I've seen this industry at it's highest and lowest points. I got to see the poker rooms scatter like cockroaches when the UIGEA was passed. I also had funds seized for more than 6 months by the NY Department of Justice during Neteller's downfall.

A few weeks ago I had a check from Full Tilt bounce. It was returned stating "Account Closed". I thought this was a little bit odd, but it was the first time that this had happened to me in about 5 years of playing there. Full Tilt returned the funds to my poker account, and also sent an extra $100 for the inconvenience. I considered this ample and decided to go on my way.

It's important to note that at the same time...the U.S. government seized approximately 24 million dollars in funds from various bank accounts that Bodog held. One of the accounts that money was seized from was held at the Nevada State Bank. This is the same bank from which Full Tilt had issued my check that subsequently was returned.

In the days that followed I put 2 and 2 together and realized that Full Tilt had likely gotten wind of the seizure and closed their bank account to protect the money that was being held there. I thought this was actually a pretty smart move. An American bank is probably one of the last places that I would want Full Tilt to keep my money. I'd prefer to go through the hassle of having a check bounce instead of dealing with another Neteller-like situation.

I requested another withdrawal by check which was approved several days ago. I was just informed through email that the second check which was reissued to me by FT is also going to bounce if I try to cash it.  Again, the funds have been returned, this time with an extra $25.

So what do I make of all of this? I'd hate to speculate as to how many bank accounts FT has opened and closed in the past few weeks. I know that I had 3 checks arrive within the span of about a week and they were all drawn from different banks. Two of them actually went through. Is 2/3 a good success rate for clearing checks?

It looks like FT is getting chased around by the powers that be in the U.S. The bad news is that I would expect this to continue for a few more months until things get sorted out a little bit more in Washington.

The good news is that things are starting to look better as far as legislation is concerned. Many of the proponents of the UIGEA are acknowledging that there are inherent problems with the bill, and online poker's future is starting to look a little brighter.

The other good news is that Full Tilt is willing to go to great lengths to protect their integrity, their players, and the funds that they are responsible for. I've never worried about my money on Full Tilt and I never will. I just worry about getting the money from FT into my pocket.

I've only taken a few minutes to look at the latest withdrawal options. I'd rather go donk off my bankroll than take the time to mess around with yet another third party money carrier. For the sake of my readers I wanted to check things out.

Altogether it looks like FT has eliminated their regular check withdrawal option. One option they are now offering is a cash pickup. They claim to have more than 100k locations where you can pickup your cash, including banks and convenience stores...after about 5 minutes of research I still haven't been able to find out exactly where I can go in my area to pickup my money. Maybe it's because I just woke up and I'm not too happy about the situation, maybe I'm just lazy. I'm gonna go ahead and rip-off a quote from the movie Office Space... "I'm not lazy, I just don't care."

There is also another withdrawal option...this one I think is rather comical. Player's can now use prepaid phone cards to deposit and withdrawal money. I suppose this is a rather clever attempt to dodge the UIGEA. In the end, I think it's only gonna buy them an extra few months of flying time under the financial radar.

The company running the phone card front is called Ultra Prepaid Phone Cards which is owned by a company named Angsana Overseas. It looks like they are being run from Singapore and I'm also told by their support staff that they have been operational for "more than 12 months". A few minutes of research shows that their domain was only registered last september (11 months ago). I suppose it's close to 12 months, and I'd hate to degrade an entire company because of 1 person's decision to round upwards over the phone. However, I'm sure you can tell that I'm not impressed thus far.

I haven't heard about too many problems like this on the other major sites (Bodog excluded). I've been spending most of my time playing elsewhere. This is partially because it is easier to move money around, it's also because the tournaments are much larger on Pokerstars. There are still several methods of moving money to and from the site. You can read up on the available options at Pokerstars here; Pokerstars

Feel free to enter some comments below if you've been having any problems.