Sunday, February 12, 2012

MintedPoker has banned U.S. Players

"No person who is resident in Malta, France and USA may open an account, play, or in any other way participate in the ELG offerings and/or services."

This has unfortunately now been included in the terms and conditions for all skinns on the Everleaf Gaming network...

Minted Poker is one of more than 100 skins on Everleaf and, they were the first to acknowledge that such a thing as accessibility issues mattered and, that adjustments should be made when possible to meet the needs of the blind and visually impaired....

Up until now Everleaf has been one of only a few networks providing real-money online poker to players within the U.S. after Black Friday.

It is therefore with great sadness that we have to notify everyone of the fact that the company has received a cease and desist order from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and, The Everleaf Gaming Network has been forced to prohibit all residents in the United States and France from using it's serveces.

the network faces legal action if it continues to facilitate its services in the U.S, but money held by all poker players, including those in the U.S, are said to be "secure and ring fenced."

U.S. poker-players can no longer log in to the Minted Poker client and, personally I think that they should have sent out a notification about this, but it may set your mind AT ease to know that cashouts are available from the Minted Poker Site.

It's hard to say where we will go from here, as the majority of users of Accessible Poker are residents of the U.S, there may no longer be a need for our serveces.

We have, for personal reasons, not been very active lately, but we have still been working on making the Merge Gaming Network accessible, but only time will tell whether Merge and others like: Bovada, and the Cake Poker Network will follow suit and, ban U.S-players now that the U.S. government has applied pressure to one of the few remaining offshore networks to allow Americans to do what they wish with their own hard earned money...

This is a sad weekend indeed.

The AccessiblePoker Team

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy new year!

Wishing you all a bright 2012! May there be better hands dealt, fewer suckouts, and, tons of fish throwing money your way. Also, on a more serious note, lets hope for more accessible software on the market. Happy new year poker players!
#The AccessiblePoker Team

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Regarding scripts for Minted Poker

I have realised that my post Regarding VTPoker and XPTPoker could be mistaken for an announcement of the release of the scripts for Minted Poker's new software, as I've now gotten new requests from players who, like myself, have been waiting patiently for the update for a long time.

This is just a note to let you all know, that unfortunately the new software hasn't even been implimented yet.

I don't know what's taiking them so long. It should have been released 3 months ago, but I'm hoping that this delay means that there'll be less trouble when they finally do update, as they should have plenty of time to proof run the program.

Again, I have chosen not to give out new scripts while we're waiting for the update, since there's no garantee that the new software will still be accessible. The manager at Minted Poker has promised to work with us again, but since I don't know what kind of changes they're making, I can't say for sure if the potential for accessibility will still be there.

I realise that it's frustrating to wait, but it wouldn't be fair for you to make a deposit one day, only to realise that you're not even able to log in with out sighted help the next...

I would of course have given out scripts Had I known that it would take them this long, but the situation is still the same, they're not saying anything spasific and, they could implement the changes tomorrow, or it could take another 3 months. The release date was set for september 15th after all.

As of right now, all we can do is wait...

I apologize for the incomvenience and, I apriciate your patience.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Carbon Poker, back on the U.S market

Carbon Poker, is a part of the Merge Gaming Network, where they blocked all U.S players shortly after black friday,
but as of today they are back on the global poker market and, U.S players are once again welcome to sign-up.


This means that they're now also a network that we would like to add to the Accessible Poker project
and, we hope that they'll be willing to work with us in the future.

Note: ChipSplit brands do not accept players from the following countries and states: Australia, France, New York, Kentucky, Washington DC, Maryland, Washington, Missouri and Louisiana.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Massive jump in player numbers at MintedPoker

That’s right, there has been a huge jump in player numbers and you’ll now find many more tables of your favourite stakes running.

Do You like to play $25/$50 NL Heads Up? No problem…..

….Or is your comfort zone at .25/5 Euro NL? they have loads more tables, more action and its getting bigger every day.

Come see for yourself.

Some of the promotions they are running almost makes it possible to forgive them for having delayed the release of their new software...

