Seals with Clubs Shuttered
Seals with Clubs, the leading bitcoin site, has been closed permanently because of security concerns that are still unclear and may remain so for a significant amount of time. While this leaves a hole in the US market for bitcoin poker, there are a lot of sites chomping at the bit to replace it!
Seals with Clubs Shut Down Effective Immediately
Seals with Clubs players have been informed that the site will be shut down effective immediately and that all balances should be withdrawn as soon as possible. While details are still pretty sparse despite the long post announcing the decision it is clear that something was wrong with the security that could not be fixed easily. Players have been instructed to withdraw their money as soon as they can, but wouldn’t say officially how long players will have to do this, as their only comment was “we hope to provide withdrawals for a couple of months.”
This latest announcement caps off a wild week for the site that has seen its CEO, and most prominent face, Bryan Micon disappear and reappear, the site having gone down completely and recently just reopened for withdrawals. Communication has been fairly sparse up until this point with little indication of when things would be back to normal. Players had remained confident that something would be resolved soon though as withdrawals were open and solvency issues didn’t seem to be what was causing the site to have problems..
The release which was first spotted on Reddit, also announced that Micon has decided to continue trying to run a site, but instead with a different ownership group. It’s unclear if the new site will have the same name, but it will use the new Seals with Clubs 2.0 software that had been announced. The strange thing about the release though was that they wouldn’t officially back the new venture by Micon, but did say they are turning over account names, email addresses and krill (player points for the site) amounts. So there is at least some confidence that Micon can lead a new site.
For US players this leaves a pretty large hole in the bitcoin poker world as Seals with Clubs was by far the largest option for players. This is coming at a good time for US players though as they have other options to use bitcoin for playing purposes. The largest site with the option open to Americans right now is Winning Poker Network. They started using Bitcoin as a funding and withdrawal option a few weeks ago and it has been going well. It’s important to note that it does not provide the same level of anonymity that Seals with Clubs did, but it is a trusted network that has been in business for nearly two decades.
The other option for US players is Grand Poker Network, backed by 5Dimes, but it is much smaller than Winning Poker Network, though Grand Poker Network accounts can play on Winning Poker network. Other sites have announced plans to expand Bitcoin acceptance, but it’s been slower moving. Full Flush Poker is open to ROW deposits with Bitcoin, but withdrawals have not been announced, nor can American players take advantage of this. Betonline.ag has also made an announcement, but specifics are still hazy and nothing has been put into action.
Seals with Clubs shutting down permanently puts a top on a very weird and twisting story that has been baffling players for the past week. While the circumstances are unfortunate, players still have access to their money and are going to be able to easily withdraw it. What players do next is still open for debate, but a lot of options are still available as they can continue to use bitcoin services to play on two different network or convert to cash and get access to the rest of the American market. With Micon also opening his new site in the future, there are options for American players, and citizens of other countries as well. Did you play on Seals with Clubs? What is your plan now? Tell us on Facebook and Twitter!