ePassporte pulling the plug on U.S.?

While it seems likely that ePassporte is pulling out of the U.S. market, there is still a glimmer of hope for American online poker players.

Yesterday, rumors began swirling that the money transfer service ePassporte would no longer be able to serve U.S. customers, which seemed to be confirmed by Cake Poker. That site was telling players through their cashier screens that ePassporte could not be used in the U.S.
Here is what the message says, according to poker-king.com:

To all Cake Poker Customers:

We have received notice from ePassporte today that they are unable to continue to provide CakePoker with merchant e-wallet services. We have since confirmed that this situation is not unique to CakePoker and is, in fact, industry wide.

While we are disappointed with this decision, we want to reassure all players that there will be no impact to either your account balances or your account status at Cake. We are pleased to have launched earlier this week with a new payment processor and have already secured alternative processors/eWallets that we will be launching in the weeks to come. We are also in discussions with other providers that will be making their services available in the CakePoker cashier soon. Players are welcome to inquire with Customer Support for more details.

As always, we value your business and will continue to make every effort possible to make your poker experience a great one.

Regards,
The CakePoker Team

However, wickedchopspoker.com has a slightly more optimistic take on the situation:

PokerStars, Full Tilt, and other major sites all list ePassporte as “temporarily unavailable.” Calls to ePassporte customer service note that the issue is due to “technical difficulty.”

If ePassporte is pulling out of the U.S. market, it comes just a few days after the U.S. Congress introduced a bill that would lift the ban on online gambling and poker in America.

There still has been no official statement from ePassporte.