More bad news for US-friendly online poker network Revolution Gaming, which saw its roster of skins depleted by one as Red Star Poker announced their plans to move to the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN).
Revolution has been generally plagued by declining traffic and poor cashout speeds over the last 12 months.
It's not immediately clear what impact Red Star's departure will have on the overall traffic at Revolution; while it will obviously be a loss for the network, the severity of that loss won't become apparent for a few days.
Skin was not subject to cashout issues
Red Star did not provide players with any insight into their motivation for switching networks.
It is worth noting that Red Star was not facing the same delays as other Revolution skins that have come under criticism for slow payment such as Lock Poker and Juicy Stakes. That's due to the fact that Red Star operated their own, standalone cashier that allowed them to handle payments separately from the rest of the network.
As a result, Red Star players were not facing the same types of delays for cashout requests that have dogged that Revolution Network at large.
Comparing Microgaming and Revolution
A quick comparison of the two networks suggests some obvious reasons why Red Star may have decided that a move was in order. MPN offers some features - including a fast-fold poker client - that Revolution's software simply can't match.
But perhaps the more pressing factor was the traffic at MPN, which is more than two times the average traffic at Revolution. And, unlike Revolution, MPN's traffic appears to be stable, suggesting that the traffic gap between the two networks will only widen over the next year.
And the growing chorus of criticism directed at Revolution's flagship room Lock Poker can't have helped the situation.
Status of U.S. players at Red Star post-move
The new Red Star Poker will not accept Americans from any state. And, in a bit of news that's certainly going to cause consternation for a small handful of players, those American poker players who were allowed to continue to play on Red Star after the room stepped away from the U.S. online poker market will also now see their accounts shut down.
That's because MPN does not accept any American players via any skin. At one point in time, Microgaming did allow players from certain U.S. states while blocking access from others like Kentucky and Illinois, but the company has had a blanket policy disallowing U.S. signups for several years now. As a result, Red Star Poker will be completely devoid of any US players once the move to MPN is complete.
Red Star has yet to communicate how it will handle the closure of those accounts and the settling of the balances held by American players, but it is expected that the process will be orderly and that balances will be fully honored.
As for players from outside of the United States, the transition will be more or less seamless. On your next log in to Red Star Poker, you'll be prompted to download new software and the account migration process should be more or less automatic.
Options of American players unchanged by Red Star's departure
All in all, this isn't a positive development for American online poker players. Not only does the player pool at Revolution take a hit, but those who still could play on Red Star are losing that option.
Beyond those impacts, the picture for online poker players from the U.S. remains the same, with Bovada, Merge (headed up by Carbon Poker) and Winning Poker Network providing the largest US-facing rooms in terms of players and active games. Learn more about the status quo for American online poker players here.
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