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I’m surprised everyone is missing a very important fact in this case:
And John Campos, the vice chairman of the board and part owner of SunFirst Bank, was charged for his role in the process.
An American bank (located in Utah, where they don’t allow gambling) was laundering money, that’s the first reason the DOJ is on this, it’s another serious banking issue. Plus, with Harry Reid, Steve Wynn and Gary Loveman all talking about US federally regulated online poker also in the news this month, not a big surprise to see the enemies of Vegas getting busted.
The US Government likes to send messages. This message is that unlicensed poker is over and i suspect that congress will be creating a regulated poker regime and most states will opt-in over time.
I personally wondered how these places could manage to process US deposits and payouts, what bank was taking the risk. I had assumed some big banks were using the “skill game” argument to get regulators to back off. But it was old fashion, mis-classifying the charge, with the banks cooperation.
@alexpratt 227509 wrote:
Found a more in-depth version, really interesting Web king's life on the line | Courier Mail
Daniel is front page news here on our Sunday paper… we’re in the same city. Basically he stole a lot of money, rolled on the poker rooms when they asked for their money, and is trying to find every way possible not to go to jail.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/web-kings-life-on-the-line/story-fn6ck45n-1226039907165
“A FORMER Queensland internet king is believed to have been a key figure behind FBI action against three major gambling websites in the United States.”
“Federal authorities also froze approximately 76 bank accounts in 14 countries that contain proceeds from the alleged offenses” – for this to happen… someone had to know the location of the accounts, like the guy who does some of their processing.
Thanks Dom for posting that, another good summary of everything with links can be seen here PokerStars, Full Tilt Indictments Update | Online Poker News
Pretty shocking development, here’s my take on things so far:
1. It’s interesting that I haven’t seen any response from any of the poker rooms that have been affected. At least as far as I can see, there’s no issues with FTP or PS in terms of their main websites. This does seem to vary with users, and some have had all 3 showing the domain seized. UB on the other hand has been taken over. It’s possible that they’ve been less prepared. Up until a few minutes ago, the PS home page had a pokerstars.eu header, that’s been corrected. We’ll have to see what develops here as far as any further attempts by the DOJ to seize or take control of domains and websites. The domains in question were registered in the U.S. though, and in hindsight this may have been at least a minor mistake, although who knew way back then. They are hosted outside the U.S. of course, although the very fact that they could do what they’ve done so far is at least a bit disturbing.
2. It’s unlikely that PS and FTP are going to just cave in to this pressure, although it’s unclear what the upshot of all this will be. Once again, the fact that they haven’t spoken out leads me to believe that they are reviewing all their options here, including the decision to cease offering service to American residents. This may also include foregoing any further attempts to process cashouts by Americans. So far, I’ve read that some players have tried to play at Stars and received a message that real money poker is not being offered currently in your area. The very fact that PS would generate such a message is disturbing of course.
3. Even if these sites are ready to go to the mattresses so to speak, finding a workable means of distributing cashouts in the United States will likely be problematic, at least in the short term. Although a similar attempt to interfere with payment processing was made in the recent past, this time the DOJ is obviously more serious, and the gloves are really off now. According to the indictment, they are not only going after the processors this time, they are seeking the arrest and extradiction of the principals of these poker companies, and also are looking for assistance in seizing their assets held in other countries. If successful, this may bring them down completely. My own personal opinion is that these efforts will likely not succeed, but they could at least in theory, and depends entirely on the willingness of the authorities in other countries to co-operate along with the extent of the pressure that can be brought to bear upon them.
4. Players of course have been angered by this and there’s little doubt that many more will be inspired to become more involved in the political side of things. The PPA has issued a statement condemning the actions of the DOJ and FBI. They have little power though right now and certainly don’t have any sway with the people behind this strong arm move. Thus far though the focus has been on supporting regulation, instead of protesting against the UIGEA itself. Given this dramatic turn of events, this may change, although it won’t serve any real practical significance. Opposition to online gambling is far reaching of course, but as always, the tonic is to grease government coffers enough to make the matter more in their interests. At the federal level though at least, conservatives have enough power and sway to make such efforts very difficult, as we’ve seen and will probably continue to see for some time at least.
