DOJ indicts founders of top US online poker sites !!!

"Black Friday" for the US Poker Market - The Current Situation. DOJ indicts founders of top US online poker sites
Last Friday, the FBI and the US Department of Justice closed the websites of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet and charged their founders and managers, causing fear in online poker players around the world.

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.

What happened?
Following an investigation that apparently spanned several months, the FBI and the US Department of Justice have charged the poker rooms PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet and their respective owners and managers.

The list of defendants includes poker executives such as Isai Scheinberg (PokerStars) and Raymond Bitar (Full Tilt Poker). They are facing steep fines or even jail time for felonies such as money laundering and bank fraud. So far three individuals have been arrested, all of them employed at payment processors for poker rooms in the US.

What has changed so far?
The affected poker rooms have underlined that it's "business as usual" for customers outside of the US. US residents on the other hand have been excluded from the games.

The websites of the two big poker rooms can now be found here:

    * PokerStars: http://pokerstars.eu/
    * Full Tilt Poker: http://fulltiltpoker.co.uk/

It's also possible to download the latest game client there if you experience difficulties connecting.

Another consequence of the developments has been the reduction of guaranteed prize pools for regular and special tournaments such as the FTOPS. Examples for this development can be found in tournaments like the Sunday Million on PokerStars which now offers a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000 compared to $1,500,000 before.

The shutdown also affected the now cancelled Onyx Cup hosted by Full Tilt Poker. Its first event was scheduled to take place in May in Las Vegas with a buy-in of $100,000.

Several cashout options overloaded
Many players reacted to the first news of the shutdown by trying to cash out funds and it seems as if the majority of the non-US customers were successful in doing so. Recent comments on the other hand show delays while using services such as NETELLER and Moneybookers and it seems as if these services are currently overloaded with the number of requests, thus causing delays.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with any further information as of now. The situation is very complex and the reasons for delays cannot be broken down to one specific bottleneck.

The situation is different for players in the US who are facing very significant delays. American poker pros still try to spread optismism through Twitter. Both Tom 'durrrr' Dwan and Phil Galfond have vowed to give out 1 million each to poker players that lost funds from their PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker accounts if the two poker rooms would be unable to pay out the balances eventually.

Moneybookers and NETELLER not affected
Moneybooker and NETELLER have not been accepting US customers for years and in NETELLER's case, they even settled with US authorities to avoid future charges and penalties. There is no reason to believe there will be any issues with balances on accounts with these providers. Please note that PokerStrategy.com cannot provide any guarantees, but we are very confident that Moneybookers and NETELLER will continue serving our members like they did in the past.

Same goes for poker rooms that don't accept US traffic. This list of rooms includes PartyPoker, 888poker, William Hill and EuroPoker.

Chief Prosectur Preet Bahara
What are the charges?
After the passing of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act), processing of payments for gambling purposes became illegal in the US and online poker was considered to be gambling in the eyes of the law. Violation of this very act is the main pillar of the charges and affects both the poker rooms themselves and their payment processors.

The US Department of Justice believes that the poker rooms used an elaborate network to accept funds, "wash" them and eventually transfer them to offshore accounts. The related felonies mentioned are money laundering and wire fraud. Appparently, the poker rooms also used bribes to get banks to process funds.

Members of the community asked if there were any signs that customers were cheated at PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker, but with the charging document not mentioning a word of it, this is obviously not the case.

The full charging document is available here.

What will happen next?
That's wide open. The trial is far from over and it's unlikely that the defendants will show up voluntarily in front of a US judge.

The current situation has certainly increased the demand for regulation in the US, but it probably didn't help poker advocates to convince more reserved lawmakers that online poker should be legal and regulated.

Recent reports also mention several campaign donations from PokerStars to Nevada politicians and with the trial underway, the credibility of these politicians' is unlikely to have increased in the eyes of those opposed to poker legislation.