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Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI
News by NorlanderThe founders of the three largest online poker sites were indicted by the FBI on Friday in what could serve as a death blow to the thriving industry.

Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and a number of their affiliates were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the defendants were arrested on Friday morning in Utah and Nevada. Federal agents are searching for the others.

Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and to eventually send the executives to jail and to recover $3 billion from the companies. By Friday afternoon Full Tilt Poker’s site displayed a message explaining that “this domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant.”

The online gambling industry has taken off over the last decade, drawing an estimated 15 million Americans to bet online.

In 2006 Congress passed a law curtailing online gambling. Most of the leading sites found ways to work around the law, but prosecutors allege that in doing so they broke the law.

“These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement. 

Poker fans took to Twitter in droves, worried about the money in their online gaming accounts, fretting that online poker's days were at an end.

"Well the good news is I think I only had about $300 left on the online poker sites overall," tweeted Jimi Schindler of Madison, Wis. "Maybe I'll see that money?!!?"

 

 

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Comments
Norlander on April 15 2011 22:14:29
Will be fun to see where this ends, but if they're freezing accounts of $3billion there must be some backlash.

On another note, guess PartyPoker took the better route after all...
Norlander on April 15 2011 22:23:08
Same story from The New York Times (Reuters wire)
Boddin on April 15 2011 23:48:19
Guess Party Poker will once again be the leader of the pack.
Norlander on April 16 2011 01:20:25
Yeah that is pretty much given.

More from the Courier Mail

In the indictment, federal prosecutors say they arranged for payment processors with bank accounts in the US to receive payments from US gamblers and disguise them as payments for products such as jewelry or golf balls.

Of the billions of dollars in payment transactions that the Poker Companies tricked US banks into processing, approximately one-third or more of the funds went directly to the Poker Companies as revenue through a charge players must make on almost every poker hand played online.

That scheme worked for a while until some banks caught on. By 2009, they had shut down many fraudulent bank accounts used by the poker companies. Two of the defendants later came up with a scheme to persuade the principals of a few small, struggling banks to process payments in return for multi-million investments.

In one case, they persuaded the vice chairman of SunFirst Bank in Saint George, Utah, to process gambling transactions in return for a $10 million investment.

"As charged, these defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some US banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits," said Preet Bharara, US Attorney in Manhattan.
Roffen on April 16 2011 11:24:18
What do you mean, when you are saying that "PartyPoker took the better route" ?

That they didn't work around the laws?
Norlander on April 16 2011 13:07:30
Yes.
Yutani on April 16 2011 14:52:12
Yeah, no wealthy Americans on Party, a thing I have often missed. Most of my online money is in Party Poker, I think I have a couple of hundred dollars on Full Tilt.
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Grizlas
24/12/2023 15:06
Gleðilig jól

Norlander
24/12/2023 10:09
Gleðilig jól!

Norlander
29/10/2023 19:16
:/

Grizlas
29/10/2023 11:35
RIP Matthew Perry.

Norlander
25/08/2023 19:22
That's not from the chess scene, it's Omar to Wee Bay, 2 mins into this clip: https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=LF0Xt6b525E


Vuzman
25/08/2023 18:11
That chess scene is forever seared into my memory...

Norlander
24/08/2023 20:03
You quoting the Wire, wow smiley

Vuzman
24/08/2023 08:56
You come at the king, you best not miss... RIP Prigozhin

OKJones
10/08/2023 21:29
the search function doesn't work, it doesn't show what it finds

Vuzman
10/08/2023 16:34
RIP Sugar Man