Online Poker shut down in U.S.

[catsclaw227]

So, yesterday or sometime over the weekend, the FBI shut down and forbade access to PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, and a few others.

Apparently, there were some sketchy banking practices on the back end that gave the FBI and other agencies cause to completely shut it down for all players originating in the US. You can't deposit, you can't withdraw any funds you have, and you can't play.

Did any of you play any online poker? I did, with some limited regularity, and never got crazy with it, but I am a decent player and I was able to supplement my income slightly.

Fortunately, I didn't have any funds in their banks to use for gaming, but it's a bummer I can't go online to play.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I got out of the online poker world when it became illegal to play, even for free (as in $0.00 of my money going there).

I knew of a couple people who were still able to play using some credit card trickery but it was quetionably legal.

 

[catsclaw227]

I know that PokerStars never had a problem transferring money right from my bank account and I didn't have to use some strange off-shore credit-card processor either.

You would think with all the poker tournaments on TV, and all the poker site advertising in those shows, that this would be handled much differently.

They literally just shut down the sites, put up an FBI warning and thats that.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

People are surprised? It was illegal to play online poker in the US. That means you dont do it.

These sites can still operate however OUTSIDE of the US, and I believe still are. However people going to the sites are met with the FBI page and a lot of international players quickly got their money out, others who were slower could not.

Most of this comes down to an Australian businessman who blew the lid on these sites because he had one himself until he got caught out. So he turned 'grass'.

The main issue in Aus is that its 'untraceable' income. That is , the government would find it very hard to track where it has come from without expending more resources than it wants to. There are several players in Australia who are making multi million dollars and paying no tax at all on it. Thats just wrong.

I think in terms of the US component is primarily a tax issue also.

 

[DumbPaladin]

I'm sure the FBI and the U.S. Government did it for financial reasons, but I think this is great news overall. Online gambling just gave gambling addicts an even easier and simpler way to bankrupt themselves and their families from the comfort of their own homes ... not to mention giving people under 18 a way to throw away money they couldn't afford to throw away.

The only thing I can really say is good riddance ...

 

[Thunderfoot]

People are surprised? It was illegal to play online poker in the US. That means you dont do it.
<SNIP>

Not true, it's Illegal to GAMBLE on-line. There are plenty of free on-line poker games that are included in all sorts of forms in the US, but the difference is there is no exchange of real cash, therefore it doesn't break the Federal/Local gambling laws.

Unfortunately, online poker is almost a branded term, like Kleenex for all facial tissue in the US or Hoover for all vacuums in the UK.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I'm sure the FBI and the U.S. Government did it for financial reasons,<SNIP>

careful...
It will probably cost more than they take in for operational costs, so I doubt the recoup of money is the issue. More than likely, they finally had enough evidence to get the okay from either the Department of Justice or the Federal Regulatory Commission.

I've been cruising some of the gaming law sites and it appears the mostly likely reason for the stoppage is the continued illegal fund transactions. I'm sure there will be more on this in the near future.

What is really interesting is that the current language of the law could be made to include ANY form of online gaming, which could effect geeks of all stripes. Imagine if your WoW, XboX Live, or DDI account were suddenly halted due to this... I'm not saying it will, but there is always the possibility.

 

[bethjoy]

I used to play games online, but too became scared once it became 'illegal'. Our online moves are becoming more traceable than ever in this increasingly need for speed world

 

[Wycen]

Good, now maybe one of my friends will decide to play games with people face to face.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some of my friends used to play a few of those sites. They quit, not for fear of prosecution, but rather they noticed they all went from winning to losing...at the same time. Fraud? Hacked? Don't know.

Add to that some of the allegations- money laundering, for instance- ant it paints a rather nasty picture, if true.