Posted on 04/15/2011 1:26:07 PM PDT by Beaten Valve
The founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted by the FBI on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to the thriving industry.
Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the executives were arrested on Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others.
Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. By Friday afternoon Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”
The online gambling industry has taken off over the last decade, drawing an estimated 15 million Americans to bet online.
In 2006 Congress passed a law prohibiting online gambling. Most of the leading sites found ways to work around the law using foreign banks, but prosecutors allege that in doing so they broke the law.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Wow, and right after online gambling is made legal in Washington DC? Absolutely chilling.
Bet they aren’t late on BO’s protection money ever again.
I was just on PokerStars, I was on the play money tables so I dont know about the real money side.
No more hands will be dealt until the Democrats get cut in on the pot
If Washington don’t get its cut, nobody takes a cut.
Land of the free, my ass.
I was on PokerStars earlier, actually playing in several Sit ‘n Go Cash Tournaments. When I crashed out of one, I attempted to register in another and was blocked — You are not allowed to play cash games in your region. All subsequent attempts are similarly blocked for the past several hours.
I can see PokerStars.NET and .COM in my browser, as of NOW, but Cash Game Play on-line seems to be ‘broken’.
I’m willing to bet this harassment will be circumvented easily in short order. Don’t see how they can embargo this entire industry for too long. Besides, the all rest of the world is apparently unaffected.
After all, this is just some crude ‘arm twisting’ intended to yield a piece of the action to a chronically revenue-starved Treasury. They want the money, NOT to stop the action.
It seems obvious, to me, that all that is required to ‘resolve’ this is to ‘legalize’ the action, a la Las Vegas, and tap the till via a 1099 issued by the licensed operator when the player is paid off, just as happens now ‘on the ground’.
One Man’s Opinion
21stCenturion
I just doubled down and won!! When will I get my money??
I don’t know about all sites, but at some you aren’t playing against a computer. You are playing against other players. For instance, you might join a 9 player tournament. Suppose that this tournament each player puts up $6.50 to enter. The fifty cents represents what the house gets. Thus, the house gets $4.50 for the tournament. The six dollars goes into a pool of 54 dollars. 27 dollars goes to first place, about 18 dollars goes to second place, and 9 dollars goes to third place. The house could care less who wins, because the house has already won.
The defendants include Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of PokerStars, Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtnick of Full Tilt Poker, and Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker. Bank accounts in 14 countries have been seized. The Justice Department is seeking to recover several billion dollars in payments: “The Indictment and Civil Complaint seek at least $3 billion in civil money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the Poker Companies and the defendants.”
end snip
http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/u-s-department-of-justice-seizes-major-online-poker-sites-18779/
Exactly! One would think the FBI would have bigger problems to solve.
Waco was started over $200 tax on firearms.....
But then the Whiskey Rebellion was over excessive taxation.Pretty good indication of the eventual direction of the government ,and just how much even the best politicians value their power over their fine words of freedom.
Remember how gambling was EVIL until all the states started lotteries of their own?
maybe there are some smart hackers out there who can shut down the state lottery’s and other government scams.
Not only can I not play on pokerstars I can’t cash out. I’ve got just over 1000 dollars in the account.
Nothing is more important to the federal government than control.
There are rumors on 2+2 that PS will be closed within 24 hrs.
Is there a way for you to get your money out?
I agree with your assessment. It's like the feds have become the mafia. They want a slice of everything.
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