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Major online poker sites shut down, charged with money laundering

Kandahar

Kandahar

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Federal prosecutors have charged some of the biggest names in online poker with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling, the US Justice Department announced on Friday. Those behind PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker have had their domains seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and 76 bank accounts owned by the companies have been temporarily shut down via restraining orders.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ites-seized-charged-with-money-laundering.ars
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:shock:
Have I mentioned lately how much I loathe Eric Holder?
 
To play devils advocate... These companies know federal law and are not stupid... :coffeepap
 
Jetboogieman said:
To play devils advocate... These companies know federal law and are not stupid... :coffeepap
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The only reason it's illegal in the first place is because Harry Reid wanted people to go to Vegas instead of playing online. And the sites are shut down not just for the US, but worldwide. I don't know what gives the US government the right to seize domains of UK-based companies for violating US law, without any sort of due process whatsoever.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
Wasn't the law banning them in one of the financial regulation bills?
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It's been illegal since 2006, so I'm not sure.

Harry Guerrilla said:
How do you feel about the close down of the Hollywood futures exchange?
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Equally stupid. Doesn't the government have more important things to worry about?
 
Kandahar said:
It's been illegal since 2006, so I'm not sure.

Equally stupid. Doesn't the government have more important things to worry about?
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The latter pissed me off bad, I was planning on putting some money into it.
I wonder if Intrade is gonna face the same problem in the near future to?
 
Full Tilt Poker isn't allowing cash-outs now, although they claim my money is "100% safe." By seizing their domain, the US government is holding the deposits of everyone hostage, including people who aren't living in the US and are playing poker on this website which is not based in the US. Stay classy, DOJ.
 
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Kandahar said:
:shock:
Have I mentioned lately how much I loathe Eric Holder?
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I am with you on that!

I read the article to my father who is a Absolute Poker player. He immediately logged in and everything seems to be working as usual. So if the article is true they have not managed to shut them down completely.
 
Kandahar said:
:shock:
Have I mentioned lately how much I loathe Eric Holder?
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This is pathetic. How much time and money has the DOJ spent on busting up online poker? Too much! It's amazing how much money could have been saved if online poker was simply made legal again. Not to mention the fact that the laws allegedly broken were a result of online gaming being made illegal. Illegal Online gaming is the prohibition of our time.
 
Baralis said:
I am with you on that!

I read the article to my father who is a Absolute Poker player. He immediately logged in and everything seems to be working as usual. So if the article is true they have not managed to shut them down completely.
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He should withdraw everything in his account right now, if he still can. Gambling Compliance is reporting that all affected websites will be shut down completely within 48 hours.
 
I don't gamble, but this is wrong.. We supposed to have a free market. Bullchit!


Tim-
 
Kandahar said:
Full Tilt Poker isn't allowing cash-outs now, although they claim my money is "100% safe." By seizing their domain, the US government is holding the deposits of everyone hostage, including people who aren't living in the US and are playing poker on this website which is not based in the US. Stay classy, DOJ.
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Its dumb but almost all states have a state lottery with worse odds than online poker, couple that with the illegal video poker machines that offer terrible odds that are all over this place.
 
Did people miss the "money laundering" part of this?
 
Deuce said:
Did people miss the "money laundering" part of this?
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The "money laundering" is a RESULT of the prohibition on online gambling. If it wasn't illegal, there would be no need for any intermediate step between one's bank account and one's poker account.

And again I'd like to point out that the US government is holding EVERYONE'S deposits hostage...including people who don't live in the US and don't play poker on a US-based website.
 
I am torn on the issue. On one hand I am totally against the ban of online gambling in the US. On the other hand I am happy that these particular sites have been shut down. They are not honest businesses and manipulate the game. If they would just make it legal so that they would be required to follow our current gaming laws it would make everything so much better.
 
Kandahar said:
The "money laundering" is a RESULT of the prohibition on online gambling. If it wasn't illegal, there would be no need for any intermediate step between one's bank account and one's poker account.

