PocketFives halts US promotional activity

Thursday August 4, 2011 : PocketFives halts US promotional activity
 
The respected online poker information site PocketFives.com has become the latest poker-oriented operation to insulate itself from promotional activities in the United States of America.
 
In an announcement Tuesday, the management of the site advised that it would no longer promote online poker rooms that still accept customers from the United States.
 
PocketFives co-founder Adam Small wrote:
 
“We’re planning a lot of positive changes to the community, and our plan is to bring more interesting offers and content than ever before for both our U.S. and non-U.S. visitors.
 
"However, that content will not in any way be geared towards promoting play on poker sites that offer real money, rake-based play to people in the United States. We will still, of course, continue to cover industry developments and news that’s relevant to our members regarding those sites, and players’ results will continue to be counted in the PocketFives.com Rankings.”
 
Small went on to clarify that his decision should not be taken as a denouncement of the U.S.-facing rooms, or as a statement regarding the safety and/or trustworthiness of those operators that have decided to continue offering their services to U.S. players.
 
"Our decision is much more based on the state of the industry and the developments we’ve seen since April," Small wrote in an apparent reference to US enforcement actions against operators and payment processors.
 
"We simply do not feel comfortable continuing to recommend real money online poker to our U.S.-based members based on what we perceive to be a heightened level of risk.”
 
US poker players seeking a more player-friendly residential domicile may find PocketFives a useful source of information. Small revealed that the site is about to launch a service that will aid U.S. poker players in establishing residence elsewhere so that they can continue to play.