5. There has been a lot of efforts at the state level recently, as most of us are aware of. The issue that doesn’t get discussed much is what the DOJ’s response would be if and when one or more states attempt to regulate online gambling. States do retain the right to regulate gaming in their state, but there are some other issues at play here and a battle may indeed ensue, and up until now there’s been every indication that it might. Given how hell bent the DOJ now appears, this is even more of a concern.
6. I’ve read comments that this attack is based upon the fact that online poker is illegal in the U.S., but this is not the case. Within the message posted on the seized domains, it does refer to online gambling as being illegal. This is merely propoganda though, and they even go as far as to quote the Wire Act as applying to online gambling, despite a ruling in the U.S. courts to the contrary. However, the indictment in no way relies on this, at least not directly, and there’s no real question that the poker sites being named in it have taken actions in violation of the UIGEA regulations. It is that in which they are being charged. Other than a couple of men who have been arrested in connection with an alleged scheme to bribe a Utah bank to process poker cashouts, all the parties involved, as well as the companies, are outside of U.S. jursidiction. Given the unlikelihood of successful extradiction, the real upshot of all of this is the practicality of further successful payment processing methods.
7. With all this said, there is a lot to be concerned about here if you’re an American online poker player, or in our case, if you’re an affiliate promoting online poker. So the question that a lot of people are wondering about is, will things return to business as usual soon? It’s certainly possible in theory at least, although the big question is whether the poker sites will have the stomach to wage the war they will need to, or whether they have had enough and will choose to abandon the fight. Time will tell, and we’ll know more soon.
The PS client currently has a message announcing that in light of recent legal developments, it has suspended offering real money services to U.S. players. Whether this suspension is temporary or permanent hasn’t been made clear, although my feeling is that they may have finally had enough and are looking to exit the market. They also state that deposits are safe, although how they plan on getting cashouts to Americans is another matter and has not been addressed yet. They go on to say that it’s business as usual for players from other countries.
I tried logging into FTP but an update needs to be installed and I was unable to do so. This may just be a technical issue though.
Official FTP statement here Full Tilt Poker Statement – Pulling Out of US Market no more us is official for them
Sort of a statement from stars Statement from Pokerstars
Does anyone have any stats on what % of
Pokerstars
Fulltilt
UB / APis US based players.
@Rak 227524 wrote:
Does anyone have any stats on what % of
Pokerstars
Fulltilt
UB / APis US based players.
No idea but interesting indication from Online Poker News | PokerScout
Pokerstars down 37%
FTP down 13%
Cereus network down 23%
and party up 4%Do cake poker and doyles still accept US players?
or they will stop too after seeing what happened to FT and PS?@JasonD 227507 wrote:
America closed – Germany Closed –
Who will be the new big boy Poker businesses? Pzyche – Understand, React, Earn | The Day the Online Poker industry changed Part II
My view based on over 120 Million rows of Pzyche data as to who will be the new biggest operators
Party Gaming very shrewd very clever, mark my words.
@Betting-Forum.com 227526 wrote:
Do cake poker and doyles still accept US players?
or they will stop too after seeing what happened to FT and PS?No I do not think so, I think they jump ship a short time ago.
More news, on Daniel Tzvetkoff and how he helped the FBI.
FBI charges 11 internet poker kingpins | News.com.auWhat the article fails to mention, is that he owed money to the poker rooms. He had been spending the money he was processing for them. From what I have heard he owed the poker rooms between 50-150 million dollars.
About 50 million dollars was siphoned off from his Intabill company into a pay day lender company he set up in Vegas. Last year after being arrested he gave this up to the feds.
His business partner last year was cleared of any wrong doing, and his business partner is now suing Daniel Tzvetkoff for about $100million.
It’s suspected that he has more money sitting in offshore accounts are the world.
@Rak 227530 wrote:
More news, on Daniel Tzvetkoff and how he helped the FBI.
FBI charges 11 internet poker kingpins | News.com.auWhat the article fails to mention, is that he owed money to the poker rooms. He had been spending the money he was processing for them. From what I have heard he owed the poker rooms between 50-150 million dollars.
About 50 million dollars was siphoned off from his Intabill company into a pay day lender company he set up in Vegas. Last year after being arrested he gave this up to the feds.
His business partner last year was cleared of any wrong doing, and his business partner is now suing Daniel Tzvetkoff for about $100million.
It’s suspected that he has more money sitting in offshore accounts are the world.
Interesting info, good post.
