U.S. Government Moves To Shut Down World’s Biggest Online Poker Sites sippz: this is extremely bad for the players but, somebody within the industry better think of something fast to recoup the loss from this financial hit. DOJ indicts founders of top US online poker sites By Alistair Barr SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Friday against the founders of the three largest internet poker companies operating in the U.S. The indictment charges eleven defendants, including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses, according to Federal authorities in New York. Restraining orders were issued against more than 75 bank accounts used by the poker companies and their payment processors, while five Internet domain names used by the companies to host poker games were seized, federal authorities added in a statement. sippz: i hope they don't find all that money hidden in the cayman islands or else it's gonna be bad.  StuckInTheSixties: If you go to one of those websites (www dot _____ dot com) you'll see a very intimidating page put up by the FBI and the Department of Justice stating: This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrent in Rem obtained by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York ...  ... Violations of these laws carry criminal penalties of up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 ... sippz: just wait until the feds start cracking down on gaming portals. because you know thats coming at some point in the future. sippz: their websites that have affiliate deals cut with sportsbooks, poker and casino sites. although, i heard some rumors that some are not safe to post at due to the scammer factor. sippz: i see the rumors are already out there about fulltilt closing up shop after bailing out on some tourney. i just hope it doesn't turn into another BOS ending because, i remember how they all got screwed over in that mess.  Varren: For a government of a country that boasts so much about freedom, they sure are cracking down on everything and telling people what they can and can't do. It's funny, that I went to the fbi website and in the section under 'fun and games' for kids, they have some pretty graphic pictures of people in full swat gear and cradling guns. Seriously, like no 6 year old would have nightmares over THAT.  chronology: Varren. You forget Americans have very different attitudes to gambling according to which State you are in. Americans also have high standards of Gaming Regulation. The idea of people gambling on Web Sites based in a Third World Backyard will probably give any U.S. Official nightmares about accountability and fair conduct. Also, Americans regulate Gambling by State Law for the most part, so a person in one State, Gambling on Line in another part of the World is in a Legal Grey Area in some cases.  Morsy: It is highly likely that when visiting a gambling site you end up with a virus attack or spammed to death so if there are stricter laws great...this I know because of a friends love of gambling...also his personal details went just about everywhere... sippz: well i'm not going to confirm any of that or deny it either Morsy. now what i will tell you is this much though. its the people who originally release that personal info publicly that get the international freedom whammy on them and trust me nobody wants that especially all those people i speak of. StuckInTheSixties: Morsy says: "It is highly likely that when visiting a gambling site you end up with a virus attack or spammed to death" Spammed as a result, perhaps. But gambling sites obviously depend on their customers being confident that they won't be subjected to having their computers attacked. There's a lot of money involved, and it's to the the benefit of gambling sites to protect themselves and their customers for exactly the same reason as Amazon or ebay. So I would assume that they protect their site, and thus, protect their customers, from hackers, as much as any other commercial website.  Geoff: Having had some professional contact with the sort of people that run some of these online gambling services, I can say that I'm not surprised that the US Government wants to take action. I'm not tarring all of them with the same brush, but there are 'legitimate' sites that are run by complete crooks. The rules governing gambling in Nevada are worthy of emulation worldwide. In fact the rules governing slot machines in Las Vegas should be applied to voting machines right across the USA. Geoff: lol, Karma. My point was that there is a whole raft of laws governing how slot machines are made, how they are tested for fairness, and how people can complain if they're suspicious of one. But voting machines in the US undergo none of the same rigorous testing, they don't even have to be examined by and independent third party. //Edit - I put more info on this topic into my blog: http://www.wireclub.com/Blogs/Th0r_88/290227 sippz: StuckInTheSixties: gambling sites obviously depend on their customers being confident that they won't be subjected to having their computers attacked. There's a lot of money involved, and it's to the the benefit of gambling sites to protect themselves and their customers for exactly the same reason as Amazon or ebay. So I would assume that they protect their site, and thus, protect their customers, from hackers, as much as any other commercial website. I'm not going to get into details at all nor am I going to say anything of much importance at all because no rat/whistle-blower but, i will say this much... It happens on both sides of the fence. You have to remember both sides (players and businesses) are trying to cheat each other over something or other daily, so combating the problem does leave casualties that are not directly involved in the line of fire. Morsy: I agree Sits that is what should happen with reputable sites but out of curiousity I visited some and immediately my computer protection goes haywire with warnings. Not all of course. sippz: Not good for the players and rumor has it the US authorities are going in for the kill down in CR looking for some people. This is gonna get really messy now Indicted poker websites bound for bankruptcy Collapse of Absolute Poker and UB sites means US players may lose deposits 5/4/2011 One of three online poker companies named last month in a federal indictment will be forced to enter bankruptcy, leaving American card players with money on deposit with the Absolute and UB poker sites at least temporarily empty handed Madeira Fjord of Norway, which represents shareholders in the poker websites’ parent company, Blanca