Home / Poker News August 2008 / US facing online poker rooms under direct attack?
US facing online poker rooms under direct attack?
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2008-08-02 09:19
According to Forbes.com, the apparent freedom some online poker rooms have enjoyed in catering for their US customer base may be in danger. According to the article, about $24 million have been seized from different US banks, money which the feds considered to have belonged to Bodog Poker, and to have been destined to honor cash-outs by US customers.
The first funds seizure occurred in January/February, and it targeted four different accounts, from Bank of America, Wachovia, Sun Trust Bank and Regions Bank. A second seizure of about $10 million happened in July, as the feds have supposedly made the connection between the funds mentioned and an undercover employee of Bodog’s. The January/February incident targeted money existent in the above mentioned four banks, in the names of two business entities: Transaction Solutions and JBL Services. Although the money had been suspected to belong to Bodog, no direct connection was established that time. The feds issued a civil suit and-according to the law – waited a predetermined amount of time for someone to step forth and claim the funds. Since nobody surfaced to claim ownership of the “hot” money, it was automatically forfeited to the feds.
Although Calvin Ayre, the former owner of all of Bodog’s operations is said to have relinquished all control over the business, the Forbes piece speculates that he might still be involved in the secret funding of the US customer accounts.
Obviously irked by the allegations, The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, the entity which currently operates Bodog, released a statement in which they deny that any of the funds involved in the above named seizures ever belonged to Bodog. They also stated that they had absolutely no connection to JBL Services or to Zippeyaments.com (the company involved in the second, $10 million seizure) proof to which is the fact that the funds-flow to and from Bodog’s American customers hasn’t been disturbed in any shape or form. The statement assailed the media hype surrounding the events which it considered aimed at discrediting Bodog in the eyes of its US players. To wrap things up, Alwyn Morris, the CEO of the MMGG assured all US customers that their cash-out would be received on time as always and that their deposits will be processed normally too.
