The Internet’s newest poker room is picky about who its customers are.

Not only does it ban customers from the USA, as many online poker rooms do, it also bans customers from ten other countries!

The new room is Dirty Stack Poker (www.dirtystackpoker.com).

According to its website, “We are a corporation incorporated under the laws of the Philippines and are fully licensed and regulated by the laws of the Philippines for the purpose of operating a virtual poker room on the Internet, under the name www.dirtystackpoker.com.”

Elsewhere on the website, the room lists a total of eleven countries whose residents are prohibited from playing on the site.

The banned countries listed are Israel, Cyprus, Philippines, Italy, Estonia, Bulgaria, the USA and its territories, Hong Kong, Antigua and Barbuda, the Netherlands Antilles and Singapore.

Technically, a lot more than eleven countries are actually banned.

Territories of the USA include Puerto Rico, the American Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam.

The Netherlands Antilles includes Curacao, St. Maarten and several other Caribbean island nations.

No explanation is given on the website why certain countries’ residents are banned, but it’s almost certainly for legal reasons.

Residents of the USA, for example, are banned from many other online poker rooms because the USA enacted anti-online gambling legislation in 2006.

Other countries also have similar laws against gambling via the Internet.

The Dirty Stack Poker ban only affects poker players who want to play for real money.

Residents of any country may play at the site using play money.

The new online poker room, which offers a variety of tournaments, promotions and bonuses, opened last month.

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