At first, there were only rumors.
Now it’s official. ePassporte is shutting down all services for the online casino community.
On April 11th, the most popular and remaining payment solution went down for most of the day, claiming that they were having some technical issues. However, news later broke that online casinos were advising their customers that the payment solution ePassporte will no longer be servicing customers in the United States.
Apparently, ePassporte will not be able to continue to provide e-wallet services, and that the problem is not limited a few casino rooms, but is in fact industry wide. Other reports also conclude that the problem is “worldwide” and is not isolated in the United States market. ePassporte is based outside of the United States. A few days after the news broke, reports show that customers are no longer able to withdraw monies using the ePassporte ATM.
According to multiple online sources, there will be a widespread investigation against the payment solution company. This only adds to the current turmoil, as 2007 was a rough year for many casino websites and players, as many payment processors, such as NETeller, EcoCard, Citadel and FirePay, shut down unexpectedly. 2008 may run a similar course.
A majority of online poker rooms have been using and relying heavily on ePassporte, since other processors have closed down – with Neteller being a notable one, when it was forced to exit the US online casino market. At the time, Neteller was the largest payment solution. It seems that ePassporte is having the same problems as those of Neteller and MyCitadel. Perhaps this is a result of a breach in security, where monies are getting transferred from unsuspecting clients accounts without their knowledge and consent.
Online sources speculate that ePassporte has flaws in its system. There are reports of unauthorized transactions and many anomalies, not to mention that the customer service is not also responding to either calls or e-mail inquiries regarding clients’ accounts. Also, any requests for physical Visa cards from them are taking forever to get processed.
One reader relayed his story about his request for a physical Visa card. He paid the $40 to get it and he still has not received anything from ePassporte. The third time he called he finally was able to speak to a customer representative and was informed that the card had been sent weeks earlier and that he should have received it already. The customer service representative then said they blocked the old card and they will be sending a new one, but still nothing was ever received.
With this official announcement, the problem surrounding ePassporte is scary for most of the online casino community. It can hurt many online casino players, since this is one of the few payment solutions that cater to the US customers. It would be well advised to review other payment solutions as it doesn’t seem like ePassporte will be returning to the casino market any time soon.
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Your information on Johnny Chan's poker school is outdated. The school no longer exists. Johnny does have a website that is active…..chanpoker.net.
Thanks Nick.
For readers that are curious about Nick's comment, he's referring to this blog article:
Johnny Chan Academy: Casino Dealer School
And yep, I just went to the Chan Academy site and all you get is a "World Wide Gaming Academy Sign In" page with text boxes for email address and password.
If you want to get Johnny Chan poker tips, your best bet now is to go to ChanPoker.com and click Poker School in the menu.
Any idea what this World Wide Gaming Academy is? Any affiliation with Johnny Chan?
Hopefully it will be easy to move money in and out of Chanpoker.
It's shocking to hear about ChanPoker closing down… let me know your experience with your withdrawals from Chan Poker.
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