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psusnoop
04-16-2011, 09:37 AM
3 of the Largest Online Poker Websites Have Been Shut down.*

The owners and founders of the three largest online gambling sites in the*United States*have been indicted and charged with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses.*

New York*prosecutors say they've issued restraining orders against more than 75 bank accounts in 14 countries used by the poker companies, which they say will interrupt the illegal flow of billions of dollars, according to*The Associated Press.*

Eleven individuals were charged over their involvement running PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker for violating the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.*

The*Justice Department*has filed a civil complaint for money laundering that seeks $3 billion being held by the companies.*

According to a federal indictment, the owners of the companies sought ways to get around restrictions placed on U.S. banks that prohibited them from handling financial transactions connected to online gambling.*

"Some of the defendants found banks willing to flout the law for a fee," Janice Fedarcyk, the assistant director in charge of the*FBI's New York Field Office, said in a prepared statement. "The defendants bet the house that they could continue their scheme, and they lost."

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents also have obtained a district court order to block 76 bank accounts and five Internet domain names associated with the poker websites.*

"This is a potentially game-changing moment for the online poker industry, as PokerStars and Full Tilt are, by quite some distance, the two largest operators not just in the U.S., but globally," James Kilsby, Americas editor with the business intelligence service GamblingCompliance, told*ABC News.

"Previous DOJ enforcement efforts have honed in on sports betting operators and payment companies," Kilsby said. "Meanwhile, some of the poker operators themselves have claimed that U.S. gambling laws do not apply to poker. It seems clear from today's action that the Justice Department doesn't agree."*

Isai Scheinberg and [NAME REDACTED PER REQUEST] of PokerStars, Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker, and Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick of Full Tilt Poker, the indictment claims, engaged in a scheme "to deceive United States banks and financial institutions into ...*
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/internet-gambling-companies-indicted-fraud-money-laundering/story?id=13389751*
Shared using News360 for the iPhone. Learn more at*http://www.news360app.com


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psusnoop
04-16-2011, 04:13 PM
I wish they would just regulate this stuff, the amount of money our government is/was losing out on. I duly expect thee books to be next.

morsdraconis
04-16-2011, 04:59 PM
Definitely a pretty big thing. People were winning some pretty big money off of online poker and not having to pay taxes on it at all (at least, to my understanding) nevermind the companies raking in the dough.

psusnoop
04-16-2011, 05:34 PM
I think a small percentage were paying taxes on it but to think of the amount of revenue the IRS has missed out on is crazy. I have backed away from playing as much after the numerous findings about cheating and all (like absolute and ultimate bet). I never liked that the sites allowed poker software to track tendencies for you instead if making players learn and take notes for themselves.

I do think the sports books are next up and this is going to get messy with all the players bankrolls locked up pending hearings.

JeffHCross
04-17-2011, 01:21 PM
Funny enough, I saw a half-dozen ads for PokerStars last night alone. Oops.

psusnoop
04-17-2011, 01:41 PM
Funny enough, I saw a half-dozen ads for PokerStars last night alone. Oops.

Lol they might want to try and save some of that money. Hahaha

JBHuskers
04-17-2011, 02:08 PM
I can't re-download Poker Stars right now, but I do have it on my laptop.

psusnoop
04-17-2011, 07:11 PM
Yea you can maybe log in but you will not be allowed to sit on a real money table.

JBHuskers
04-17-2011, 11:37 PM
Yeah I couldn't download a version that had a cashier button but I got on from my laptop and cashed out.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

psusnoop
04-18-2011, 06:57 AM
It is my understanding that your cashout will not process till things get cleared up. Think back to the "Netteller" issues that happened a couple of years back and how long we all had to wait to get our funds back. Same thing should happen here. But with the DOJ having their bank funds seized right now, pokerstars will not be able to handle the sheer amount of cashouts that they have/will be hammered with over the next day or two.

psuexv
04-18-2011, 08:42 AM
Ah man, that Netteller thing was a mess. I think I only have a couple of dollars left in my account, I might just call it a day.

JBHuskers
04-18-2011, 02:16 PM
Good interview on CNBC by Darren Rovell who is interviewing poker agent Brian Balsbaugh (http://www.cnbc.com/id/42649117)


Darren: How will this affect the World Series of Poker?

Balsbaugh: I think that the World Series of Poker main event the attendance numbers will go down from approximately 8,000 to right around 2,500. Sixty percent of the field has historically been put in through these online poker sites, which are no longer operating in the United States, so clearly right off the top we’ll have a big deduction there. And the poker economy is very dependent on money transferring hands and as this money has left the US market so are a lot of these opportunities. So I think the field is going to decrease dramatically.




There is a huge demand for it and hopefully Congress will legalize and regulate online poker in the United States. So I see it as one step back for potentially two steps forward in a more burgeoning online market.

psusnoop
04-18-2011, 05:23 PM
Let's hope so!

oweb26
04-18-2011, 11:05 PM
Yeah my 10.00 for the home games is now officially stuck in la la land.

psusnoop
04-19-2011, 06:47 AM
Lol oweb, atleast someone is using it! Hahaha

JBHuskers
04-19-2011, 09:22 AM
You can still cash it out...you will still get it.

oweb26
04-19-2011, 10:05 AM
actually no I cant you have to have a min of 35.00 to cash out and I cant spend it soo......stuck in la la land.

JBHuskers
04-19-2011, 10:06 AM
actually no I cant you have to have a min of 35.00 to cash out and I cant spend it soo......stuck in la la land.

Oh...that's lame. I thankfully won a couple tourneys last month and had a hair over $100.

