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PokerScout reports that the decrease of online poker traffic has slowed down but has not yet stopped. Somewhat surprisingly, one of the rooms experiencing the biggest loss over the last few days has been Full Tilt Poker, whose traffic has dropped by 11%. After signing an agreement with the US Department of Justice, it seemed things would not go any worse for FTP but the decline has continued since. The reason behind the drop might as well be the poor communication of the room, in addition to the fact that little more than vague promises have been made regarding cash outs, and no specific action has been taken. It seems likely that European players also have their trust in the room shaken.

The other great loser of these recent developments is Cereus Network, although this is much less of a surprise now than FTP’s decline. They have suffered a 75% drop in their traffic in the past week’s time, having lost a total of 96% of their player pool since Black Friday. As we reported, Cereus failed to ban US players until as late as May 19, only blocking deposits and cash outs before. It was the complete ban on Americans that had a severe cut on their traffic, sending Cereus back to the 34th place on the market. The tiny Yatahay Network now has twice as many players as the company that once was a major actor in the US market.

Merge network, that still remains US-friendly, thus violating the UIGEA, has not yet experienced considerable change in its traffic; they are still ranked 8th. Decline, however, is expected here as well, following the actions of May 23, popularly labelled as “Blue Monday.” Although these latest indictments did not involve Merge, the network did not miss to react and they ceased to accept players from the state of New York, Maryland, Louisiana, Washington, D. C. and Missouri. These jurisdictions fight online gambling the most severely in the USA and so Merge seems to hope to escape seizure or at least gain more time.

Another US-friendly room, Bodog, on the other hand, managed to climb to 16th, having a 25% rise in their traffic after Black Friday. Following, however, the events of this Monday, they reacted quickly and moved to the bodog.eu domain from bodog.com. They did not issue any form of official statement, saying little more than the relocation was due to their expansion in the market. It seems more likely, though, that they fear the wrath of the DoJ, similarly to Merge. It remains to be seen just how long they can get away with violating US law.


DoylesRoom, which was involved in the indictments of Blue Monday, also remains available with an .ag domain extension and it seems to accept US players as well.

The current market order is as follows:
1. PokerStars
2. Full Tilt Poker
3. PartyPoker
4. iPoker
5. Ongame
6. PokerStars.it
7. PeoplesNetwork.it
8. Merge
9. PokerStars.fr
10. 888poker

Related articles:

More Indictments, Growing Desperation – Merge to Come Next?
Online Poker Traffic Report - Cereus Vanishes?