Microgaming casinos are dropping US players as they exit the US market, again. OSGA was informed that effective Monday, Microgaming will begin blocking all US-based traffic.  As of Thursday, they had already blocked access to their own website, microgaming.com. This comes as a bit of surprise as many large, profitable, US-facing casinos use the Microgaming platform. These include casino giants from Carmen Media including RiverBelle and Jackpot City, and the Jackpot Factory group of casinos.

Here at OSGA we did get several emails from casino operators this week. One stated, ”Recent experience has seen the USA becoming less and less profitable as market conditions have become ever tighter, to the point that continued activity in the USA has become decidedly unattractive.” Thus, it may have been easy for this operator to exit the US. The problems and costs of sending and receiving money to US players has been devastating to industry growth. But, many operators we have spoken with in recent weeks cite the failing US economy as an even bigger factor than processing issues.

Emails to Microgaming have so far gone unanswered.

Microgaming is an industry giant with nearly 100 casinos using their software. This precedent does not bode well for US casino players and was certainly influenced by the misguided decision of Judge Wingate in the Kentucky gambling domain case. The commonwealth of Kentucky has listed Microgaming among its domain URLs to be forfeited later this month, as well as several Microgaming casinos.

So we may surmise that the Kentucky case was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ here. The case, though misguided, does specifically state the certain gambling devices are illegal in the state of Kentucky. While the IMGEA and other groups of lawyers are fighting the case by stating that a URL is not a ‘gambling device’, surely the software that players use is.

Still, we cannot figure out why an international casino software company would have such fear of the state of Kentucky. The case in question is still ongoing and will most likely end up being thrown out. So far, this is a local solution to a national problem and we doubt that it will pass muster in the higer courts. Maybe Microgaming knows something that we don't . . .

Microgaming had already pulled its software from several states prior to this decision. They also have a huge market share globally and are used by industry leading casinos and poker rooms worldwide.  Microgaming, after all, is a huge corporation that certainly does not want to wind up heading down the path of BETonSPORTS or NeTeller.

Thus, US players are forced to seek out other casinos and poker rooms that will take their action and there are still plenty that will. What remains to be seen is if some of the casinos that are currently on the Microgaming platform decide to switch their software so that they can continue to service US players.  We are also left to ponder what Microgaming will choose to do if/when the domain seizure case gets reversed by the superior courts in Kentucky.

In the meantime, we urge US players to check with their casinos before Monday and potentially withdrawal all funds. Please check our Complete Casino List to see if your casino is powered by Microgaming.

This is breaking news and we expect to have updates on this in the coming days and weeks in this space.