Free Republic

Online poker players in the United States will be able to withdraw money from accounts associated with two Internet poker companies recently indicted for bank fraud and money laundering, federal authorities said Wednesday. The U.S. government has agreed to allow PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, two of the three largest Internet poker companies, to resume use of domain names that had been shut down last week. Under the “domain name use agreements“ the companies will be able to reactivate pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com to “facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. players’ funds held in account with the companies.“ The agreement also allows...

A federal grand jury in Manhattan is investigating one of the largest internet poker sites serving US gamblers and could bring indictments against some of the world's best known professional players, according to people familiar with the case and a subpoena issued to a witness this week. The probe is aimed at Full Tilt Poker and individuals including Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer, champion gamblers who are among those accused of controlling the company in a Los Angeles civil lawsuit filed last year. Online gambling is illegal in the US and according to the subpoena the investigation is examining whether...