Several members of PokerCollectif will be curious to get new developments on the two poker rooms on the Cereus group: Absolute Poker and UB (formerly Ultimate Bet). Although the impact of the "Black Friday" is noticeable on PokerStars and FullTilt Poker, the future of these two rooms do not appear to even compromise. Not unfortunately, it cannot be said for Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet.
Unlike PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker who came recently to an agreement with American justice, the two rooms of the Cereus network are unable to such an agreement.
The direction of Blanca Games (a private company owner of the Cereus Poker Network) sent a memo internal, dated May 2, 2011, addressed to all staff of Blanca Games and announcing the withdrawal of its operations and the layoff of 95% of the staff. The memo, which was not confirmed by Blanca Games, reads as follows (translation):
You are already aware of the measures taken by the Department of Justice American on April 15 and the withdrawal of our operations in the US.We must now concentrate our resources to develop our operations elsewhere in American soil. Unfortunately, it also means that we must immediately restructure our Organization and significantly reduce our operations.
This is a very sad day for all of us who have worked hard to create a prestigious company filled with extraordinary people. We have always been and remain fully accountable to our employees and consulates.
Employees will be paid in full liquidation in accordance with the laws of labour of Costa Rica. The consultants will be paid in severance pay on the basis of the duration of their service.
Some of you will be approached by the company for a new role in a much smaller company that will focus on activities in non-American soil.
Human resources will individually contact each employee to provide more details in the coming days.
Today's decision was not taken lightly or hastily. It comes after a review under all angles of the impact of the Black Friday on the company as a whole. We are disappointed that the events of the last two weeks forced us to take this step and the downsizing of the company was now inevitable.
We ask you to work from home tomorrow and we will soon send a new update of working arrangements.
It was a real pleasure to work with you all. We thank you for the time and dedication that you have shared with us over the years and we offer you our best wishes in your future projects.
What does this mean? Is this the end for the Cereus network? Will they be able to pay all players? What size will the network after leaving the U.S. market? Is this the single withdrawal of Cereus from the US market only or the announcement of the gradual closure of the network? The release is not clear about this. The only thing that it is, is that a liquidation will occur. It also says that activities will continue out of the American market to smaller scale and several former employees may be re-contacted in order to occupy new positions. But many questions remain.
Recently, several members were concerned about the lack of liquidity of these 2 bathrooms. And there is enough: when you have several thousand dollars on these sites and one is forced to withdraw $ 250 maximum per, one is entitled to wonder about the liquidity of these two poker rooms.
Victory Poker
Alongside this new, last March, it was reported that poker Victory Poker, present on the Cake Poker network site, had reached an agreement that ensured that Victory Poker joined Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet on the Cereus network (what many people surprised by this news, replied "Are you Cereus?"). No date had been announced.
To date, Victory Poker is always on the Cake Poker network which they accept the Americans. On their side, the site licensed to Malta, Victory Poker decided to voluntarily leave the American market.
You could hear a few statements thereon recently coming on the part of Victory Poker CEO Dan Fleyshman: "Cake Poker has already blocked Victory Poker US players and is now working on something else. It will continue to accept American players as network as long he wants, but I made the personal choice to remove Victory Poker '. " This decision was taken quickly after the "black friday". The Director of Victory Poker does not, according to his statements, confront the Government and wants to keep his reputation intact.
During last night, the VictoryPoker site was inaccessible, displaying only an "account suspended". The site is back online about 5 hours later.
With recent developments, the situation of Victory Poker remains uncertain and PokerCollectif will remain on the lookout for the latest news about this room.
In the meantime, you can always comment on this article on our forums: restructuring of the Cereus network
