Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Some poker players using PayPal to make their payments recently found their transactions blocked as the site’s services were disrupted for almost a day. This was because the site was attacked by a group of cyber criminals who call themselves “Anonymous” in response to PayPal stopping payments and donations made to the WikiLeaks site.

For those of you who are unaware of the site, WikiLeaks is a website run by Julian Assange that posts top secret government documents online for the public to see. It is supported by donations that are processed by online merchants like MasterCard, PayPal, Visa and Moneybookers. Once discovered both the US government and several corporate organizations and enterprises took action. MasterCard, PayPal and Visa refused to process payment made to the site and as a result found themselves the target of “Anonymous,” a group of cyber attackers that are revolting at the site’s not getting its funds from supporters and perhaps also over the fact that site owner Julian Assange has been arrested in the United Kingdom.

Hanon Hosein, a University of Washington professor, discussed what the site was doing. “The openness and transparency of our society has really been laid bare and even us as citizens are affected by that. There are some activists out there who have taken great offense to the fact that government and corporations are clamping down on WikiLeaks and they have the ability to shut down these websites,” he said.

In the last couple of days Visa, MasterCard, Moneybookers and Paypal saw their services disrupted. Internet finance experts claims that the merchants could have lost over 6 million dollars worth of revenue on that day. However, there was no significant damage to PayPal reported, so users need not be alarmed.

Meanwhile, Linda Criddle, an internet security expert had this to say: “If you choose to go shop somewhere else because you wanted to shop within that time frame, you are contributing to the penalty that’s being applied.”

One of the most important pre-requisites for any eWallet solution is that it allows its users to transact in the most secure and safest environments as possible. PayPal has come out with an announcement that it has rectified what was deemed to be a ‘serious security flaw’ in its iPhone App. Users will need to download the upgraded version from the App store in order to get adequate coverage. PayPal had discovered that the previous version was vulnerable to a ‘man-in-the-middle’ attack. This meant that online gamers and poker players could end up giving out their sensitive personal information to scamsters who could cleverly design a fraud page to pose as the website’s landing page. The issue was first noted by viaForensics, a Chicago based free mobile app testing service. ViaForensics had found out that PayPal’s iPhone App could not properly validate the certificate that was normally used by the website.
PayPal’s iPhone App has been downloaded more than 4 million times. But the company is fairly confident that it is not possible that any financial credentials have been compromised. Such ‘MiM’ attacks require hackers to doggedly monitor open networks in Wi-Fi hotspots. However, the company has offered to 100% compensate any user who has lost money through an attack through this lapse.
The real challenge ahead is in getting its iPhone online gamers to upgrade to the new version. While it may be in their security interests to download the latest app, it is also almost exactly the same as the previous one, save for the rectification. Whether online gamers will feel motivated enough to spend money on bandwidth and time to make the transition, remains to be seen. However, as long as they continue using the old version, PayPal is still open to risk. So it is in their better interests that as many of the 4 million users switch to the new version as possible.

A lot of people are saying that this is an unsurprising move.  Not me, I’m surprised.  I’m actually kind of shocked.  Mastercard pulling out of online poker, i kind of got.  It’s been a good long while (i’m talking years) since i’ve been able to use Mastercard to load any online casino’s.  But using a virtual visa (and full disclosure here: i have no idea if Virtual Visa is the same as Visa..) had been a staple of my online money management.  At best they are positioning themselves to miss out on a huge opportunity that Mastercard presented them when they pulled out of the online gambling business.  At worst they are being pragmatic about a bill that looks increasingly like it will never take effect.

Why Would They Do This Now?
Credit Cards being limited for online spending is nothing new, really.  American Express and Discover have been banning online gambling transactions for years.  With Mastercard pulling out just weeks ago, i was prepping for a post where i was praising Visa for keeping the status quo until the law actually came into effect.  So what is the motivation for putting this move into effect now?  It could be that fraud is widespread, and with the amount of money changing hands through online casinos, it would be a good way to “clean” money.  But that is total speculation.  It’s also equally likely that they view Mastercard’s pullout as a signal to where the industry is going, and instead of becoming leaders, they are just following the flock.

Is this Really That Big a Deal?
The short answer is not really.  It kind of sucks, but in reality there are countless sites dedicated to getting your money online to use any way you like.  There are even full websites that outline how load money onto most poker sites with step by step instructions.  While it may be a pain if your chosen loading method had been visa, you may have to go through bank account authentication etc, but most poker sites have at least 5 different methods to load money so you should be able to find something to fit your needs. 

While this may not be a valentines day themed post, it’s still very relevant to any player who has been able to sneak away from their significant other and load some money to their favourite online poker site. But, in the last year doing that simple transaction has become increasingly difficult.  Recently Mastercard has come out swinging against online gambling by blocking gambling transactions.  That coupled with world governments realising what a cash cow they have been missing out on, and regulation on the horizon, many new poker players could be confused as to what their options are for depositing money to any online poker site.

Enter PokerDeposits.org.  While still in it’s infancy, really, PokerDeposits.org offers a fairly robust outline of who’s who with regard to putting your money online, and offers many different options for players all over the world (and is very clear what works and what doesn’t in the USA).  It gives step by step instructions how to deposit using specific payment methods, and give an overview of the online rooms that accept those payment options (handy if you’re taking all of your money out ofpokerstars to move to a different room, and all of the money is being put into paypal..)  it also offers reviews of poker sites all over the net (and more crop up daily), and i was told there was rakeback news, but i couldn ‘t find it. It’s still a little rough around the edges, but overall, for the purposes of loading your online account, or moving your money, it’s a one stop shop to sort through your options quickly.

Click below to see pokerdeposits.org

**Full Disclosure** i was not paid by pokerdeposits.org, nor do i know them at all in any way

UPDATE: Since writing this article, we have updated our list of online paypal casinos.

Several online casinos have started to adapt to the use of Paypal as a deposit method for their casino.

Betfair Casino is one of the only online casino sites that accepts paypal deposits from some countries.

Paypal Casino – You can fund your account instantly via Payal, ONLY if your Paypal account is registered from one of the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Your Betfair preferred currency must be GBP or EUR.

Here is a screenshot of their online casino software (zero-blackjack):

We are continuing to look for more casinos that will let you deposit using your paypal, so bookmark this page for updates. Also, check out our paypal poker page for some more information.

If you would like to try the Betfair Casino and use your paypal account, simply click the PLAY NOW button below. Good luck! (for more information visit our casino bonus page)