The CEO of Hero Poker announced early Saturday that Hero Poker, a Merge Gaming skin, will no longer be accepting new players from the United States after May 25th. Existing players will continue being able to play. Hero Poker claims to have made this decision in order for them to keep providing their players with high levels of personal support.

To quote the CEO’s response to a player :

“This is not a set back [sic], its [sic] for us to provide better service and I know this goes contrary to what most site would do, but I’d rather work out really establishing our boutique level service systematically with our core players and then roll that out. I’ve said it before, if I have to chose [sic] standards and prioritizing my players over growth, then I will. I have two major markets that I have full marketing teams for which are on stand by, so my work load really isn’t going to change.”

It is unclear why they specifically chose to close sign-ups from the US, since players from elsewhere would seemingly require similar levels of support. We have contacted Hero Poker’s CEO for comment and will publish an update if he responds with a statement.

Hero Poker is not the first site to do this since Black Friday. Sportsbook.com and PlayersOnly, both also skins on the Merge network, stopped US player sign-ups on May 1st. And, in addition to the three sites named in the 4/15 indictment, many other gambling sites have completely stopped allowing US players to play for real money since Black Friday. These include Victory Poker and BetUS.

The CEO of Hero Poker responded to our request for clarification. You can read his full response here