Bye bye online poker...

[Acid Trip]

I've never done the real money poker games on the sites they mention but I've definitely used the free side. I bet a lot of people are pissed.

Three largest online poker sites indicted and shut down by FBI
April 15, 2011 | 12:32 pm

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/mone...wn-by-fbi.html

Poker The 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 and Absolute Poker were charged with bank fraud and money laundering in an indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court. Two of the executives 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 prohibiting online gambling. Most of the leading sites found ways to work around the law using foreign banks, 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?!!?"

[RBP]

Full-tilt Poker is up and running just fine. The Pokerstars and Absolutepoker websites are up.

[Goofy]

Wow......... sounds pretty serious

[Acid Trip]

Full-tilt Poker is up and running just fine. The Pokerstars and Absolutepoker websites are up.

WTF? I R Confused...

[Muddy]

Anybody seen LiB lately?

[samarchepas]

Fulltiltpoker is up...absolutepoker and pokerstars are down...yup...could be serious stuff.

[Hal-9000]

my bro in law will be going into serious withdrawal....

[RBP]

my bro in law will be going into serious withdrawal....

idk if it applies to Canada?

[Hal-9000]

I've never played....but I did see him one night a few years back go through some serious money using my computer.

The irony is, that he works in a casino and has never laid a dime down there for games

[redred]

Anybody seen LiB lately?

yes he's busy on fifa11 on the ps3

[Deepsepia]

These things go through iterations, like filesharing. Generation 1 was Napster, obviously illegal and easy to shutdown.

In the future, online poker will probably require -- entirely hosted outside US. You'll probably have to use a proxy or IP spoofing, as a they'll reject US IP addresses. Money will be the big issue.

My guess is that what folks will do is wire money from Canada or Mexico . . .

I'd expect to see a major company go completely offshore, with no US presence. That's the thing about the internet-- with no US presence, there's not much the Feds can do.

If you're the Russian mob, looking at this money, you'll be all over the opportunity. There's also some talk of US casinos getting into the business, onshore, legitimately.

[deebakes]

currently it is hosted offshore. the games apparently are running for everyone not in the US. pretty shitty situation really...