operation.
Stout speaks glowingly of Poker Refugees, an organization founded by former professional surfer and MBA Kristin Wilson which assists people who relocate in unfamiliar countries with the various services that they will need. Through Poker Refugees, Wilson helps players find apartments, set up basic services for their new homes (power, cable, etc.), start bank accounts and – perhaps most important for online poker players – establish a viable internet connection. For $1000 a person, Poker Refugees (which also assists players with moves to Canada and Panama at this time) does all the legwork for those poker players looking outside the U. S. to continue their jobs.
It seems to have been a lucrative business for Wilson. Only officially launched exactly one month ago, Poker Refugees has assisted fourteen players with the arduous task of relocating to their new poker-friendly homes. But with the influx of new residents in Costa Rica comes the after effects of “Black Friday.” The country, which used to be home to Absolute Poker, has released much of its work force. “Almost everyone I know who worked for the sites down here is gone,” says Wilson in the Bloomberg article. “It’s ironic – I used to help people who worked for the sites find houses, and now I’m helping the players.”
The moves by top pros to such online poker friendly countries has been picking up steam as of late due to the 2011 World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP), the series of events offered by PokerStars and considered the equivalent of the WSOP in the online world. The tournament started back on September 4 guaranteeing $30 million in prize pools but, with ten days to the conclusion of the event, over $21 million has already been generated by the players. This, along with the lucrative cash games that professionals feed off of, is the reason for relocation by many top pros.
As detailed here at Poker News Daily, Daniel Negreanu uprooted himself from his Las Vegas home to return to his birthplace of Toronto, Canada, to continue in his role not only as an ambassador for PokerStars but also to be able to play online poker. After fulfilling her duties with her sponsor WinStar Casinos for a tournament series in August, Maria Ho jetted off to a new abode in Vancouver, which she has posted pictures of on Facebook. WSOP bracelet winner and online cash game terror Phil Galfond beat Ho to the punch, moving to British Columbia in July, and Dan “jungleman” Cates has taken up residence in Portugal after being denied entry into Canada.
This is admittedly just a short list of the top live and online pros who have taken the drastic step to move to another country to pursue their profession. It doesn’t appear that this trend will fade either, as the federal government continues to crack down on online gaming and poker with further seizures and lawsuits. As such, organizations like Poker Refugees could become a hot commodity among the tens of thousands of players whose livelihood depends on online poker.
Would love to see a report on how much money the cities, and states that these fellows moved from are losing. I’m sure if you make hundreds of thousands of dollars, you contribute plenty to a local economy. Bummer to lose all that money on account of a bunch of idiotic demagogues, who would try and rule our lives. Whatever happened to the pursuit of Liberty? What harm had these guys caused to their fellow citizens? Why hasn’t,t the PPA taken this all the way to the Supreme court?