BY TOM SOMACH

Sun Poker is the latest Internet poker room to pull the plug on the U.S. market.

Curacao-based Sun Poker (www.sunpoker.com) has announced that as of next week, customers in the U.S. will no longer be able to play poker for real money on the site.

A Sun Poker spokeswoman told PokerHelper.com: “Ever since the U.S. passed a bill banning U.S. players from online gaming in October, we have decided as a publicly-traded company to follow all rules and laws by abiding to these laws.

“Therefore, new U.S. players are no longer able to register at Sun Poker, as our older U.S. players have been paid off their balance and redirected to other poker sites.”

The spokeswoman was referring to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which the U.S. Congress passed last fall.

Technically, UIGEA does not ban U.S. players from gambling online, it just makes it harder to do so, by banning U.S. banks, credit card companies and other financial entities from transferring monies to and from online gambling sites.

By barring U.S. customers, Sun Poker joins an ever-growing list of online poker rooms that have done the same, in response to UIGEA.

That list includes but is not limited to Celeb Poker, Poker Room, Mansion Poker, Doyles Room, Party Poker, Titan Poker, Ladbrokes Poker, Canbet Poker, Hollywood Poker, Tony G. Poker, CD Poker, 24h Poker, Inter-Poker and Pacific Poker.

In addition to barring U.S. clients from playing poker for real money at its site, Sun Poker also announced it is similarly banning customers in Turkey from playing for real money.

Turkey has recently enacted anti-online gambling legislation of its own.

Other than the U.S. and Turkey, it’s business as usual for every other country in the world, Sun Poker says.

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