Fed's Freezing Payment to Online Poker Players
Posted 06/11/09 at 10:30:46 AM by Paul Lilly
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In the movie White Men Can't Jump, Rosie Perez, playing the part of Woody Harrelson's philosophical girlfriend, said, "Sometimes when you win, you really lose." She wasn't talking about online gambling, but she may have well have been, as that's the situation thousands of Internet gamblers find themselves in.
More specifically, federal prosecutors have convinced four American banks to freeze payments of at least $33 million owed to 27,000 players at four offshore poker sites, the New York Times reports. Two of those sites -- PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com -- sponsor some of the world's top tournament poker players and frequently air ads on television in the U.S.
John Pappas, the executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, said prosecutors have asked Citibank, Wells Fargo, and two smaller banks to freeze funds that belong to Allied Systems and Account Services, two companies that process payouts for the aforementioned poker sites.
"It's very aggressive, and I think it's a gamble on the part of the prosecutors," said I. Nelson Rose, a professor of law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California.
I doubt they give it back
Submitted by mike25 on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 6:34am
I doubt they give money back. right now they have more troubles with finances and don't care about poker players. I'm mostly play bingo small winning but always .... so maybe it's time to play bingo and make money I wonder any one is doing $ in random game like bingo ?
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Submitted by checkin on Thu, 10/08/2009 - 2:20am
This fact is very-very annoying. You never know for sure whether your money will be yours or not. It is better to allow poker and other online gambling in order to make it more transparent and improve regulations
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Submitted by peterson00 on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 3:11am
Hi,
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually (but not always) hand rankings.
Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed,
whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown (in some games,
the pot is split between the high and low hands), limits on bets and
how many rounds of betting are allowed.http://www.onlinepokerreview.com/
Submitted by Raise on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:07am
All players who were affected by the current situation have had their funds returned to their accounts. live roulette UK
I thought the US government
Submitted by whitneymr on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 1:14pm
I thought the US government was already getting hauled into the International Court at The Hague for what they've done to online gambling. Can we through all US politicians into prison for contempt? Please, pretty please.
ugh.
Submitted by n0ctis on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 10:42am
Subpoena records and tax thusly, audit winners, whatever... but freezing the accounts is ludicrous, especially if the DOMESTIC winners won from FOREIGN players, bringing a bit of offshore money INTO these hurtin' states.
Total Crap
Submitted by Bender2000 on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 10:02am
Talk about prosecutorial over reach! There is no justification for freezing all the accounts. If there is money laundering or illegal transactions then they should be addressed singularly, not by punishing the guilty and the innocent together. If this passes a District Court review then there is no holding back over zealous prosecutors. Get the advocacy groups in there to slap down this "request", the Duke LaCrosse case should remind us that there are consequences for abusing the prosecutor's powers.
Submitted by shep211 on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 7:33am
I use to play online poker as a full time job. When they banned online poker in US I lost thousands of dollars due to the poker sites closing all US accounts and not refunding are money. I created a poker bot for over a year and now it sits on a hard drive waiting for US to left the ban. I read that the new administration was going to remove the ban on online poker but things don’t look good. I have friends that still play on the few sites that let US players play and now there money is frozen. I thought this was the land of the free.
Well it pisses me off
Submitted by Geeksquadmyss on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 7:16am
This is yet one more example of a government that continues to grow to large. Whats there bullshit reason for freezing these payments? I smell a lawsuit and i doubt anyone will find this constitutional.
I know this should piss me
Submitted by Tekzel on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 6:50am
I know this should piss me off, but I can't seem to get worked up over it. I guess the problem is as I get older I, unfortunately, begin to accept the inevitability of the government sticking thier nose into everything that doesn't concern them. I wish I could do something about it, but with our ridiculous and flawed two party smoke and mirrors political system, it can't happen.
Submitted by mrvander on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 7:17am
Unfortunately, it's exactly this kind of complacency the powers-that-be count on. So as they continue to expand power, make more laws, create larger government, and infringe further, more sheeple will live by the "what's the use" paradigm. Imagine if America's founding population thought this way when faced with taxation without representation.
Ah, the proud march of
Submitted by Cache on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 10:13am
Ah, the proud march of dissent. I wonder what you'll tell your children years from now?
"Son, the government was growing out of control, but I took action, and posted to my blog about it. I did what needed to be done."
Yeah. Good job, hero.
Submitted by mrvander on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 2:03pm
Cache, the sheeple speaks. Ironic, the avatar.
You either don't know what a Republican or a Democrat is or you are one of them. :)
Submitted by n0ctis on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 10:45am
"Son, I set some poster straight in a comment thread because he expressed dissent on the internet. I did what needed to be done."
Yeah. Good job, hero.
"Son i posted a snarky
Submitted by nekollx on Thu, 06/11/2009 - 11:41am
"Son i posted a snarky comment in a threaded reply. It wasn't pretty but it had to be done."
"How did that help Da-De?"
"I make people laugh son," waggles finger "and laughter is the greatest medicine of all...now...Got yer nose!"
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