Neteller's statement...

[Talking Poker]

Note this:

Now, call me crazy, but let's just say that I moved to Canada today. Once I get settled in and am ready to play some poker online - you know, tonight - could I not log on to Neteller and change my registered address to my new Canada address? And once I make said address change, would I not be good to go again?

/End Temporary Cashout/Deposit problem.

Now, on to the Long Term:

If everything I said above is true, then I'm sensing an interesting business opportunity for someone who never plans on visiting the U.S. It would go a little something like this:

1. Purchase office space in _____ (Antigua, Costa Rica, wherever).
2. "Rent" (virtual?) P.O. boxes to Americans. This would likely need to approval of the local government, but I suspect that could be arranged. The best part is that the "rent" could be completely FREE, as I will describe below.
3. Now your customers (Americans) have foreign addresses.
4. Assuming most of the poker sites also block access based on IP addresses, you set up some kick ass computer equipment that acts like a proxy for your customers. So instead of connecting directly to the online poker sites, they connect to you and you then connect them to the poker sites. In theory, the poker sites wouldn't block you, because you aren't in the U.S., and that should be good enough for them.
5. Deposits and Cash outs would be slow (processing time) but should work. For deposits, the U.S. players would send you money the same way people send money to Neteller now, for example. You're not a gambling site, so this should be perfectly legal. You now take this money and move it to their ewallet of choice (into their Neteller account, for example). For cashouts, the U.S. players would have checks sent to their new foreign P.O. boxes (maybe this could be done electronically (Neteller --> you), but I'm not sure). You deposit the checks into your local (foreign) bank account, wait for them to clear, and then cut a new check for your customer and mail it to his U.S. address. Whether or not there would be a problem with THIS check, I'm not sure, but since you are not a gambling site, and a mere "Virtual P.O. box company" (or however you choose to spin it), this may not be a problem.
6. Once everything is full functional, you open the doors to the public through a web site. On this site, people are able to create accounts (register addresses) and then connect to your service. From here, they go through you to create their new poker accounts (affiliate links!). Because of this, you'll be getting a piece of all of their action, which should allow you to offer this service for FREE, assuming you do enough volume.... And if this really works, that shouldn't be a problem AT ALL.

Someone tell me why this won't work. I feel like I haven't quite thought out the deposit/withdraw part enough, but the rest seems fairly straightforward. I really think there is an opportunity here, especially for a Calvin Aire type person, who has nearly unlimited resources and friendly ties to the Antiguan government.

[Kurn]

It would work, but your average gamble-for-fun person wouldn't go through the hassle.

[2Tone]

It is not inconceivable that a service such as this could spring up. But I think its client base would be limited to a very small number of hard core players.

As usual, it boils down to time and money. I don’t know what the service fees of such an operation would be, but they’d have to be pretty hefty. For some, it would be worth it, but it would be yet another obstacle to beating the game/making a profit at the tables.

More importantly, people don’t like to wait to get money in and out of the sites. Our own backer section regularly sees high-dollar/high-volume players (well a couple of them, anyway) offering extra cash to anyone who get them funds to site X right NOW, even though they could save themselves the trouble/money by waiting a few days for whatever to clear.

I think a big party of what made Party such a success was IGM-Pay – instant, free deposits and cash-outs, right to/from my bank account. Having had that, setting up foreign PO boxes seems like a giant inconvenience.

[Talking Poker]

Good points.

Yet, Stars and Tilt haven't created their own IGM-Pay type services yet. I wonder why that is...

[Quint]

Probably because, as of now, the US hasn't gone after any gambling sites (maybe due to the fair trade agreement they're ignoring, maybe not). However, they seem hell bent on going after the financial institutions that US customers are using to fund gambling sites.

[Talking Poker]

What's the hassle? Anyone who uses Neteller (as opposed to just a credit card) wouldn't find this any more of a hassle than that. Make the step by step simple enough, and it could ATTRACT people to online poker, not deter them. Right now, there is no good step by step that tells you to make accounts at Neteller, then the poker sites, and then do this and that and so on. Done right, this could automate that all into one process (ie, you only give your bank info once).

[Robbie Robb]

Your idea is VERY reminiscent of something that happened here in Canada in the mid-90s with satellite dishes - but much more high tech. No IP relays and such. Companies would sell "addresses" in the states for Canadians to have a US address so that they could subscribe to DISH Network or DirecTV - legally. We went that route for years before we finally just modded our receiver for all the freebies.