Update on Haiti Relief

Last week, the Poker Player’s Alliance issued a statement saying that the online poker community had donated $1.5 million for Haiti earthquake relief. This is an update to a post we did a week ago on the Haiti relief effort by online casinos & poker rooms,

But a week later when the month officially came to a close, the numbers were much more substantial. The two big players in the online poker world, Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker, combined for a donation of more than $2 million and other poker sites were able to donate a good deal of money as well.

Poker Stars (www.pokerstars.com) was truly the star of the Haiti earthquake relief fundraising efforts. It will be contributing more than $1.4 million to Haiti Earthquake relief. The money will be sent to the Red Cross.

Players donated half the money and Poker Stars matched the amount donated by players. Players were allowed donate money several ways. They could transfer money to a special account called “Haiti Fund”, they could purchase donations in the VIP store or they could register to play in special Haiti relief tournaments.

Full Tilt Poker (www.fulltiltpoker.com) is donating more than $650,000 and that is again via donations from players and a matching donation from the site. That money will be sent to the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF.

Players at Full Tilt were able to donate money in roughly the same way they were at Poker Stars.

One of the first poker sites to announce it would be donating money to Haiti relief and would be holding special tournaments for fundraising was Cake Poker. That site was able to donate $32,000 to relief efforts. Again, half the money came from players and half came as a match from the site.