Crackdown on major poker sites

Friday, April 15 will live long in the memory of poker fans as the day hopes of a fully regulated online poker industry in the US took one almighty blow.

Black Friday, as it’s quickly been labelled, saw the indictment of major operators Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker on grounds of money laundering, bank fraud and breach of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

Ever since the UIEGA was introduced in 2006, online poker in the US has been a sticky subject in the eyes of the law. And while operators like PartyPoker agreed to honour to UIGEA and pull out of the US market, other sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt found ways of keeping their American player base through means which, up until now, weren’t fully questioned.

But on Friday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) seized five URLs (including pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com), froze more than 75 bank accounts and in one swift motion shut down the real money online poker market in America.

According to US investigators, the sites had ‘concocted an elaborate criminal fraud’ to trick and bribe banks into ‘massive money laundering and bank fraud’. The founders of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of breaching US anti-gambling and money laundering laws.

Who said what?

Understandably the reaction has been strong on both sides of the pond, and as things stand, American players cannot access their bankrolls. And while sites have offered assurances to players’ that their money is safe, as a when they can access the site remains unclear.

Since the crackdown, poker forums have struggled under the weight of interest from worried players looking for any information they can gather, and poker pros too haven’t been slow in coming forward to voice their concerns. Here’s what a few of them have had to say on Twitter…

Erica Schoenberg:
It’s my right 2 smoke a blunt, abort a baby, marry a girl & play online poker. Quit telling me what 2 do with my $ or body. FU

Andrew Robl:
To all the people asking me about #blackfriday. It obv sucks but life isn’t over. Smart poker players will always be able to make money.

Doyle Brunson:
Now maybe we will see if these online “superstars” can play real poker. Ante up suckers!

Now for the good news. While our friends in the US may be struggling to get their poker fix for the foreseeable future, for European players it’s business as usual.

PokerStars and Full Tilt have released statements in the wake of the crackdown claiming that EU players can still access the sites, while the main domains have switched to pokerstars.eu and fulltiltpoker.co.uk

Stay tuned to pokerplayer.co.uk for more details.