Recommended Poker Room
www.A player to player transfer is the direct transfer of money from one poker player to another. Many players are requesting this option of real money transfer to another poker player. For example, one player can stake his friend who is low on cash for a multi table tournament.
Unfortunately, player to player transfers of real money are only allowed at few poker rooms. And if it is allowed, then such a transfer of money is often subject to very restrictive conditions. A poker room which supports player to player transfers is Doyle’s Room. However, their money transfer option is subject to the following restrictions:
- The amount of money must be between $5 and $250
- Both the accounts of the transmitter as well as the recipient must have been verified
- The first real money deposit with a credit card must have happened at least 30 days ago
Chip Dumping in Heads-Up Games
Creative readers of this article could have the idea to use another method of real money transfer to another player if the poker room does not offer such an option. They could just sit down at a heads-up cash game table and ship their money to their friend by going almost all-in and then folding the hand. We strongly advise against using this method. Poker rooms classify this as “chip dumping” and prohibit such transfers explicitly. They have also built-in mechanisms in their poker software to detect such illicit money transfers. The penalties for such transfers may be to close such player accounts or even to seize the total amount of cash available online.
Reasons for Poker Rooms Not Allowing Player Transfers
Security
Player-to-player transfers are a potential security risk from the perspective of the poker rooms. If a player account is hacked, the hacker could then transfer the money easily with a player-to-player transfer to his account or he could chip dump the money in a heads-up game.
It is normally not possible for a hacker to hack a poker account and to make a payment directly to his bank or Moneybookers / Neteller account, as funds can be cashed out only to the account which was used to deposit the money.
This is why chip dumping is completely forbidden and only a few rooms offer player-to-player transfers: to increase the security for the player accounts. And if player to player transfers are allowed, the amounts of dollars that can be transferred are restricted for security reasons.
Money Laundering
It is conceivable that people use poker rooms for money laundering. This is another reason why many poker rooms do not allow player to player transfers.
Costs
With each real money deposit, the poker room is incurring costs which it has to bear by itself (players normally do not have to pay the credit card commissions). If a player transfers money to another player, it is possible that this player withdraws the money instantly. In such a case, the poker room cannot earn rake to cover the incurred credit card commissions. This is also the reason why some poker rooms have restrictions and conditions for withdrawing money, for example, that the player has to generate a certain amount of player points before he can withdraw the money.
Conclusion and Recommendation on Money Transfers
The poker rooms are there to play online poker; they are not a financial institution such as a bank. And there are good reasons why most of them do not allow direct player to player real money transfers.
There are alternatives to stake your friend or to transfer some poker dollars to a colleague. For example, you can use Moneybookers or NETeller for that real money transfer. If you do not have both an account at the same online money service provider, this is not a problem. Just open an account by following these links:
