All Entries in the "Poker Law" Category
Wall Street Analysis Bodes Poorly For Legal Online Poker in the U.S.
Last Friday, a Wall Street analyst stated that, based on current events, he saw little likelihood that the U.S. Congress would address the issue of legalizing online poker and other forms of online gambling in the United States until at least next year, 2013. If true, this is sobering news for poker activists and players [...]
California’s Unnecessary Delay
On August 22, 2011, California State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg sent a letter announcing that the bills to legalize intra-state Internet poker would not be voted on this year. The letter was also signed by Sen. Roderick D. Wright, Chair of the Governmental Organization Committee, and author of one of the bills. Both [...]
Politics and Gaming
It is said that politics makes strange bedfellows. That has always been true for opponents of expanded legal gambling. In 1998, Don Siegelman was elected governor of Alabama, one of only two Democrats to beat incumbent Republican governors that year. The center piece of his campaign was a state lottery for education. Yet, the voters [...]
From Land Based to Online Poker
The question is not if, but when: What will happen when the biggest land-based gaming companies start competing for real on the Internet? We already know the answer, from looking at what has happened in every other industry. There is a natural progression, starting with any new invention. It does not matter if it is [...]
Senators Reid and Kyl Send Letter to the US DoJ
Leaders of the Democratic and Republican Parties in the Senate have sent the U.S. Attorney General a letter demanding that the Justice Department do something about Internet gambling. What, exactly, is up to the reader. This Rorschach inkblot test of a letter allows proponents and opponents to project their hopes and wishes on whether the [...]
US Online Gambling Laws Show Progress
We are all familiar with the real estate saying “Location, Location, Location” with legislation the saying is “Timing, Timing, Timing”. Will this be the right timing for the legalization, licensing, taxing, and regulation for online gaming? We can all hope so. It seems each week we hear of more politicians willing to put their vote [...]
Maryland Police Department Celebrating Online Poker Seizure
A local police department in Maryland is celebrating after participating in a federal sting operation which shut down major internet gambling operations. The Anne Arundel Police Department received a check for $470,000 after helping the feds seize online gaming companies that processed over $33 million dollars’ worth of transactions through the undercover processor. The money [...]
How Did Black Friday Happen Anyway? Daniel Tzvetkoff: FBI Rat.
If you’re sitting there scratching your head like we were about how the FBI could have built its case strongly enough to get the DOJ to issue those warrants that forced the shutdown of three of the biggest poker sites on the Internet, here’s how: an insider ratted them out. That is, an individual engaging [...]
Ten More Online Gambling Sites Shut Down
The US government is at it again. If you thought Black Friday on Friday, April 15, 2011 was the end of the Department of Justice’s indictments against online gambling sites operating illegally within the United States, you would be mistaken. Introducing the second and latest salvo in this brutal battle: Blue Monday, May 23, 2011, [...]
DoylesRoom and 9 Other Domains Seized
Earlier today it was announced that a federal grand jury returned indictments charging two gambling businesses and three defendants with conducting an illegal gambling business and money laundering. The two indictments were returned on April 26, 2011 and unsealed today. As part of the investigation, 11 bank accounts located in Charlotte, North Carolina; Guam; Panama; [...]
Black Friday Indicted Pleads Guilty
Bradley Franzen, one of the 11 people charged last month in the case that shut down U.S. operations for Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, pleaded guilty Monday in Manhattan federal court, admitting he illegally helped link gambling companies with banks to process millions of dollars. The charges that he pleaded guilty to were: [...]
A Law Professor Looks at Online Poker’s Black Friday
In a previous blog, I wrote that the timing was suspicious. Why did the federal Department of Justice (“DoJ”) make its big show on Friday, April 15, 2011, when the grand jury had been meeting for more than a year? We might not know the reasons for the timing. But we can understand why the [...]
Blanca Games Issues Statement on Raids
ST. JOHN’S, ANTIGUA and BARBUDA–(Marketwire – May 7, 2011) – Blanca Games Inc. (“Blanca”), operator of online poker rooms Absolute Poker and UB, issued the following statement today: Blanca can confirm that Costa Rican officials visited the office of Innovative Data Solutions (“IDS”), the former customer service centre of Absolute Poker and UB in Costa [...]
Absolute Poker, UB and Pokerstars Offices Raided by Police
According to our sources in Costa Rica and several web reports from @KevMath and @TaoPauly we’ve learned that the Costa Rican offices of Pokerstars, Absolute Poker and UB were raided earlier today by the OIJ, which is similar to the FBI in the U.S.. Police also raided several homes that are linked to the owners [...]
Poker Prohibition Is Not Regulation
When people want something, businesses arise to fill the demand. How much more so when the activity, online poker, is not even clearly illegal? If the commercial goods or services are not legal, then by definition, the organizations will be criminal. Prohibition created modern organized crime, by outlawing alcoholic beverages. When Prohibition was repealed, organized [...]
Become a Poker Activist
Since Black Friday, the online poker forums like ours have been breaking all-time traffic records. It seems that anyone with accounts on any of the Big 3 have wanted to come and share their story. While it is great to see that so many people are motivated, there are, in fact, better ways to spend [...]
Absolute Poker and UB Not Backing Down
The owners of Absolute Poker and UB are not following the lead of Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker. All four online poker sites had their bank accounts seizured along with their domains by the United States Department of Justice. Absolute Poker and UB have decided not to agree with any offer from the U.S. Department [...]
Black Friday: A Step Too Far?
Can a government be charged with war crimes, if the war is only one of intimidation? The U.S. federal Department of Justice isn’t blowing up buses. No one has died. But while Palestinian terrorists can only close down Israeli pizza parlors; the DoJ stopped online poker sites from doing business anywhere in the world – [...]
Federal Poker Indictments: Revisiting Prohibition
The timing is suspicious. March saw Nevada regulators approving a partnership between Caesars and 888, and Wynn announcing a joint venture with PokerStars. Now comes the indictments, three-billion-dollar civil suit and seizures of domain names by the feds. Wynn immediately cancelled his plans. Players were panicked. Which was, of course, the goal. If the allegations [...]
Licensing Jurisdictions Speak Out About Online Poker Indictments
The Tuesday after online pokers “Black Friday” had some other big news in the online gaming industry. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission released a statement regarding their feelings on the sweeping indictments made towards four major online poker rooms. The United States Department of Justice seized online domains from Absolute Poker, UB.com, Full Tilt and PokerStars, [...]