$4,000 – 8 x $500 added tournaments
Every Tuesday @ 20:30 CET and every Saturday @ 20:30 EST they will be adding $500 to Their $0.55 cent tournament. Look for these in the regular lobby this month.

$10,000 – 2 raked hands races PLUS 2 points races
They have 2 raked hands races for those who put in the volume at lower stakes, plus 2 poker point races for those of you who play the higher games and generate more rake.

$2,000 - Multi Table tournaments Super League
Every day, there are a number of tournaments which count towards to league. Make it to the top and walk away with a $500 bonus.

$1,000 – Sit And Go promotion.
Can you get to the top of their STT leader board and claim all three 1st place prizes?
Why don't you prove it!
MintedPoker

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

If you're in need of Scripts for Jaws, Don't sign-up for Minted Poker right now

Unfortunately I'll have to urge all Jaws users not to sign-up for Minted Poker right now, as they'll be implementing their new software shortly. I feel like I wouldn't be an honest person if I let you make a deposit now, when you might not be able to play for more than a few weeks. I am of course going to look at the new software as soon as it's released and, Minted Poker management has promised to work with me to make it accessible, but there's always a slight risk that it no longer will have any such potential. As of right now, all we can do is hope for the best.

A special thanks goes to everyone who is rooting for our cause.
We are ever so greatful for all donations:


And we apriciate every single player who signs-up with us:
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but You don't need to spend any money to show that you support us. really all you need to do to let people know that you support what we're doing to improve the situation when it comes to accessibility and iquality in the poker-world is to like our facebook page.
Accessible Poker

Promote Your Page Too
We're looking forward to being able to welcome you as one of our members.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

A black friday for poker and, grey days yet to come

As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were indicted on charges based on the Illegal Gambling Business Act of 1955 and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 this past friday. The charges include: bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling.
There were also restraining orders issued against over 75 bank accounts used by the online poker companies and their payment processors, as well as five Internet domain names.

During the course of the investigation, apparently using information gained from making a deal with Daniel Tzvetkoff, the former head of a payment processing company named Intabill that processed transactions for the online poker companies, the Department of justice gained evidence that it believes would prove that the poker sites conspired to defraud U.S. financial institutions by disguising transactions used for Internet gambling as something else to circumvent the UIGEA.

Because U.S. banks and credit card issuers were largely
unwilling to process payments for internet poker after the enforcement of UIGEA in June 2010, the DOJ believes that the Poker Companies used fraudulent methods to trick them into processing payments on their behalf.
For example, defendants ISAI SCHEINBERG and PAUL TATE of
PokerStars, RAYMOND BITAR and NELSON BURTNICK of Full Tilt Poker,
and SCOTT TOM and BRENT BECKLEY of Absolute Poker are accused of arranging for the money received from U.S. gamblers to be disguised as payments
to hundreds of non-existent online merchants.

According to the indictment, the Poker Companies also worked with an array of highly compensated "payment processors" including defendants RYAN LANG, IRA RUBIN, BRADLEY FRANZEN, and CHAD ELIE, who supposably obtained accounts at U. S. banks on the Poker Companies behalf and, then lied to banks about the nature of the financial transactions they were processing, as well as covered up those lies by,
among other things, creating phony corporations and websites.

after U.S. banks and financial
institutions detected and shut down multiple fraudulent bank
accounts used by the Poker Companies, SCHEINBERG and BITAR changed strategies. Instead of lying to the banks, PokerStars, FullTilt Poker, and their payment processors persuaded the principals of a few small, local banks
facing financial difficulties to process the payments in return for multi-million dollar investments in the banks.
Of the billions of
dollars in payment transactions that the Poker Companies tricked U.S. banks into processing, approximately one-third or more of
the funds went directly to the Poker Companies as revenue through
the "rake" charged to players at the poker tables.

The crimes carry heavy sentences, with bank fraud being the most serious one with a possible penalty of up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $1 million. I don't agree with what the poker companies have done. There should have been a way to do this without Breaking the law , but on the other hand There's no victim here. The poker sites have not stolen anything from anyone. If crimes have been committed, it was done with the good intentions of running legitimate business through unreasonable government interference.

The UIGEA is in my eyes totally rediculous. Poker is not a crime and, should not be treated as such. The poker companies do earn revenue in form of rake, but so do the land based casinos and, nobody's trying to ban them. How can you allow one and not the other? Besides, the U.S. government sanctions activities such as the lottery and stock market, which are much bigger gambles than poker, as they don't require the skill that poker does. Now don't think for one second that I'd imply that the UIGEA came in to play because it's easier for the government to get their cut of the revenue in form of taxes from the land based casinos.. Ahem....

The indictment is not only hurting the poker companies. It is also having a terible impact on all the players who are having trouble to withdraw their funds. Not to mention that U.S. Players will no longer be able to play on neither FullTilt nor PokerStars. There are still other companies where U.S. players are allowed, Such as
MintedPoker
But Hundrads of thousands of players have already lost their only source of income. Others will only lose their recreational outlet, but that is taking away from a persons freedom as well.

One's gotta put blame where blame is do and, there's no doubt that the poker sites has a responsibility here, by making it possible for the government to shut down their U.S. activity, but this proves more than anything that the U.S. government needs to take action, not by hunting down the owners of the poker companies, but by regulating, regulating, regulating online poker!

It is the only way to protect the players and, that is after all the purpose of the UIGEA, right? Not to mention that there's no doubt that the U.S. economy would benefit immensely from these extra earnings. It has been on the verge of collapse for quite a while now...

Now is the Time for the Poker Community to Stand Strong and take action for Our Rights

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Accessible Poker scripts for Windows 7 under development

This is just to let you all know that we have not forgotten about those of you who want to use our Accessible Poker Scripts with Windows 7. I asure you that we're working on a solution and you'll be able to find a notice up here and on our facebook page,
as soon as the scripts for Jaws are available. Until then Windows XP and Windows Vista are the only alternatives.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
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Saturday, January 8, 2011

Free entry for the visually impaired

Well everybody, Minted Poker has done it again! This is truly an accessible network where they care about all of their players and, I'm profoundly greatful that we found them.
MintedPoker

----- Original Message -----
From: Neil Butterfield-Mintedpoker.com
To: Reena - Mintedpoker.com
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 12:47 AM
Subject: Free Entry


Hi my name is Neil the card room manager at Mintedpoker,
I am writing to you because I wish to apologise to you all for an error on our part, which appears to be inconsiderate.

We have just completed our Secret Santa promotion where small images of Santa were placed on our website with hidden flash letters in the sack Santa was carrying.

Because the letters and the Santa's were made up from images, we have just realised that some of our players who maybe visually impaired, could have had difficulties in locating the Santa's, as readers such as JAWS would not have picked up any letters to spell out festive words.

Please believe me when I say that I am truly sorry for this oversight and to make amends, I would like to offer all those who are affected a free seat in the Secret Santa $1,000 free roll tournament.

Your player details have been forwarded to Reena and she will have you automatically registered for the tournament, the date it is to take place has not yet been fixed, however when the date is finalised it will be published on the Mintedpoker website on this page

It will also be announced
on our facebook page
Please again accept my apologies for this oversight and I hope that your chance to win a share of $1,000 will more than make up for any inconvenience caused.

Best Regards and Wishes for the Festive Season

Neil - Card room Manager

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Bodog support is still ignoring us

We've been trying to contact Bodog support for months now, since their poker client could easily be made accessible, but unfortunately they don't even want to write us back. I know, I know, we can just give up and realise that they're not interested, but we're gonna keep emailing them until they at least have the desency to reply to our emails.
Should you want to help, please send the message below to support@bodog.com
Don't forget to include your name.

Message:
to whom it may concern,
i am a member of Accessible Poker, who's aim is to make poker accessible to blind poker players. Your game client could be an option for the blind community, if only the wholecards were displayed as text in the chatbox, along with the other actions at the table, which are already displayed as text. That's really all we need to make our screenreader work with your program, a text option for the ´wholecards. We would of course also be able to bring in more players to your network. Is there any chance that you'd be interested in making this minor change to your software?
I would sincerely apriciate any help you could give us in this matter.
Your name:

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