And again I'd like to point out that the US government is holding EVERYONE'S deposits hostage...including people who don't live in the US and don't play poker on a US-based website.
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Oh, so it's ok to try to circumvent the law if you happen to think it's a bad one?
 
Baralis said:
I am torn on the issue. On one hand I am totally against the ban of online gambling in the US. On the other hand I am happy that these particular sites have been shut down. They are not honest businesses and manipulate the game. If they would just make it legal so that they would be required to follow our current gaming laws it would make everything so much better.
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They are honest businesses, aside from online gambling being illegal in the US. I've never had any dealings with Full Tilt or Poker Stars to suggest otherwise.
 
Deuce said:
Oh, so it's ok to try to circumvent the law if you happen to think it's a bad one?
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Yes. I'm a fan of civil disobedience against stupid laws. The civil libertarian in me opposes this law as being an intrusion into private matters that don't affect the government in any way whatsoever. And the good citizen in me opposes this law because when the government passes moronic laws that are routinely ignored by a large segment of the population, it degrades respect for the law in general.
 
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Deuce said:
Oh, so it's ok to try to circumvent the law if you happen to think it's a bad one?
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It depends on how you define "ok". And no, I'm not Bill Clinton.

But some laws go against the common good, which I believe this law does. The owners of these sites got caught breaking the law, and I agree they should be tried in a court of law. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the law is a bad law and should be changed. So, in my view, breaking this law on their part was indeed "ok". I just hope that this lastest move by the DOJ will cause voters to call your congressman and senators and let them know that this law is political and ill-advised and should be repealed.
 
Kandahar said:
They are honest businesses, aside from online gambling being illegal in the US. I've never had any dealings with Full Tilt or Poker Stars to suggest otherwise.
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I can asure you that absolute poker is not. I am 100% convinced they have predetemined hands and not naturally random cards. If you do not believe this I ask you to keep a record of the hands and what wins and you will find mathmaticly a huge discrepentcy in "naturally" occuring and those you will see in the game. Google it and you will find cases in which all the major sites have been busted for using in house players that have access to these predetermined hands and play against the public increasing house winnings.
 
Baralis said:
I can asure you that absolute poker is not. I am 100% convinced they have predetemined hands and not naturally random cards. If you do not believe this I ask you to keep a record of the hands and what wins and you will find mathmaticly a huge discrepentcy in "naturally" occuring and those you will see in the game. Google it and you will find cases in which all the major sites have been busted for using in house players that have access to these predetermined hands and play against the public increasing house winnings.
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I've never played on Absolute Poker so I can't really comment. But I've played over 75,000 hands on Full Tilt Poker and about 10,000 on Poker Stars, and they've given me the cards that one would expect with a random distribution, according to Poker Tracker.
 
I am also a FTP and Stars player, and have been for years. I started my rolls by selling 1million play money chips for $10. I have run that up to a 4 figure roll. Now that money is completely in question.

Ah well...

As to the online sites being rigged... it has been argued endlesly on line. I am 100% convinced the reputable sites deal cards as randomly as imaginable. 10s of millions of hand histories have been colloected over years and the distribution is perfectly normal.

Bottom line is people who think the game is rigged are just losers. Sorry.

Hopefully legislation to legalize online poker is the next step after this debacle.

Oh, and I sure hope I can get my monies eventually. ;)
 
cAPSLOCK said:
I am also a FTP and Stars player, and have been for years. I started my rolls by selling 1million play money chips for $10. I have run that up to a 4 figure roll. Now that money is completely in question.

Ah well...

As to the online sites being rigged... it has been argued endlesly on line. I am 100% convinced the reputable sites deal cards as randomly as imaginable. 10s of millions of hand histories have been colloected over years and the distribution is perfectly normal.

Bottom line is people who think the game is rigged are just losers. Sorry.

Hopefully legislation to legalize online poker is the next step after this debacle.

Oh, and I sure hope I can get my monies eventually. ;)
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To be honest, I am just to lazy and uncaring at this point to prove myself. I stopped playing online poker years ago. If you enjoy playing thats all that really matters I suppose.
 
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