Poker Stars finishing bitcoin integration

For several months, online poker site Poker Stars has reportedly been looking at integrating bitcoin as a payment option for online poker games.

Coin Fire has received information from company insiders confirming that the process of integrating bitcoin has been underway.

The company has been the source of rumors about bitcoin integration in the past and has publicly remained mum on plans to integrate bitcoin as a payment option. However, company insiders wishing to remain anonymous have shared information with Coin Fire about the upcoming integration of bitcoin on Poker Stars.

A company insider told Coin Fire,

"Accepting bitcoin is the next logical step for Poker Stars. An instant and safe way to pay for gaming just makes sense.

We have worked hard to find the proper way to accept the currency. Working with third parties can be difficult at times due to regulatory issues in various countries but we believe we have found a solution that meets our needs and the needs of our players."

In December, multiple reports emerged in the online gaming world that Poker Stars was looking for a vendor to handle bitcoin transactions. While company sources have not given Coin Fire information about who will be handling the transactions, we were told the company has a solution that it is actively preparing to test internally.

Coin Fire learned that Poker Stars has already scrapped one system and has opted for another since the customer-facing side wasn’t up to par with the company’s high expectations. Another company insider told Coin Fire:

"We want to get this right and if that means it takes extra time then we will take that time. This is the next logical step for online gaming but it is imperative to our company we get it right. If we aren’t happy with the results we will look at more solutions to make this happen."

When Coin Fire pressed for further details about when bitcoin will be accepted on the site, we were told that a timetable was still unavailable and that the company is working diligently. We can confirm that bitcoins are on the roadmap though and the feature will be released when the company is ready.

Poker Stars will be competing with various gaming sites that were built primarily for bitcoin including Seals with Clubs, cloudbet, and others.

Is Bitnplay A Case Of Shuffle Up And Steal?

With the launch day for Bitnplay's Bitcoin based poker website having come and gone with yet a single hand to be dealt, it appears that the debut event for the site was cancelled due to unexpected server issues. Opting to update poker players via twitter instead of their own website, Bitnplay stated:

"The Partner's Freeroll has been cancelled due to unexpected server problems. We greatly apologize and we're working on the comeback."

As of this moment, Bitnplay's last post to the BitcoinTalk forum was back on January 25th in which they hyped the soon to launch site. It reads:

Hey everyone. Bitnplay is one week away from the launch and we're very excited about getting the first games out there.

Bitnplay is designed to grow and offer some great features and surprises that we are confident the Bitcoin-poker community will love.

In order to keep the right bearing we will constantly be integrating your feedback into the Poker room. As you may know SNGs are going to be a big part of our initial games offering.

Please take a few seconds to answer three questions regarding your SNG preference: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J8VKWC2

We appreciate the feedback that has been coming in, either through this forum, directly by email or using the form on the website. Keep it coming.

Bitnplay's failure to launch comes off the back of what can only be described as a disappointing result in an attempt to raise 400 BTC. Offering a total of 200 tokens to investors via CounterParty, Bitnplay managed to sell a grand total of 5, netting them 10 BTC.

Winning Poker Network Adds Bitcoin →

The Winning Poker Network (WPN) has added Bitcoin as both a deposit and withdrawal currency, making it the largest internet poker network to accept the cryptocurrency. WPN, likely not coincidentally, is also a U.S.-facing network, giving American players an option for funds transfers as traditional means are not always viable with current online gaming laws in place.

A representative for WPN originally made the announcement on Two Plus Two last Friday, saying that at first, only deposits could be made with Bitcoin and not cash outs and transactions were capped at $25,000. Withdrawals were put in place this week.

Bitcoin has gained increased popularity over the last couple years as people around the world look for ways to conduct financial transactions outside the usual government regulated banking systems. One problem with Bitcoin, though, is that its value can fluctuate wildly. The last couple weeks are a prime example of this. On January 2nd, one Bitcoin traded at $314.59. In two days, it was down to $263.63. It rose again, but on Wednesday, the value of one Bitcoin was down to $177.28.

That is nothing compared to Bitcoin in 2013. At the beginning of the year, one Bitcoin was worth a bit over $13, but the market went wild at the end of the year and at the beginning of December, a single Bitcoin was trading for around $1,200. In a couple weeks, it crashed down close to $500 before getting back up to over $900 at the beginning of January 2014. Holding Bitcoin is clearly more risky than holding U.S. Dollars.

One nice thing about the Winning Poker Network’s implementation of Bitcoin is that upon deposit, they are converted into U.S. Dollars, which means that players do not have to worry about Bitcoin price fluctuations while their funds are on the network. Upon withdrawal, the funds are converted back to Bitcoin and transferred back to a player’s Bitcoin wallet.

The Winning Poker Network is comprised of about a dozen poker rooms, the most notable of which is America’s Cardroom. One room, BetcoinPoker.com, already used Bitcoin as a currency, but the cryptocurrency has now gone network-wide. WPN is not a huge network, but with a seven-day average of 450 cash game players (figures courtesy PokerScout.com), it still ranks amongst the top 20 sites or networks on the internet. It is much bigger than the largest Bitcoin-only site, SealsWithClubs.com, which is only averaging 100 cash game players.

The Bitcoin deposit option can be found under the Deposit tab of the WPN cashier (obviously) and then by clicking on the Popular e-Wallet button. After a player enters a U.S. Dollar amount he wants to deposit, the system then displays how many Bitcoin must be transferred and to what address. A small exchange fee is charged, but players who have tested the system so far say it is reasonable.