JDFlakes
04-19-2011, 12:27 PM
I suspect that no active site will take any American players. Some of the European sites refused to take registrations from Americans. I tried most all of them over the years and ended up playing at Carbon Poker, which I believe is based in Australia.

psusnoop
04-19-2011, 12:59 PM
I've got an account at Carbon Poker as well, haven't played there that much but I've messed around there.

JBHuskers
04-19-2011, 01:27 PM
I suspect that no active site will take any American players. Some of the European sites refused to take registrations from Americans. I tried most all of them over the years and ended up playing at Carbon Poker, which I believe is based in Australia.

I used to play 100% at Pacific Poker and made a good deal of money there .... umtil four or five years ago when they shut off US customers. I'm all about Congress reform...

psuexv
04-19-2011, 01:32 PM
Yeah Golden Palace Poker used to be awesome. It had the best interface and experience I've played on. I remember one year they helped by me a new TV, a Tivo, laptop, and the wife got a new set of dishes. :)

psusnoop
04-20-2011, 09:31 AM
Yeah Golden Palace Poker used to be awesome. It had the best interface and experience I've played on. I remember one year they helped by me a new TV, a Tivo, laptop, and the wife got a new set of dishes. :)

Oh boy where to start with GPP, man I miss that site. It damn near made me a fortune. I couldn't even begin to list everything but it did help with the house and everything you see inside. Still remember my biggest blunder ever on my Birthday (never play slightly intoxicating, atleast at the 150/300 FL tables). WOW that night still brings a tear to my eye.

JBHuskers
04-20-2011, 09:55 AM
Nothing really for us but:


FTP makes deal with US Attorney's office to regain fulltiltpoker.com. Agreement expressly allows for real money play outside the US....



FTP also states in the press release that it's an important first step towards US players getting $$ back, but still faces legal impediments

JBHuskers
04-20-2011, 10:57 AM
Two online poker domains reactivated (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/news/story?id=6395452)


NEW YORK -- Federal prosecutors say they expect Internet poker companies whose employees are being prosecuted to return money to players, and they're reactivating two domain names to make it easier for that to happen.

The government announced Wednesday that it has reached agreements with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. It will restore the companies' domain names so they can return money to U.S. players.

The companies were named in a civil money laundering and forfeiture complaint last week.

Authorities have announced criminal charges against 11 individuals, including employees of those companies and one other.

So far, three of the 11 have been arrested. All are free on bail.

In a statement regarding the case issued Tuesday, ESPN said: "We are aware of the indictment only through what has been announced publicly. For the immediate future, we are making efforts to remove related advertising and programming pending further review."

steelerfan
04-20-2011, 01:59 PM
Honestly, as much as I'd love the legalization of books, I can't fathom it being profitable if taxed. You'd likely have to push 70% wins to make any coin.

Fuck you, The Man!!!

psusnoop
04-20-2011, 03:04 PM
No I don't think it would be profitable for the players, I was talking it would be profitable for the Government to do so. I think your right, your EV would greatly decrease and make it very difficult to make any decent coin at the tables.

JBHuskers
04-20-2011, 03:19 PM
My withdrawal request was bounced back. So with the rush of people doing so, they're not allowing it yet. But soon.

oweb26
09-21-2011, 08:44 AM
I figured this was a good a place as any.

Sorry if you have money in the bank at this site......



NEW YORK -- An Internet poker company that was blocked from operating in the U.S. in the spring as part of an online gambling crackdown was "not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme," federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The popular Full Tilt Poker website illegally raided player accounts to fund operations and make lavish payments to its owners, Justice Department lawyers said in a revised civil lawsuit filed in New York.

Over four years, the company used $444 million in player money to pay board members, including well-known professional poker players Christopher Ferguson and Howard Lederer, investigators said.

The poker site had promised players that their accounts were protected and wouldn't be touched. But authorities say that, as of March, the company had only $60 million left in its bank accounts to cover the $390 million it owed to players. It routinely mingled player money with its own finances, and took cash from some customers to pay out winnings due to others, prosecutors said.

"Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "Not only did the firm orchestrate a massive fraud against the U.S. banking system, as previously alleged, Full Tilt also cheated and abused its own players to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars."

A lawyer for the site, Barry Boss, was traveling Tuesday and not immediately available for comment. The Associated Press could not immediately locate Ferguson, Lederer or their representatives for comment.

Federal authorities initially sued Full Tilt Poker in April as part of a broad crackdown on the most popular online poker sites in the U.S. They also filed criminal charges against the company's two top executives, Nelson Burtnick and Raymond Bitar.

Those charges are pending, and the men are still being sought by authorities. Previously, they have issued statements through a publicist condemning the charges as unfounded.

Executives at two other sites, PokerStars and Absolute Poker, also face charges and civil suits seeking millions of dollars in gambling proceeds.

U.S. lawmakers made it a crime to accept money in connection with unlawful gambling in 2006, but some big card-playing sites continued to operate anyway, saying their off-shore status or methods of processing payments put them outside the law's reach.

Many of the companies did business by having gamblers deposit money in special online accounts. Those accounts were then used to pay losses and receive winnings.

In its revised lawsuit against Full Tilt, Justice Department lawyers said that even though the company had assured players that those accounts "are segregated and held separately from our operating accounts," they were actually drained regularly for other purposes, including paying the company's owners and board members.

Bitar got $41 million and Lederer got $42 million, the lawsuit said. Ferguson was supposed to get $87.5 million, although he may have only received $25 million of that amount so far, federal prosecutors claimed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/20/full-tilt-poker-ponzi-scheme_n_972349.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl10|sec1_lnk3|97511

JBHuskers
09-21-2011, 08:58 AM
Saw that on ESPN last night....glad most of my money was tied up on Poker Stars. I think I only had a few bucks at Full Tilt.