Adios To Spade Club

Online poker subscription club folds

Another online poker subscription site – Cardplayer Magazine's Spade Club.com – has folded.

The $20-a-month subscription club, which offered its members a way in which they could legally circumvent US anti-online gambling laws, offered a range of tournaments and prizes on a regular basis.

Subscription-based poker sites can operate from within the United States and allow Americans to play because players do not wager money in ring games or tournaments. Instead, the monthly subscription is a fee for access to the service.

Late this week, members received email notifications advising them of the club's closure and their alternatives. These were described as:

“Going forward, all SpadeClub members are being offered a chance to participate in the transition to the ZEN Entertainment Network. ZEN's VIP program will honor all time already purchased by SpadeClub members.

“Basic members can continue to play for free as well.”

ZEN is based in Las Vegas, providing gaming for the National League of Poker (NLOP), Poker Para Ti, Motor Sports Poker, the UFC, and World Wrestling Entertainment.

Players will need to execute their choice of moving over to the Zen operation or cashing in any account balances and moving on within the next 30 days.

Cardplayer Magazine owner Barry Shulman has since been quoted as saying: “We just couldn't make it work from a financial standpoint. We were getting close to having a breakeven month for the first time about a year ago and then we started having processing problems that we couldn't overcome.

“Even though SpadeClub is out of business, we had a community of loyal poker players and wanted them to have a place where they could continue playing with the friends that they made. Zen Entertainment has a great community and was the best fit for our players.”

Zen, which is headed by property entrepreneur Vincent Zaldivar, was formed in 2007 and became associated with NLOP a year later. The company has branches in Vegas, Boston, Palo Alto, the Ukraine, and India.

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