Sep 20, 2011 Federal prosecutors have accused two top poker players and troubled gambling site Full Tilt Poker of running 'a massive Ponzi scheme' that defrauded players out of. Play the best online casino games with Full Tilt, including Blackjack, Roulette and Slots. Get your casino bonus now: $20 free for new players. We are operated by The Stars Group, one of the most trusted and established companies in online gaming and the company behind numerous other industry-leading gaming brands. The Stars Group Inc. Is a public company, listed on the Toronto and Nasdaq indexes, and as such adheres to the most rigorous regulations in every market in which we operate. Huge Poker Tournament Festivals Full Tilt is the home to several major poker festivals that give players the chance to win some huge cash prizes. The largest of these festivals is the World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP), which attracts some of the best players in the business.
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A Little Bit of History about PokerStars for Players from the US
It does not require a good memory to recall the popularity of PokerStars for American players. The online poker site was responsible for providing the WSOP Main Event winner in 2003 – Chris Moneymaker – and from there grew to be the biggest poker site in the United States following Party Poker´s withdrawal from the US market due to the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.
Between 2006 and April 2011, PokerStars accepts players from the US (besides from the rest of the world) and is breaking record after record for online poker. Free poker hud for full tilt. The site paid the biggest ever single prize in an online poker tournament when American Tyson Marks won the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event for $2,278,097, and created the biggest ever online tournament prize pool ($12.4 million) when Canadian Kyle Weir won the PokerStars´ 10th Anniversary Sunday Million for $1,146,574.
In April 2011, PokerStars´ United States operations were shut down by the US Attorney´s Office for allegedly violating federal bank fraud and money laundering laws. The site was allowed to re-open temporarily to allow the repayment of players´ bankrolls and, in July 2012, a settlement was reached in which PokerStars acquired the assets of Full Tilt Poker and paid $225 million to the Department of Justice to facilitate the repayment of Full Tilt Poker players.
The Future for PokerStars in the USA
Under the terms of the settlement with the Department of Justice (DoJ), PokerStars were effectively acquitted of all charges against the company and allowed to apply for a US license to provide online poker when a legal framework is (eventually) in place. Meanwhile individual States in the US have been passing laws to regulate Internet gaming in their own jurisdictions, and PokerStars has been particularly active in trying to acquire a licence to provide real money online poker in New Jersey.
However New Jersey´s poker regulations stipulate that an online poker site has to operate from a brick and mortar casino located in Atlantic City. PokerStars has been attempting to purchase the Atlantic Club Casino to enable a base for PokerStars in the USA, but has run into all sorts of problems and – at the time of writing – is embroiled in a legal battle to either complete the purchase of the Casino or obtain a refund of the $11 million the company paid as a deposit for the purchase.
PokerStars´ United States “adventure” (a play on the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament series) is also being hindered by other brick and mortar casinos attempting to prevent them from providing poker players in the US a PokerStars download. In Nevada, pressure from existing casino operators forced State legislators to include a “bad actor” clause in their legislation – barring the company from operating in the State for five years because PokerStars for US players continued after UIGEA and Delaware also passed over a license application from PokerStars without public comment.
Good news as PokerStars, the most popular online poker provider in the world, may soon be available to online US poker players.
Will the PokerStars United States Adventure Resume in 2020?
However, many more States are currently reviewing their legislation there is no doubt that the world´s biggest online poker site will not stay excluded from online poker for very long. California, Illinois, Iowa and Vermont will surely want the world´s biggest online poker site to bolster their tax revenues and ultimately it is inevitable that PokerStars for US players will make a return. Will it be in 2020? We will have to wait and see!
Got an account at any of these rooms? If you want to play it safe, I'd recommend moving over to Party Poker. That's what I've done. I feel a lot more comfortable playing there right now. www.PartyPoker.com
Posted: April 15th 2011
Updated: April 16th 2011 Updated: April 21st 2011
This is some huge news for US poker players. The FBI has seized the domain names for the following 4 poker rooms:
At the time of writing, it doesn't seem as though all the sites have all been updated, but this is a screenshot of the www.UB.com website right now:
Screenshot of the www.UB.com homepage with the FBI message.
What's going on?
These 4 poker sites have been indicted (charged) with the following:
The charges appear to stem from the methods that online poker rooms have been using to move money in and out of online poker accounts from US banks.
I don't know the specifics, but that's the jist of it. Either way, these charges are very serious for these poker rooms.
From what I've gathered, it looks as though the US government has targeted the biggest US-accepting online poker rooms (Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, UB Poker and Absolute Poker) in an attempt to put an end to online poker in the US.
What caused these indictments?
There's a rumour that Daniel Tzvetkoff -- a man with a lot of inside information about how payment processing for these US poker sites work -- let the DOJ in on some valuable information.
Has this come as a surprise?
Oh yes.
Nobody saw this coming, not even the poker rooms. It's been a huge surprise, so don't feel as though you've been left out of any loops on this one.
Sources?
Or you could just Google anything to do with 'online poker' and see all the news articles that pop up. It's all over the Internet right now.
Is this serious?
Yes, for the poker rooms.
67 bank accounts owned by the poker rooms have been seized, and 3 of the 11 defendants have already been arrested (as of the 15th).
As a player at any of these rooms, I'd just be looking to withdraw my money and hope it comes through. There's no reason to believe that you're in trouble at all though, so don't worry about that. The US government just cares about the poker rooms accepting and processing payments, not players.
I have accounts at these rooms, but live outside the US. What should I do?
I'd highly recommend just playing it safe and withdraw your money from any player accounts you might have at Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, UB Poker or Absolute Poker.
That's what I've done. My Full Tilt withdrawal came through immediately, and I'm still waiting on my PokerStars withdrawal.
And what then?
Well seeing as we're outside the US, we don't have anything to be concerned about. Online Poker is all well and good outside the US (well, in most places anyway - you'd know if it wasn't), so it's just business as usual. From our point of view, a handful of poker sites are having issues with the US government, so it's just a wise move to withdraw money from those sites to play it safe.
I'm personally moving my money from these accounts over to my Party Poker account. If you've spent much time at this site before, you'll know why.
So again, I'm still going to be playing poker as usual. If you've got an active account at any of these 4 rooms that are having issues, I'd highly recommend you check out Party Poker and consider making this room your new home. That's the clever option.
Once you've done that, you can carry on playing online poker as normal without any concerns.
I'm a US poker player with accounts at these sites, what happens now?
My first plan of action would be to try and make a withdrawal. I honestly have no idea if this will be successful -- it's too early to tell. All we can do is wait and see what happens.
If you're still looking to play online poker in the US for real money, Bodog is the first name that comes to mind. It hasn't been caught up in any of these problems. Alternatively, check out this list of poker sites that are still US friendly (April 2011).
What's happening room-by-room.
Each of the 4 poker rooms' websites have been affected and changed differently.
Furthermore, some players are able to see the FBI 'WARNING' image on some sites, whereas other are still able to get through to the standard room website. This is likely due to the fact the domain name changes haven't been updated in your area.
Here's a quick summary of the general goings on for each site.
PokerStars.
Depositing at PokerStars - Government regulation message.
PokerStars services message notice being shown to US players.
Full Tilt Poker.
Full Tilt Poker room client message currently being shown to US players.
Absolute Poker and UB Poker.Full Tilt Poker Online
Full Tilt Poker AppAny other news?Full Tilt Poker Download
That's all the main stuff I can think of right now. If you know of anything interesting that I've left out, I'd love to hear from you.
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I'll update this page when I find out more.
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