PARTYPOKER REMOVES WITHDRAWAL FEES, SETS TO REENTER 21 GRAY MARKET COUNTRYES

Monday, 15 February 2016

PARTYPOKER REMOVES WITHDRAWAL FEES, SETS TO REENTER 21 GRAY MARKET COUNTRYES

PARTYPOKER FREE OF WITHDRAWAL FEES

To the delight of all its players around the world, on February 10^th, PartyPoker announced that it has removed the last remaining withdrawal fees from its site. (Netteler, Skrill and Webmoney).

Following a previous withdrawal fee removal in July 2015, the latest decision comes as a part of the websites “Poker for the People” campaign. The immediate implementation of this new decision basically means a total elimination of all withdrawal fees from the site.

Prior to these changes, the players using Netteler, Skrill or Webmoney withdrawal methods faced a limitless 3% fee to any amount they cashed in.

THE RETURN OF PARTYPOKER

PartyPoker is also set to return to most of the gray-market countries it left in the April 2013 decision, prior to this month’s GVC takeover of the site and its parent company bwin.party digital entertainment plc. 21 gray-market countries where online gambling laws are not clearly legal (or illegal) will again be able to play online poker using the PartyPoker platform.

GVC, who (together with William Hill) has a good reputation of taking over sports betting in gray-market countries will guide the sites comeback. The decision concerns mostly countries in Europe and South America (Argentina, Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Columbia, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine etc.).

This development might have a negative impact on PartyPokers operation in New Jersey and U.S. in general. While the New Jersey Division of Gaming Entertainment (DGE) still has to make a final decision, in the future, GCE will have to undergo a very strict licensing application process if it intends to stay in the U.S. market.

GVC’s CEO Kenny Alexander doesn’t seem too concerned and hints at a possible exit from the U.S. market. In December last year, Alexander gave a following statement to Gaming Insider:

If we get a New Jersey license, the idea would be to run the US business differently from BwinParty. It's been losing a lot of money. I think it makes sense to have some options. If the US was to open up properly, we would be in there and if it's not losing us any money, we can see what happens in the US. But if we don't get a New Jersey license or if we think the US business is going to continue to lose money, no matter what, then we would take us out of the US.