The effects of the troubled economy have been obvious on the brick and mortar casinos as of late, but perhaps less obvious is how the state of things is hurting our virtual card rooms as well.

In a short statement, which can be found on the Duplicate Poker home page, Duplicate Poker announced they will no longer be servicing any customers. The statement says they hope to reopen "at [a] later time" but currently are unable to continue to spread games due to being "caught in the middle of the global financial situation."

This announcement and closure comes as a surprise to many. Just last month (9/15), Duplicate Poker released a press statement congratulating themselves on reaching the 250,000 customer mark. At that time the company made no mention of any difficulties and, in fact, stated their unique spin on internet poker, which reportedly eliminates the luck factor by dealing players at different tables the same cards, was quickly gaining "global appeal." The release went on to say that company revenues had "increased six-fold since the public launch."

There is of course no doubt, the last month has been trying on many businesses (to say the least), but it is difficult to fathom that a company doing as well as Duplicate Poker had claimed, could possibly be so adversely effected so quickly. Sadly, if there is more to this story, it's as unavailable as the Duplicate Poker Servers.

Story by Mark Anderson