Poker Refugees: this small start-up, run by MBA and former pro surfer Kristen Wilson, relocates American poker players outside the reach of Uncle Sam, to enable careers in online poker. Poker Refugees helps find apartments, set up bank accounts, and find a reliable broadband connection to play on. All of this for $1,000 a person.
Matthew Stout and Joey Cappuccio just moved into their new apartment in San Jose, Costa Rica. The two have been friends for ages, and used to live in New Jersey until just recently. Stout and Cappuccio have left the United States for just one reason: Black Friday. Since April 15, 2011, when the Justice Department and the FBI shut down the American markets of the largest online poker sites in the world, players everywhere have considered moving abroad. These two have made it a reality.
Since September, when Stout and Cappuccio completed their move, the two have hardly left their apartment. Except for the off grocery run here and there, the two poker grinders enjoy the comforts of their apartment as they work the online felt. Was $1,000 a head worth it? Both believe it was. Since 2006, Stout has pulled in $1 million and Cappuccio about $500,000 from online poker. For that kind of paycheck, a $1,000 relocation fee just made sense. “Without Wilson, we wouldn’t have been online in time for the [PokerStars] World Championship,” Stout said. “I would have just been here banging my head against a wall.”
Wilson’s business, Poker Refugees, has relocated 14 Americans and received interest from more than 100 other players. Matt Plecki, a 21 year-old chemical engineering major at USC California, left his classes to pursue his poker career. He believes that, “If you’re an actual professional player, you’re going to move.” Land-based casinos and live game just don’t offer the same profit margins, Plecki says. “No one wants to go in at 9 o’clock wearing a suit and making like a quarter of what they made playing poker while working five times as many hours. It’s just not happening.”
Hanging out in his new Costa Rica apartment, Stout says, “It took me a while to admit to myself that things aren’t going to get resolved anytime soon and that we were eventually gonna have to do something about it.” Stout and Cappuccio became the first clients of Poker Refugees in September, but they will certainly not be the last.