Cereus still accepting US players, says tracking site

Last week’s deal purported to prevent US-based players from playing on the Cereus network (consisting of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet), however yesterday’s weekly traffic report identified players from “obviously American cities such as Chicago, Bakersfield, Cincinnati, Colorado Springs and Minnetonka,” in real-money games.

According to the agreement, released by the DoJ last Wednesday but dated 4 May, “Absolute Poker agrees that for the duration of the agreement, it will not allow for, facilitate, or provide the ability for players located in the United States to engage in playing poker for “real money” or any other thing of value.”

Pokerscout’s article continues to suggest that – if the agreement between Absolute Poker and the DoJ is already active – “Cereus would not only be in breach of contract, but would also potentially face fraud and other charges for signing a contract it had no intention of following.”

Blanca Games, operator of the Cereus network, had earlier issued a release explaining it would be downsizing and looking to end its US operations, before backing up the statement with the termination of the contracts of its professional players.

The site entered into discussions with the authorities in late April, nearly a week after Pokerstars and Full Tilt reached agreements for the return of their dot.com domains. Under the terms of their own agreement last week, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet did not and will not have their own dot.com domains returned.