U.S. PokerSites In the news Illegal/closed/banks/arrests

Posts: 3854 · Posted: 16.04.2011, 02:41

As of April 15th, 2011, American poker players can no longer play at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, or Ultimate Bet.
The online poker sites shut down service to all US residents around 4:00PM, after US Attorney, Preet Bharara (Manhattan), officially filed money laundering and fraud charges against the sitesâ€™ owners.

Early in the day, players began to complain that the poker sitesâ€™ URLs werenâ€™t working correctly. The normal content on pokerstars.com, fulltiltpoker.com, ub.com, and absolutepoker.com had been replaced by an FBI logo. Underneath the logo was an ominous block of text, warning players that the U.S. Government had seized the poker sitesâ€™ domain names and that the poker sites were shut down. These are the only US poker sites the FBI have seized.

This led many to speculate that the poker sites were pulling an elaborate late April Foolâ€™s prank. Some suggested that the sites must have been hacked, as poker rooms are no strangers to Denial of Service attacks. But this speculation proved to be misguided when the South New York District Attorneyâ€™s released a news wire, officially confirming that indictments are pending against the poker companies.

The indictment names 11 defendants: Isai Scheinberg, Raymond Bitar, Scott Tom (of Absolute Poker fame), Brent Beckley, Nelson Burtnick, Paul Tate, Ryan Lang, Bradley Franzen, Ira Rubin, Chad Elie, and John Campos. Among the charges laid against the group are â€œconspiracy to violate unlawful internet gambling enforcement actâ€ and â€œconspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud.â€ Maximum penalties for the former charge are 30 years in prison plus a fine of $1,000,000, or twice the gross gain and loss from the laundering operation.

The Manhattan District Attorney claims that the poker sites paid payment processors to act as middlemen between the gambling sites and U.S. banks. These payment processors â€” including four of the defendants â€” would set up seemingly legitimate shell companies on behalf of the gambling sites in order to open bank accounts. If that failed, some payment processors would offer to â€˜investâ€™ in fledgling local banks, in exchange for the bankâ€™s facilitating gambling transactions. The poker sites would thus process deposits and withdrawals from American players via these shell companies and under-the-radar banks.

The Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI, Janice K. Fedarcyk, claims that the defendants â€œtried to stack the deck. They lied to banks about the true nature of their business.â€ Itâ€™s on the back of these claims that, it seems, the house of cards must now fall.

As a result of this, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Cereus (AP/UB) have banned Americans from sitting in at real money tables. As of right now, Americans can still open the sitesâ€™ poker software and click around, however U.S. resident attempting to sit in at a table will be met with a â€œrestricted due to Government regulationsâ€ popup, and will immediately be removed from the game.

The status of cashouts is unclear at all four poker sites. Some players have reported successful bank wire transfers, others have repeatedly had cashout attempts declined, and others still have been frozen entirely out of the Full Tilt cashier window. Since over 75 â€œpayment processorsâ€ have been shut down by the DOJ since the UIGEA came into play, it is unlikely that the sites will be able to legitimately process payments to U.S. players.

Posts: 1263 · Posted: 16.04.2011, 10:04

Thanks, just got wind of this a bit earlier. Keep us updated if you have the time.

Posts: 3854 · Posted: 16.04.2011, 16:10

THis is really bad news Crushers- This can possibly lead to more places being investigated because of charges to bank processors being re-worded to MISLEAD banks, trying to allow US gamblers to play.
I know several allowing us to deposit, that charges on my account, reflect strange names, uneven amounts like $19.16 & 5.84, so to total the $25, but not to arouse suspicion. I am happy to let them, so I can play.

WHAT IS REALLY SAD IS, IF THEY WILL JUST PASS THE LAW TO ALLOW US TO DO WHAT WE WANT WITH OUR MONEY,
THEY COULD TAX IT HERE IN THE USA,
AND START TO HELP DIG US OUT OF THE ECONOMIC DOWNWARD SPIRAL PRES. BUSH DUG US INTO!
INSTEAD, WE KEEP GETTING THESE CROOKED, UNINSURED, 3RD-WORLD COUNTRIES, AKA MIDDLE-MAN ALOT RICHER, AND OUR TAXES ARE SPENT ON THESE INVESTIGATION TACTICS!
HINDERING OUR SUPPOSED FREE WILL CHOICES, TAKING AWAY FROM OUR FUTURE; CUTTING IN WHAT SHOULD BE PRIORITY 1 IN AMERICAN FUTURE GENERATIONS; EDUCATION.

HARD TO LOOK FORWARD TO A LOSING FIGHT AGAINST THOSE WHO CONTINUE SHOWING THEY ARE STUPID AS CAN BE!!!

Posts: 2954 · Posted: 16.04.2011, 20:23

I feel sorry for the ones who don't get paid.I lost $420 in EWalletExpress when they got closed down.I wish our government would listen to playincrush.:l

Posts: 2993 · Posted: 16.04.2011, 22:32

Patti - I agree 100%!! I couldn't have expressed my thoughts any better! Mad

It seems like there should be something we could do to change it. That is part of what is so depressing about it to me.......I feel so powerless..... Sad

Posts: 1704 · Posted: 17.04.2011, 22:05

so true, must be hard being american and not being able to gamble, if i sttayed over there i would never deposit anywhere even tho it woul be hard and id miss my fix, but would rather that than be playing somewhere and win then find out as i withdraw that im getting no money as the site is stopping dealing with americans, i know we all love a gamble but its got to the stage where any site that still takes usa players is very unstable as they could stop or shut down at any time

U.S. PokerSites *In the news* Illegal/closed/banks/arrests

U.S. PokerSites In the news Illegal/closed/banks/arrests