Betcoin Poker Closes to the Relief of Many in Poker World

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In case you were busy on Christmas Day, you may have missed that one of the first Bitcoin online gambling sites has officially closed their poker room. In a surprise turn of events, Betcoin.ag announced the closure of their online poker room, effective immediately.

In an announcement made on Christmas Day, the site revealed that the site has been acquired and that online poker services will no longer be offered. However, there are probably some in the online poker community that are glad to see the site go as the site has been plagued with problems stemming from less than stellar management.

Site Acquisition Leads to Poker Room Closure

Anyone going to Betcoin.ag to play online poker on Christmas Day (or since) has been greeted with the following message:

“Betcoin.ag has been acquired and we regret to inform you that the new Betcoin will be discontinuing its poker service as of Monday, December 25, 2017. There are lots of fond memories to look back upon including the Betcoin Cage, the Daily Coin and hundreds of Bitcoin awarded in freerolls.

We enjoyed posting about the achievements of our many players who hit it big with wins in major tournaments. But most of all, we have truly enjoyed providing a home to our great poker players these last 3+years. Betcoin poker hasn’t been just a place to play, but a community filled with unique individuals.

The dynamic has been almost like a family, in that we loved, we fought, sometimes even dined together (virtually). While this is a big disappointment to us all, we hope to continue that type of camaraderie going forward as Betcoin moves into its next chapter.”

It’s a bit surprising that the site would make this sudden announcement but then again, based on its history, this may have been a case of “we saw this coming.”

Betcoin Poker Plagued With Issues

Betcoin Poker has been a hot topic in the poker world in the past due to shady behavior by management. It’s long been suspected that the site used bots to boost attendance to the site and other shady dealings have long been mentioned on sites such as 2+2 Forums and PokerFraudAlert.

One of the biggest scandals involved a collusion ring that was caught on the site. Not only were the colluders not banned, but they were even allowed to keep some of the money won. The rest of the funds were used to fund freerolls.

Furthermore, the site has been very shady about the people running the site. Management is largely unknown and it’s also a well-known fact that their website registry information has been falsified. This leads some to question whether or not the site was “acquired” but merely decided to shut down the poker site to take some of the heat off.

Black Eye to the Crypto Poker Movement?

There have been many that have came out recently claiming that crypto poker is the future of the game. The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency allows for players to transfer funds easier than with any other means without the fear of reprisal from the federal government.

However, this ease of transfer can also open players up to potential fraud and scams, and one has to wonder if Betcoin Poker was just a glorified scam that decided to fold up before they were completely outed. Now the casino site continues and who knows whether the games are being run honestly or if the site will merely vanish at some point in the future similar to online poker sites such as Lock Poker, Pitbull Poker and others.

This situation is just another reminder of the importance of regulating online poker in the United States. While regulation is a slow process, it helps to keep away operators like those at Betcoin Poker and gives players some type of recourse when things go wrong.