Home / Poker News April 2011 / Online Poker Pandemonium? Full Tilt, PokerStars, AP Drop US Players, DoJ Moves to Shut Them Down
Online Poker Pandemonium? Full Tilt, PokerStars, AP Drop US Players, DoJ Moves to Shut Them Down
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2011-04-15 16:33
Breaking News: Major Online Poker Sites - fulltiltpoker.com, PokerStars.com, UB.com - have been shut down by the FBI, which mainly affects US players who cannot enter the site and download the poker software.
US players are recommended to play in other poker rooms available here such as
PlayersOnly,
DoylesRoom, or
Bodog.
The week surely went out with a bang for the online poker industry: the US Department of Justice indicted the founders of the three biggest online poker operations which continued to accept US traffic after the 2006 UIGEA. A total of 11 defendants are named in the DoJ press release, all of them founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker and people allegedly involved in running payment processors which “tricked” US financial institutions into processing online poker –related transfers in direct violation of the provisions of the 2006 UIGEA and the 1955 Illegal Gambling Business act.
Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate are the two defendants representing PokerStars. Nelson Burtnick and Raymond Bitar have been singled out from Full Tilt Poker and Scott Tom and Brent Beckley are the AP guys in hot water.
The charges are by no means light: they include illegal gambling, money laundering and bank fraud.
Five internet domain names and no fewer than 75 accounts allegedly used by the above named operations also fell victim to the Feds’ move.
Thus far, none of the above mentioned online poker sites could be reached for comments, although it’s become clear that PokerStars have already blocked US-based customers.
Another site which found itself in hot water over similar charges a while ago, Bodog, said that US players could still play at their tables without any sort of disruptions.
According to some press rumors, the DoJ’s move may have been based on information shared by Daniel Tzvetkoff, a notorious money launderer arrested pretty much exactly a year ago on similar charges. Tzvetkoff was rumored to have cooperated with authorities, in exchange for which he was set free last August, even though he had initially been denied bail.
Breaking news: according to some US-based players currently playing at the real money tables at PokerStars, those with US IPs are still able to play as long as they do not log out. As soon as they do though, upon logging back in, they’re no longer allowed to play for real money.
