Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky recently posted an email he received from Skrillstating the online payment company will no longer process gambling transactions in Canada at the start of 2014.

“Skrill has reviewed its operations and will cease processing gambling payments in Canada,” the message said. “Payments to gambling merchants will no longer be processed from 2 January, with payments from merchants ceasing on 31 January.”

Skrill confirmed the move with PocketFives, stating, “The decision to cease to process gambling payments in Canada has been made as the result of a review of Skrill’s operations.”

The news will come as a blow to Canadian poker players who rely on the e-wallet to facilitate transfers between poker sites and make withdrawals to their own bank accounts. Poker refugees who emigrated to the country after Black Friday will be hit hard as well and left with a dwindling set of options for making poker-related deposits and withdrawals.

While the email gave scant reasoning behind the move, forum posters were abuzz with their own theories. “Bobo Fett” believed the decision was closely tied to Skrill’s acceptance into the regulated New Jersey online gambling market. “Now they finally have their foot back in the door in NJ; the last thing they want to do is jeopardize that,” he posted. “The long game could see them coming back to many US states, which could definitely surpass their Canadian revenues.”

Skrill follows the lead of Neteller, one of the gambling world’s previously preferred payment solutions, which decided to pull out of the Canadian market in 2007. At the time, the company told the press that after a “risk profile and status” assessment, the actions of regulators and gaming operators had “increased the uncertainty around certain activities related to online gambling in some jurisdictions.”

“I think Skrill’s made a strategic decision to go completely ‘legit’ in North America – a market that’s only going to grow,” “Bobo Fett” concluded.

Skrill hopes to take advantage of the opportunity left by companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, American Express, and PayPal, all of which refuse to process gaming-related transactions in the US. And while only three states have legalized online gambling, others are pondering following suit, making for a potentially huge market.

Companies hoping to operate in the legal online gambling industry in the US have good reason to fear being labeled as rogue by regulators. Some states that could legalize online gaming may include a “bad actor” clause, a measure that gives regulators the power to block companies they perceive to have engaged in nefarious activity in the past.

Skrill could be hoping to avoid that fate and continue operating in the potentially lucrative US market. “We are a real part of the poker ecosystem in terms of how players manage their money and how they will be able to send money freely between all of the different sites,” said Joe Hall, Vice President of Skrill USA. “We plan to be integrated with everyone within the market.”

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