Considering opening an offshore financial company

pokertipsfromthepros · #1 () 03-08-2007, 06:49 PM

I'm considering opening an offshore finance company with the sole focus of issuing visa/mastercard debit cards to use to deposit funds to online poker sites. An end goal would be to try and create a paypal type service that could be used in conjunction with the online poker rooms to both deposit and recieve withdrawals. It looks like I could have something up and running within a month or so and I feel like this is one of those moments in time where a guy could really seize on an opportunity.

There's obviously a sizeable investment required to do this though so thought I would take everyones pulse here to see what your thoughts on the viability of this is. Obviously there's a need for this right now and we could at least solve the deposit problem but I'm unsure of the actual ability of convincing the large poker sites to work out a withdrawal option to allow customers to pull funds back out into their account which is where the big need is.

I would especially like to hear from those that run their own poker rooms to see what their thoughts on this are.

losercore · #2 () 03-08-2007, 06:52 PM

Are you in the US?

pokertipsfromthepros · #3 () 03-08-2007, 07:01 PM

Yeah but the OFC would obviously be in a different "gaming friendly/tax friendly" country and the OFC would then in turn be owned by a company based in the British Virgin Isles.

stillshadow · #4 () 03-09-2007, 06:46 AM

Wow - I wouldn't touch that business idea with a 10-foot pole living in the US. Besides being out of the country, I would have to consider willingness to never travel to a US territory (especially to change planes!) a must to touch anything like that.

losercore · #5 () 03-09-2007, 07:54 AM

Yea my thoughts are there with Shadow. Even an over seas company has to look at this carefully.

If you were even just part of the startup and this became a way for poker players to transfer money into their accounts, you would have to flee this Country and NEVER return. I love poker, but at the same time I'm not willing to never be allowed back in The US for it.

If I was already in a poker happy country then that's a different story.

It would still be hard to do. Neteller is not a US company and they are pretty much a goner because the US could care less about internatinol law. Yes I know it's sad and I am one that believes the US is breaking the law with some of the tactics they are using. But they are working and that's what is sad.

If this works you would be a felon in the US and they would still find a way to shut it down by making sure US banks do not send money to your company. It's a no win situation.

I think the key is going to be te States adopting there own laws. Just like Nevada and New Jersy have had for years for land based casinos. States will soon start thinking this approach.

Good luck and if you do it let us know how things are...