ONLY 1 US HOSTING COMPANY - shutting down gambling sites. (Deceber 2011)

[GFPC]

All i can tell everyone is if your able and capable moving your sites off US based hosting companies may be the best thing you can do asap.

I just got an email today from my hosting company and have been told I must remove all my sites (about 50 with this company) off of their servers.

Luckily I have at least 30 days to scramble and get this done - but from what I am being told from their high up tech team and vice president - they are all doing it - all the US based companies.

Just throwing this out there for anyone who cares to know such stuff. I am going to be put through hell trying to get this all done and looking for a new home.

They are adding special clauses in their terms and conditions that now read they can no longer allow gambling sites - even information sites!

[slotplayer]

well that is not good news.

[GFPC]

Im in the process of trying to find a new home for 50 sites - so yeah that is terrible and from what i was told they are going through this with all us based hosting companies - so get ready folks.

[casinobonusguy]

Merry Christmas to us ,thanks for heads up Steve ,I only have one beast to move a forum with 7000 members!

[usaonlinecasino]

This will affect a lot not just gambling info sites. How to determine if a site is a gambling site if it does not take the money from players directly? How about knowledge based or book content?

There must be some regulatory requirements behind that. What is that?

[GFPC]

Well i guess i am lucky - they were going to shut everything down right away - but someone from the company argued and they finally gave in and gave me 30 days - but from what i am told and i have been on the phone for hours in most cases they are just terminated without notice or they have the right to do that and this will happen with all US hosting companies - I really can not believe this to be honest - I cant see large companies doing this but my company has millions of clients and they have told me they are doing this to all gambling related sites. Going to hell but at least i have 30 days - i just hope its enough time - i am begging for more time.

[GFPC]

This is what they used on us..

"Utilize the Services for or in connection with any activities or content determined by xxxxxxx, in its sole discretion, to be related to gambling, adult, obscene or pornographic materials or content, harassment, defamation, libel and hate speech or other offensive speech or content, or for any unlawful purpose, including without limitation, fraud, money laundering, child pornography, terrorist-related activities, activities in violation of U.S. export or import laws, any executive orders, or any rules, regulations or orders issued by Office of Foreign Asset Controls ("OFAC"), infringement on rights of others, trafficking in illegal drugs, or any products or services that are prohibited under applicable law, or which xxxxxxxx determines to be controversial or disruptive to the operations of xxxxxxx or any other User or third party

no recourse.. they went to their lawyers and its their final decision - anything related they said - and from the VP of the company said - DOJ are in their offices all the time doing this sort of thing.


- i would also think - if domain names are registered under US registrants its even worse - i have a different domain registrant from Canada but managed by this US company - i may be able to keep my domain management secure. But was told its still safer to move everything away from US connections.

This will affect a lot not just gambling info sites. How to determine if a site is a gambling site if it does not take the money from players directly? How about knowledge based or book content?

There must be some regulatory requirements behind that. What is that?

[rknuppel]

Wow - this is not the news I wanted to hear right before I went to bed. Ugh!

[usaonlinecasino]

Is there any timeline to move away? The hosting plan was normally paid yearly. So the movement will need some extra cost if this is a "have to" option.

[Webzcas]

Quick question here. How does this affect Domain name registration companies?

I like many use godaddy, are you saying we need to move our domains to non US registration companies?

Regards non US hosting, if you are happy paying the higher fees and take on dedicated server hosting, I can recommend Coreix.net based in England. Just say Dave Sawyer referred you.

[Webzcas]

GFPC who is your hosting company?

[TravG]

Yes this is not good. I haven't received anything from my guys yet. I may need some help on how to move blogs.

[Webzcas]

GFPC - Would be real good to let us know the hosting company that is invoking the FU clause here. Perhaps would be good to at least mention in the private forums if not comfortable naming in public.

[GFPC]

Yeah sorry guys.. I'm afraid to list the company i am with for fear of retribution and them just shutting me down right away. I have called though Host Gator, I have called Blue Host - they have indicated they are actively asking all their gambling related clients to move of there servers. Apparently this is new development they are going to enforce starting now.

My domain registrant in Canadian but managed from the US company i am with - they are asking their lawyers if this is still possible so i only need to do a nameserver update. I am not sure about US registrants..

I have called Go daddy and they say gambling related sites are still fine - but if this changes they will allow refunds. So far Go Daddy is immune to the DOJ on gambling sites - but these other companies it would appear they are caving in

[baldidiot]

That's messed up - the DOJ needs to get their nose out of everybodies bit'ness.

[baldidiot]

Yes this is not good. I haven't received anything from my guys yet. I may need some help on how to move blogs.

If your old & new hosts both use cpanel I think it's quite easy to migrate the site using cpanel. For those of you using joomla you can also use akeeba backup & restore to move the site. I have no idea about wordpress though...

[GFPC]

If your old & new hosts both use cpanel I think it's quite easy to migrate the site using cpanel. For those of you using joomla you can also use akeeba backup & restore to move the site. I have no idea about wordpress though...

For me i have found out i need to manually migrate 28 sites... databases and emails.... the worst part is the emails.. we have 200K emails to try and migrate and if we cant they will disappear in 29 more days. LOL what a nightmare..

I thought it was easy to migrate everything but i have been told from both my hosting company and the new ones i need to do this for each single site separately... how on earth can they give me only 30 days

[JackTenSuited]

For those who use cpanel i.e. hostgator shared hosting plans it's dead easy to transfer to a new host if they have cpanel too, just email your new host and they can transfer it all over for you, all you have to do is update your dns.
I done this myself when transfering to a new vps and it's as simple as entering your old cpanel username/password and it transfers all your databases, emails, files, settings etc.

[GamTrak]

Thank God I only concentrated on ONE major domain for my income instead of hundreds like many of my peers.

This is horrible for those that did not see it coming and is one reason why in May of this year I purchased a TRUE (non USA) co.uk domain for my legacy site, that I'm letting age, after the quick tender incident.

Basically folks, until gambling is regulated in the USA we will see more of this stuff that can be devastating to an igaming affiliate.

Good luck guys!

[FictionNet]

Thanks for the heads up. I've received nothing yet from my hosts. I only have five gambling sites hosted on US servers, and two of them should really be UK hosted. I'll report anything I receive from hosts.