Gaming of Antigua, said in an email to shareholders this week that it planned to file for bankruptcy protection in Norway after being informed that the latter company had "no cash on hand and no prospects for any cash flow for the foreseeable future" “Most importantly, Blanca Gaming has provided notice … that it is currently unable to make any payments toward its debt obligations,” it said. “Additionally, Blanca has further advised that there will be no future payments” Meantime, a source in Costa Rica, where Absolute Poker and UB (formerly Ultimate Bet) have their operations center, told msnbc.com that more than 300 customer support and marketing employees – approximately 95 percent of the staff — had been laid off Blanca Gaming could not be reached for comment Wednesday Absolute Poker and two of its founders — Scott Tom and Brent Beckley — were named in an April 15 indictment by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York along with two other popular poker sites — Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker. UB was not directly named in the indictment, but it has common ownership and shares operations with Absolute Poker through parent company, the Cereus Network, which is in turn owned by Blanca Gaming The indictment alleges that the sites committed bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses by “tricking” US banks into processing online gambling transactions, a violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The indictment seeks at least $3 billion in penalties and forfeiture The government also seized five Internet domain names used by the companies, but later relinquished control of those owned by Poker Stars and Full Tilt to facilitate repayment of US players’ deposits. The former has begun repaying money on deposit to US poker players while the latter has said it is making arrangements to do so The U.S. Attorney’s Office said it was willing to make a similar deal with Absolute Poker and UB, but no agreement was forthcoming. Nor have the sites been honoring withdrawal requests from non-U.S. players, according to “Fonzi,” who runs the Holdem Poker Chat, an affiliate marketing website that first reported on the bankruptcy announcement. “The problem is they haven’t paid anyone outside the US,” he said. “You are allowed to request $250 a week — request — but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get it” Fonzi, who spoke to msnbc.com on condition that he not be identified by his real name, said he expects that the bankruptcy means that players will never receive the money they deposited with Absolute Poker and UB. “I already consider my money gone,” he said, adding that he had a “few hundred dollars” on deposit with the sites Absolute Poker, which was founded in by four fraternity brothers at the University of Montana in 2002, grew to become one of the top poker sites for American card players when it refused to stop accepting bets from U.S. players following passage of the UIGEA. But a cheating scandal in 2007 that the company blamed on a rogue insider shook the faith of many players, leading to erosion of its market share Management of the company, which merged with UB sometime in the mid-2000s, also has been involved in a running battle with shareholders over what many considered runaway spending. In 2009, for example, sippz: another processor got busted. while i truly feel sorry for the players I'm actually very happy because, it means the value of my latest and greatest concept just doubled and possibly tripled across the board including the asking price. Have U.S. Online Gamblers Run out of Payment Options? May 19, 2011 If you live in the United States and enjoy gambling online and have been trying to stay optimistic about the future of your right to gamble from home this latest piece of news may be your final ‘last straw’. Word has been filtering out from gambling forums and news agencies that the one ‘solid’ payment processor that millions of online gamblers depend on as their faithful payment option has now been shut down for an undetermined amount of time to US players. Quicktender [also known as UseMyWallet] has stopped all processing and payments to US players and Affiliates with hundred of thousands of dollars hanging in cyber limbo. Thousands of online gamblers requested withdrawals this past week and all seemed fine until players one by one started reporting that it was taking an unusually long amount of time to receive their payouts. No word had been heard from Quicktender stating that there were any problems so players were left to talk amongst themselves and worry about the fate of their missing withdrawals. With the online climate the way it’s been for the past year in the US, it was totally expected that online gamblers would start to worry that once again the Federal Government was somehow behind their missing payments and finally yesterday their fears were confirmed. In a statement sent to all Quicktender users, the company confirmed that all payments have been stopped to US players. In a public statement Quicktender said it has been a reliable and efficient payment option for the gaming industry for several years but explains that they can not predict the vagaries of the US administration. The statement continues to say, “Over the past couple of weeks we have transmitted withdrawals initiated by Quicktender account holders to beneficiary bank accounts for US players, the money that was left in our account in Europe was only recently found to have been accumulating in our bank’s correspondent banking partners in the US and subsequently frozen. We suspect that these funds may have been a subject to a seizure order by the US Feds. We would stress to you that we do not have our own bank account in the US and all funds have left our European accounts.” Quicktender states that they had no idea that this was going on with the banking accounts until word came to them that players were complaining about their missing payments and that is when they decided to investigate to see if there was a problem. For this reason they have decided to suspend all future withdrawals until they get a better understanding of what is happening to the money that has been frozen. Quicktender says that their main concern is the account holder’s funds and that they are made safe until a solution is found and in the meantime the company is assessing its current exposure and how best to reintroduce withdrawals safely while bearing in mind that the US feds and their actions could impact the viability of this company.  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