As you know on April 15, 2011 “Black Friday” Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UB were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice and therefore left the U.S. market. The traffic stats below show the affect this has had on online poker sites throughout the world.
The big winners so far seem to be the sites that operate on the Merge Poker Network and Bodog Poker which are up 36% in online traffic and Party Poker whose seeing it’s European traffic up 10%. European sites seeing increased traffic is no shocker. Would you feel safe having your money on a poker site that has been accused of bank fraud, money laundering and tax evasion?
Click this link for Online Poker Sites Still Accepting US Players
Full Tilt Poker, UB and Absolute Poker are the big losers here with both being down near 50%.
Black Friday traffic stats (left US):
PokerStars -6885 (down 24%)
Full Tilt Poker -8528 (down 48%)
Cereus Network -1076 (down 53%)
Black Friday traffic stats (European):
PartyPoker +361 (up 10%)
iPoker Network +190 (up 5%)
Ongame Network -19 (down 1%)
888Poker +99 (up 7%)
Black Friday traffic stats (still in US):
Merge Network +331 (up 36%)
Bodog +213 (up 36%)
Cake Network +170 (up 31%)