Ever since the April 15th crackdown of online poker giants PokerStars and FullTilt by the US Government a lot of players have been waiting for the other shoot to drop. Earlier today it did just that. True Poker, Doyles Room, and a host of other internet poker sites were all indicted by the United States Department of Justice for similar crimes of those committed by PokerStars and FullTilt. In this press release the following domains are named as seized internet gaming sites:
Bookmaker.com
2Betsdi.com
Funtimebingo.com
Goldenarchcasino.com
Truepoker.com
Betmaker.com
Betgrandesports.com
Doylesroom.com
Betehorse.com
Beted.com
The two biggest names on the list were clearly Doylesroom.com and Truepoker.com. Doyles Room, formerly home to one of the world’s best players, Doyle Brunson, had seemed to be on its way out ever since Brunson announced his leaving of the site. True Poker, the flagship site of the Yatahay Network, was also seized based on illegal internet gaming laws. The interesting aspect of these indictments were they were based on Maryland law only and did not necessarily deal with bank fraud. However, it seems Maryland lawmen were going undercover as shown in this part of the release
“These indictments are the direct result of impressive undercover investigative work by our agents, along with the close collaboration of our law enforcement partners here in Maryland,” said William Winter, Special Agent in Charge of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Baltimore. “The proceeds from illegal Internet gambling are often used to fuel organized crime and support criminal activity. ICE HSI will work diligently to uncover illicit transactions involving these types of financial crimes. Together, with our law enforcement partners, we will disrupt and dismantle organizations that commit these crimes, regardless of their location, whether here in the United States or abroad.”
Again, the report makes a lot of assumptions that online poker supporters will want clarification on including the illegality of playing poker and how internet gambling as funded organized crime. There has not been a release about Americans’ funds but those with money on the above sites will need to be patient before they see any of their money. FullTilt, thought to be the 2nd biggest poker room in the world, is having quite a hard time paying out their players from the April 15th seizures. They still have not begun processing US player withdrawals, although just days ago rakeback transfers began going through. PokerStars, the world’s leading internet card room, was able to pay back over $100,000,000 in American balances within two weeks of April 15th. In fact, their 2011 Spring Championship of Online Poker just finished and was again a huge success.
These charges will make the Americans still playing online at Bodog, Cake, or the Merge Network a little more nervous about their future. Currently there is no evidence either way to show whether or not these businesses will be shut down soon. Much like today’s news and that of April 15th it seems the government is using the element of surprise in their attacks against American Online Poker.
Stay tuned to FlopTurnRiver for more news and updates about any breaking legislation in the online poker world.