Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of the mostly accurate TechCrunch bitcoin podcast, better known as TCBTC.
This week we dig back into the gambling question on the back of some recent news, and then decipher the current growth of Coinbase as a market to buy bitcoin. Also, John Biggs gets some numbers backwards, and Jameson Lopp shows up to show us up.
Enjoy, and we’ll see you next week.
Bitcoin-based online poker site Seals with Clubs has completed its move to a new software platform and a new brand name, relaunching on Friday as SwCPoker. The move to the new platform was formerly planned, as a version 2.0 of the old Seals With Clubs offering, but was hastened and reworked under a new brand name following a Nevada Gaming Commission raid against former Seals With Clubs chairman Bryan Micon.
Micon, a former Las Vegas resident, quickly announced his relocation to the online-gambling friendly Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda following the raid. Micon noted that while numerous electronic devices were seized, he was not arrested, and he was allowed to leave the US, whereupon he quickly announced his expatriation to Antigua and the imminent launch of the new SwCPoker site.
The new site, with its Internet home now found at swcpoker.eu, offers a far more attractive user interface than the original Seals With Clubs site’s rudimentary graphics. The new site also has rolled out additional poker variants, including open-faced Chinese, pineapple, badeucey, badacey, 12 game, dealer’s choice and others, though the site does not as yet have a comprehensive listing of exactly what games are available.
SwCPoker head Micon published a self-congratulatory text following the new offering’s rollout, which saw a hundred or so players join in. According to the text:
What a brilliant few days for Bitcoin poker. The successful launch of SwC Poker has been met with worldwide cheer. New games and features are online, such as OFC pineapple, badeucey, badacey, 12 game, dealer’s choice, and many more, available in Cash, SnG, or MTT format. OFC/p MTTs have quickly become a crowd favorite. Look for cash game stakes to slowly increase as confidence in the new system builds. Thanks for the outpouring of support for SwC. We are happy to be back and serving the btc poker public.
The site continues to bill itself as a nontraditional offering, choosing to remain independent of online-gambling regulatory oversight and the long reach of major governments. SwCPoker requires only an e-mail address and access to an individual bitcoin (BTC) wallet to play on the site, with users able to deposit and withdrawal BTC balances from SwCPoker at any time. The site is open to residents of all global jurisdictions, including the US, due to the bitcoin currency’s own presumed anonymity.
The anonymity of bitcoin users in general is part of the attraction of sites that use the virtual currency, though their use and popularity remains tiny compared to mainstream online poker sites. A March 1st check of SwCPoker’s site showed only about 20 tables in use, with perhaps 150 total players participating.
Indeed, the new SwCPoker continues to promote itself as the “wild, wild west of online poker rooms,” though Micon, as the ongoing public face of the site, maintains that SwCPoker continues to battle any form of player collusion or other online game manipulation. The site also maintains a “no bots” policy, though given its tiny size, it’s unclear that SwCPoker would even have the tools to detect a high-level bot or network of bots, if one was ever placed in use on the site.
Indeed, despite the rapid relaunch of the site under its new SwCPoker brand name, the nontraditional and poorly promoted aspects of the offering give the site the feel of an online popcorn stand. Former Seals With Club adherents and bitcoin-poker enthusiasts have already reacted warmly to the new site’s rollout, but it’s not at all clear that the site or its management is capable of pitching the site’s expanded offerings outside of its already existing hardcore audience. SwCPoker and other bitcoin-only online poker sites appear destined to remain a tiny niche offering, and nothing about the new software seems likely to change that.
For those of you who are wondering what the new SWC software feels like, here is a preview. No Linux and Andriod client yet, but SWC confirm it's coming. This is shaping up to once again be the most highly trafficked bitcoin poker site, just give it some time.