Feds Go 'All In' Against Online Poker Sites

[YosemiteSam]

In a dramatic move sure to send shockwaves through the surging Internet poker world, U.S. officials shut down and seized the domain names for the three largest U.S. online poker companies on Friday.

The indictment unsealed Friday alleges industry leaders PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker continued to operate their businesses inside the U.S. in the face of new laws

The takedown marks the first widespread charges targeting Internet poker by federal officials and is likely to impact billions of dollars of gaming revenue. The indictment seeks at least $3 billion in civil money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the poker companies and defendants.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, unsealed an indictment Friday afternoon charging 11 defendants, including the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses.

At the same time, the U.S. seized five Internet domain names used to host the poker games and filed a civil money laundering and a civil complaint against the companies, their assets and the assets of several of their payment processors. Restraining orders were also issued against more than 75 bank accounts used by the poker companies and their payment processes.

Complete Story

 

[urface59]

lame.

 

[big dog cowboy]

They are NOT kidding...........

 

[bbgun]

Jeez. Online poker, pirated gameday streams, cockfighting, etc. Where will it end?

 

[Teren_Kanan]

Sometimes I really hate this country and some of our absurdities.

:bang2:

 

[kmp77]

Well, they've solved every other crime in this country, they had to do something with their time I guess. There is plenty of stuff they could be investing their time with....sometimes the priorities with our gov is way out of whack.

 

[lane]

Sometimes I really hate this country and some of our absurdities.

:bang2:

i play poker at pokerstars every night.

it's one of my ways of unwinding after work.

i've won hundreds of dollars and lost hundreds of dollars, but i love playing.

in the words of robin williams from The Survivors

"The only thing worse than lawbreakers is lawmakers..."

 

[Duane]

I don't want to turn this too political but why not just work with them and collect taxes? Seems like a win/win situation to me.

 

[Cowboy Brian]

Don't know why this is a high priority for law enforcement agencies.

 

[Doomsday]

Who is Big Brother protecting us or casinos who lose money to internet gambling every year? Either way it is ridiculous.

 

[theogt]

Who is Big Brother protecting us or casinos who lose money to internet gambling every year? Either way it is ridiculous.

Ding, ding, ding.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Don't know why this is a high priority for law enforcement agencies.

Untaxed income.

 

[Baileyneverfailey]

It's called tax fraud, and they should go after it. We already have 300 billion dollars a year of tax gap because we don't use enough money to let the IRS do its job. We bring in $10 in tax revenue for every dollar spent letting auditors do their jobs.

I know nobody likes the tax man, but you obey the law, and if you're knowingly defrauding the IRS, you deserve to be audited.

 

[tupperware]

If this means I don't have to see another lame commercial with some poker pro looking at me all serious then I'm all for it.

Next up, car commercials.

 

[yimyammer]

Sometimes I really hate this country and some of our absurdities.

:bang2:

ditto, its a glorified money grab on par with the tactics used by the mob, but instead of hitmen and guns, they use the law and attornies.

Its a freaking joke! I wonder what this country is going to look like when we finally have to pay the piper for what our legislators have done.

 

[yimyammer]

It's called tax fraud, and they should go after it. We already have 300 billion dollars a year of tax gap because we don't use enough money to let the IRS do its job. We bring in $10 in tax revenue for every dollar spent letting auditors do their jobs.

I know nobody likes the tax man, but you obey the law, and if you're knowingly defrauding the IRS, you deserve to be audited.

If the stupid government hadn't basically made it a crime when they passed the UIGEA by attaching it to the port security bill (lead by that scumbag Bill Frist who snuck it on the port bill at midnight right before the vote after promising to make it an attachment free bill), they could have been collecting taxes for years. Poker players have been trying to get it legalized, regulated and taxed for years.

 

[Baileyneverfailey]

If that's true, that's some bull****, but that wouldn't be a surprise.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Untaxed income.

...and extreme cheating.

 

[rkell87]

well time for me to set up my own poker site, millions of americans are now going to be looking for antoher website to play poker on, why not mine lol

 

[yimyammer]

If that's true, that's some bull****, but that wouldn't be a surprise.

If you're referring to my comment about the UIGEA, this video does a nice job explaining what happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYvgXRKXgN0

Also, remember the climate after 911 and that no politician in his right mind would have voted against a bill designed to protect our ports by allowing officials to search for nuclear weapons. Attaching the UIGEA (without any time for debate or review by the senate) to the Port bill was a guarantee that it would be passed. BTW, the port bill was passed by a vote of 98-0 (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/L...ote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00249)

If the government was consistent and didn't offer the lottery (the worst gamble on the planet) and take a cut from all kinds of other gambling activities, then I could at least give them credit for being consistent, but in the case of online poker they are being very hypocritical and I really don't understand the need to kill this industry and the myriad of businesses and individauls that make a living and derive enjoyment from a harmless game.

I always get in trouble when I try to use logic and common sense when it comes to our government, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the recent turn of events.