ePassporte, the electronic payment company used by many online poker players to shift money to and from their accounts, is rumoured to be withdrawing from the poker business as far as US players are concerned. No official statement had been issued at the time of writing, but poker rooms everywhere noticed something odd happening on the afternoon of Friday 12 April when deposits of US players were failing to be processed.

Initially, customer service team members at ePassporte told clients and poker room operators that the problem was a technical glitch that was being addressed. But the problem persisted, and over the weekend several poker rooms have reportedly been told that ePassporte will no longer process deposits for US poker rooms or online casino players.

It now looks very likely that US based ePassporte clients who use their secure payment services to deposit money into online gaming accounts will need to look elsewhere, but they won’t know for sure until the company releases an official statement. If it transpires that ePassporte really is withdrawing from the gaming market, both clients and gaming site operators will be wanting to know why they were given no prior warning about the decision.

ePassporte members who have attempted to withdraw their funds have so far been able to do so. That is fortunate, but few are at all happy with the service they have been experiencing over the last few days, and most are anxiously waiting to hear what the company has to say for itself.

Maybe they are running scared of UIGEA American Protectionism money processing rules.