PIC Club is one of the next generation of online payment processors that operate within the United States. They have relationships with online gambling sites that allow players from the United States to make deposit with those sites. The way they do this is by using the money players give them to buy shares in commodities and then they sell those shares to the online poker sites, thereby allowing players to make indirect deposits that eventually make it into their real money accounts at online poker sites.

It is a procedure that is generally frowned upon by the government, but it also happens to be a procedure that is perfectly legal according to all of the rules that have been implemented under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. That infamous piece of legislation that was passed in 2006 was able to force banks and traditional payment processors out of gambling markets in the United States, but processors like PIC Club are trying to supplant them and bring online gambling back into the American fold in force.

Chuck Kidd is the CEO of the operation and he recently released a letter to his customers stating that a relationship between PIC Club and the Merge Gaming Network was actually terminated through a mutually acceptable compromise that was reached by the two partners. He was sorry to see the relationship fade, but was planning to restructure the funds as they were received from sites, return them to players and then approach individual sites within the network in order to start up the relationship anew.

That sounded reasonable enough, but a confusing e-mail was received from Anthony Taylor, the CEO of Merge Gaming, that stated categorically that the agreement was terminated by Merge Gaming rather than mutually as Kidd had implied. The e-mail was brief and to the point, giving off a terse tone that has started to make others wonder if there isn’t something else going on behind the scenes. With both sides refusing to discuss the issue until a later date, all that online gaming journalists can do at the moment is sit back and wait to see if any further details on the case emerge.