It’s hard to see many positives from the closure of Ultimate Poker. After all, UP was the first-ever legal poker site to open in the United States. And some think that Ultimate’s failure could give Sheldon Adelson a little more ammunition in his anti-online gaming campaign. But as we’ll explain, there is one great thing to come out of UP’s shutdown, and it has to do with charity.
Players decide to do something productive with their tiny balances
Former UP players were recently informed that their balances will be returned to them in full. This is no doubt good news, especially for those who dealt with the Black Friday mess involving sites like UB Poker and Absolute Poker. However, the only issue here is that some players’ balances are so small that it isn’t even worth spending the time to cash them out.
But Marco Valerio, a former QuadJacks personality, put some value behind the insignificant balances. After seeing that his balance was only $0.18, he tweeted the following:
“Looks like a lot of Nevadans are getting Ultimate Poker checks for tiny amounts. Is anyone interested in pooling them & donating to charity?”
So far, there have been plenty of interested parties and Valerio has generated over $500 for charity. This amount has been doubled thanks to a matching $500 donation from Danielle Andersen, a former Ultimate Poker Pro who starred in the ME vs. U YouTube series.
Ultimate Poker donations still coming
Valerio’s charity drive continues to be a success as the money is moving towards $1,100. And anybody who’s interested in giving can visit his page at agentmarco.com/sapk. As for what Varlerio plans on doing with the donations, he mentioned handing the money to poker player Billy Vogel, who’s been giving to children’s causes for years.
Ultimate Poker may not have been a long-term success. But again, it’s nice to see that something good can come out of this US poker site going down.