Game Over for SealsWithClubs

SealsWithClubs (SWC), the online poker industry's leading Bitcoin-only site, has elected to remain shuttered following a hardware failure last week that put the site out of commission.

An announcement at the website directed at its loyal players advises that all operations - save for cashouts - have ceased effective immediately. Players are urged to withdraw any remaining funds ASAP, without providing a set time as to how long cashout availability will be permitted.

The shutdown was necessitated by "operational security" that the current ownership team deemed too risky to attempt a reboot. Citing a "perpetual state of jeopardy," it was determined that the most prudent decision would be for SWC to call it a day.

The loyal players at whom the website message was pointed, who numbered 85 on average at ring game tables prior to the shutdown, may see SWC back again. Should that happen, it won't be at the old sealswithclubs.eu domain, but at a new web address listed as swcpoker.eu.

SWC was readying the roll out of a brand new 2.0 software package before the latest snafu put an end to those plans. SWC Chairman Bryan Micon will apparently move ahead with that launch under the new domain, albeit apart from the current ownership team.

"As the majority ownership & team will not go forward with operations but Micon is still in a position to do so, it makes the most sense to hand off assets to Micon in order to enable him to provide to our players the best Bitcoin poker experience he can," read the statement.

Bitcoin, as many are aware, has not yet found mainstream acceptance either in the realm of online poker and gambling or other industries worldwide. That may change in the future, and several new Bitcoin-only sites are gambling that it will.

In fact, the SWC team that announced the site's shutdown still believe in the virtual currency, stating, "We know that cryptocurrency poker is here to stay and it saddens us all to be in a position that we can no longer reliably be the ones to provide it to you."