I can't imagine this happening. It would be suicide.

I have been in contact with them about it. I raised concerns in a face to face meeting as well.

To be honest with you, I'm getting a bit upset at the pace of progress.

He is a crazed alcoholic. Read his postings on 2+2 about clubbing drug dealers and robbing them. I have some copies of chats where he threatened to kill a former lover's infant child (after he robbed her and left her). He threatened me multiple times.

I suggest staying far away from the guy.

--
Kahn

Well, surely they could because...who would stop them?

But no, of course they won't.

Any idea why they chose now to disallow our Australian buddies? Possibly a cease and desist letter?

Chico gunna Chico?

The way they just locked accounts with no warning makes one think they were forced into a snap-decision. Either they thought they would ride it out and were suddenly given reason to believe that wasn't such a good idea, or they just got wind of it? Although the latter seems pretty absurd, even for Chico.

The timing makes one wonder, though. Maybe they could've gotten the other accounts confused for Australian as well - played from Australia at some point?

But on the other hand, that doesn't jibe with the email you got, so...I'm on the fence.

That's what I'm thinking. I checked the Australia thread you posted, but didn't see any new updates to indicate something new. It would be hard to believe they didn't know about this law since September, but then again they'd also have you believe they know nothing about any bots on their network. Ignorance is not a valid excuse...unless you're an unregulated poker site.

Received this today:

Dear ...,

Regrettably, we now confirm that TigerGaming.com will be withdrawing real money services from Australia, effective Monday, April 16th, 2018 at 12pm ET.

In addition, players located within Australia are immediately prohibited from registering new accounts with TigerGaming.com.

The Company has arrived at this decision due to changes in Australian gaming law and the introduction of the Interactive Gambling Amendment Act.

Therefore, as a player residing within Australian borders who currently holds an active [insert brand name] account, you are no longer permitted to access or use the TigerGaming.com website, its online gaming software or services for the purposes of depositing, or placing a wager or bet.

However, our records show that you have an outstanding balance in your account; we wish to reassure you that your funds are safe, secure and available for withdrawal. To facilitate this process, all payout limits have been removed and you are free to withdraw any and all funds from your TigerGaming.com account prior to April 30th, 2018.

If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact us at support@tigergaming.com. One of our Player Services Team will be happy to help.

Should future online gaming legislation be considered that will allow us to return to the Australian market we will be happy to welcome you back.

We thank you for your understanding, and for being a valued member of the TigerGaming community.

The TigerGaming.com Team

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say pontylad would have preferred that email instead, but who knows how long it may take to change so I'm not sure it matters anyway. Seems like an odd coincidence that they banned pontylad 2 days before disallowing all Australian players.

This case also struck me as odd. Since he just deposited I wonder if this was possibly a precautionary measure with a bs excuse. "Flagged as high risk" meaning they would get in trouble with Australian law.

Yeah, I wouldn't be at all surprised if in the end all of this ends up being due to the Australian law, and ponty's non-Australian friends are able to get back on.

My friends definitely haven't played from Australia but I guess there's a chance they've played from other countries that now ban online poker. However the timing, and wording, of the email I (and my) friends received was different to this current one and more in line with bans chico have made previously.

I find it extremely ironic that they are pulling out due to the Australian regulations, which have basically no teeth but still offer services to all American players as well as players from regulated markets (like the UK) whilst nonchalantly breaking their laws.

As always with chico, nothing makes sense. Nothing sums up the professional nature of Chico more than the 1 email i received from them which contained 3 different types of font and 4 different font sizes. They are nothing if not consistently inconsistent.

I'm also ok with you answering every question I ever have by writing an article about it. The piece on pokerscout had some good info as well. I used to check that site regularly. I certainly won't be looking there often going forward. It's unfortunate what it has become. I probably wouldn't have known half of these poker sites exist if it wasn't for the old pokerscout. I'm pretty sure that's where I first came across this very network. If I recall correctly the reviews section for this network were awful. Lmao At least the payout reliability and software has been vastly improved.

From Professional RakeBack's recent article on Australians no longer being allowed to play on Chico:

Hello guys,

I've been thinking about adding volume in the chico network, especially considering the big first deposit bonus they offer.

But after reading the thread a bit, people say you shouldn't claim it - why is that?

If they stop offering games to people from the USA they will instantly die. That is not the case with Australians, so the risk/reward is completely different.

In addition as a second question - when are the main traffic times? I assume it's something like 1AM cet - 8AM CET, right?

People say not to claim it mainly because you can not withdraw while it is active. You have to complete the bonus or let it expire before your poker funds become unlocked.

To some that is an abomination and they would rather not play there at all. To me, it just means to more carefully plan how much you deposit and how/when you claim the bonus so that you aren't strapped for cash and in a hot spot being unable to withdraw.

In other words, it's easy to plan for and deal with. The bonus clears faster than many other US-friendly sites as well so, it is +EV in my book.

Peak traffic is normal US peak traffic times. In terms of Eastern Standard Time (server time -EST) it'd be something like 6pm-2am.

We try. Thanks for noticing. Hit the like and share buttons

--
Kahn

It will be interesting to see how this will affect the traffic on the site. Before the GOPS fiasco, traffic had picked up steadily and it seemed to me it was just starting to pick back up again.

My guess is that traffic will definitely take a bit of a hit for a little while. I feel bad for our Australian friends because Chico is starting to move in a good direction with a lot of great new features. I'd like to see more people play at the network and I definitely have no problem recommending anyone to play here right now.

Has anyone heard if, or when, they plan to bring the tournament series back? Hopefully that could help boost the traffic a bit.

If there is any other country other than the USA I would want them to ban the LEAST, it would be Australia. Many great players like Pontylad from there but they have a good portion of fun players too.

How about ban Russia and Germany? Allow Australia
Poor Tonnamunzzzz

Of all the countries in the world, Australia has the highest incidence of gambling.

The players will be missed

--
Kahn

I know there was an update this morning. Did anybody notice something new/different? I see that traffic is down a good amount today. A lot less bots are around and obviously the Australians are gone.

My account was "blocked", whatever that means.
Followed by this super informative e-mail:


I can still login and see that balance has been transfered to sportsbook account. I haven't tried to transfer it back to poker lol.
2+ hours waiting for some proper explanation.

Whats your username, what stakes did you play and where are you from?

Did your bot fail to put in the correct captcha?

I think we should wait for a follow-up email before we start accusing people of anything. People get blocked for many different reasons. Did you get a captcha recently?

That message was also sent to Australian players too. After they banned me, i got that message 2 days later. and a day after that they sent me a promo email about poker.