|
|
|
|
 |
|
Online Poker Federal Indictments A Money Grab
|
Author: Marc Weinberg
 April 20 - Greg Raymer was on Fox News to chat about "Black Friday", in a most entertaining interview. Not only was the usual low-IQ commentary by the Fox anchor there to chuckle over but Raymer accused the Feds of going after the Big Three as nothing more than a glorified money-grab.
There is the small matter of a $3 billion fine, and in my opinion that will be paid over in lieu of court appearances by any of the major execs. The poor schmucks who processed the transactions and were dim enough to live in America are going to be less fortunate. But the key here is the pound of flesh required by US authorities.
Raymer looked pretty smug mainly because his deal as Poker Stars spokesman was terminated a short time ago, so probably a little bit of schadenfreude on his part. As a former attorney Raymer spoke precisely about online poker and it's complicated legal standing in the USA. It is only illegal to play online poker in specific backward states like Washington, but it isn't illegal on a Federal level.
It is, however, illegal for banks to process online gambling payments. The way around this is for the banks to process payments that they "think" are for other online operations. It is not for me to speculate on how ingenuous banks really are (um, they're not) but all the Feds have to prove is that there was deliberate miscoding of transactions. If they do this they can claim bank fraud, so it doesn't really matter whether online poker is illegal or not.
Their motivation for spending millions in man-hours and expenses to build this case is to win a pot worth billions. We all understand the implied pot odds of the FBI and DOJ's bet in this instance. Besides which, their opponents are drawing dead in a game where the house not only wins but is downright toxic. No one will come to America to fight these charges, and even if they did they are unlikely to beat the fraud rap. So it does come down to paying the money.
There was an easy way for these poker sites to handle this problem - capitulate years earlier like Party Gaming. They should have paid the piper then, a few hundred million dollars is not a few billion dollars. But they're privately held companies under no shareholder obligations so they gambled, and now they've lost.
Americans who still want to play online poker for money have a few options, although the words "Let Them Eat Cake" doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence.
For now might I recommend a visit to Doyles Room where it is apparently business as usual. At least for now.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> My Full Tilt Payout Bounced
> Doylesroom Gets Quick Lesson In Hubris From DOJ
> Executives React to US Online Gambling Crackdown
> Zynga Online Poker Hacker Gets Prison Sentence
> March Madness Poker Tournament Looks Tasty
> Yatahay Poker Network Gets Doyles Room
> US Online Poker Plan May be Added to Another Bill
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
Hot Poker Promotions
|
Online Poker Rooms Guide
|
|
|
|
Join Our Newsletter
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
