Poker Refugees Makes Relocating Easier For The Pros

Following Black Friday, the necessity for many online poker pros to relocate outside of the US  has come even further to the fore in recent weeks, particularly since the WSOP drew to a close last month in Las Vegas. 
So far many top players have already successfully managed to set up bases elsewhere, including such pros as Phil Galfond, Olivier Busquet, Kevin MacPhee, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Hastings and Cole South.
However, other players have found the going a lot tougher, such as Dan “Jungleman12” Cates, for instance, who has already been turned away at the Canadian border and is currently still in the process of finding a European country that will accept him as a poker professional.
In the middle of all this confusion, poker forum PocketFives has now launched a streamlined relocation service called ‘Poker Refugees’ designed to help poker pros with all the necessary help in order to make the move to a poker-friendly country a whole lot easier.
Explaining how the idea for ‘Poker Refugees’ came about, co-founder of PocketFives Cal Spears said:
“It was a member that brought the idea up to Adam [Small, one of the co-owners of Pocket Fives] and Adam knew Kristin Wilson, who is a real estate agent in Costa Rica. We saw people posting about it on the forums and realized there’s a big market of professional poker players who no longer had a place to play. It’s not an easy process, but she has a ton of experience with it and gives them an easy way to relocate.”
The service costs around $1,000 per person and in return will assists the poker player across a whole range of areas, including travel plans, help with visas, choice of properties to live, setting up a local bank account, and contact with other relocated players.
Currently, ‘Poker Refugees’ offers assistance in relocating to either Costa Rica, Panama or Canada, although it can also help with moves to other poker-friendly countries, in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, although these would usually then be discussed on a one-on-one basis.