BY TOM SOMACH

Internet poker room Celeb Poker (www.celebpoker.com) has announced that it is adding two new payment methods for its players.

Starting immediately, Celeb Poker customers can use e-wallets MoneyBookers (www.moneybookers.com) and Click and Buy (www.clickandbuy.com) to send funds to and receive funds from the poker room.

According to Celeb Poker, “Once registered with MoneyBookers, all you need is your e-mail address and password to make payments. You can send money worldwide to anyone with an email address, even if the recipient does not have a MoneyBookers account yet.

“Register all your credit and debit cards and bank details with MoneyBookers and use them to pay at over 3,500 online shops. This means that you don’t need to provide them each time you want to purchase goods and services online. MoneyBookers provides a localized service with 12 supported languages and domestic payment options in over 30 countries.”

About Click and Buy, Celeb Poker said: “This new electronic payment system is authorized by the U.K. Financial Services Authority (FSA) and is subject to its regulatory requirements and supervision. More than 8.65 million satisfied customers have used the Click and Buy system to make safe and convenient purchases of Internet content and services. They add more than 300,000 new buyers every month.”

Click and Buy is actually not new.

According to the Click and Buy website, “The Internet payment system Click and Buy, a full-service solution for e-payment and billing, was launched in Germany in the summer of 2000. After a successful start, Click and Buy saw numerous launches in other markets. Click and Buy is now available all over Europe, in the U.S. and in Asia.”

Celeb Poker’s announcement of new pay options comes on the heels of an announcement by another e-wallet that it will further limit service.

NETeller (www.neteller.com), which early this year announced that customers in the U.S. could no longer use the service for transactions involving online gambling sites, just announced last month that it was extending that ban to include customers in Canada as well.

Online poker players and other online gamblers outside North America can continue to use NETeller, however, to transfer funds to and from Celeb Poker and other online gambling sites.

Celeb Poker also allows its players to use e-wallets Click2Pay (www.click2pay.com), FirePay (www.firepay.com), PaySafe (www.paysafe.com) and InstaCash (www.instacash.com).

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)