As the economy continues on a downward spiral, it seems to have finally reached the online gambling community. A few websites are being shut down or facing financial losses due to economic woes. One such site having to close down is Duplicate Poker. The site had just recently announced their signing of a quarter of a million users, but now has decided to close.

The site posted a message on their home page explaining the shut down:

DEAR PLAYERS,

DUPLICATE IS SADLY BIDDING FAREWELL TO ITS PLAYERS. CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SITUATION THE COMPANY IS NOT ABLE TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SERVICE. WE ARE A SMALL VICTIM OF THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS.

REGRETFULLY AS OF THE TODAY, OCTOBER 5TH, 2008 WE ARE CLOSING OUR SERVICE. WE
THANK OUR PLAYERS FOR BEING WITH US. HOPEFULLY AT LATER TIME AND IN A BETTER ECONOMIC CLIMATE DUPLICATE POKER WILL RE-APPEAR.

SINCERELY,

THE DUPLICATE POKER TEAM
CUSTOMERCARE@DUPLICATEPOKER

Duplicate Poker has a form that can be filled out by players to withdraw money or check their bankroll. Duplicate Poker had been doing well and in September the site had stated that they had players on five continents and had a 20% monthly growth rate.

The website stated that they were the only provider of an online poker room for United States players. Instead of player’s competing against players at the table, players were actually playing against a player at another table. Players were dealt the same hand and whoever played the better hand would win.

Although other sites still exist for US players to play poker it is still upsetting to see a poker website have to close due to the economy. Hopefully things will change for the better so more poker sites do not have to close and the ones that do can reopen.




- 2008-10-07