The future of the CEREUS Network sites UB.com and Absolute Poker appear to be in question. According to information obtained by Poker News Daily, the two USA-friendly sites will continue to allow existing USA players to fire up the virtual felts and play as normal. However, for the foreseeable future, they will be unable to deposit, withdraw, or transfer their funds. No official statement from either site has been released.
UB.com has now become UBPoker.eu, while AbsolutePoker.com has transformed into AbsolutePoker.eu. The moves follow a similar one from PokerStars, which ditched its seized dot-com site for PokerStars.eu, which is a mirror of the old site. Full Tilt Poker is now accessible through FullTiltPoker.co.uk, while a dot-org site also exists, which is also apparently a valid Full Tilt domain.
In addition, no new USA players will likely be accepted on UB.com or Absolute Poker going forward, although CEREUS officials have not yet released anything official. Meanwhile, one poster on TwoPlusTwo seemed more optimistic: “Withdraws and Deposits are suspended temporarily because they need to find new payment processors. VIP Support is telling me they are working on it, but the show will go on.”
Other players had issues connecting to the Absolute Poker client, while a player allegedly from the United States wrote about his cashout experience: “Requested payout yesterday and it is still pending.”
So, it appears that the four largest USA-facing sites could be vacating the real money U.S. market within 24 hours of the Justice Department’s indictment on Friday. PokerStars banned U.S. players almost immediately after the indictment was released, while Full Tilt Poker followed suit a few hours later.
Named in the indictment were Absolute Poker founders Scott Tom and Brent Beckley, who both hail from Costa Rica. Tom and Beckley are charged with conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), violation of the UIGEA, operation of an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud (Beckley only), and money laundering conspiracy (Beckley only).
Team UB pros Prahlad Friedman, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Maria Ho, and Tiffany Michelle, among others, all still grace the UBPoker.eu web page. Visiting the old UB.com site still results in the now familiar FBI warning. Many of the links off the UBPoker.eu site were not operational.
UB pro Joe Sebok opted to make light of the situation, quoting on Twitter, “In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double. Don’t worry, be happy.” He then watched the movie “Point Break.”
When we receive an official statement from the CEREUS Network, we’ll have it for you right here on Poker News Daily.
