this. i hope this works out. i'm pretty excited.

Sites will lose the money when they pay all players as a gesture of goodwill. One more seizure and every poker site will ban US players IMO.

Hopefully....I think that would be the quickest way to getting online poker "legalized" in the USA

how is that naive? all i did was state a possiblity, i never said if it was good or bad.

Another thing to consider here is that no indictments have been announced. Maybe they are coming but if not this again would either demonstrate an opportunity for a precedent or proof the government knows they are wrong and trying to be bullies. They will continue too until someone stands up to them. You figure to recover $30,000,000+ someone would be willing to stand up to them.

That's not what you said. You said -twice- that they were violating US law. It should be an easy thing then for you to cite what US law. So please do or STFU.

Harrah's could be the new AOL. Why does it feel like I'm living in China all of a sudden?

I'm am not an expert in this but I do know that this likely has little to do with Obama and definitely not Barney. The federal reserve gives orders to the U.S. Attorneys. The U.S. attorneys tell the banks what to do, and they will snap do it without a warrant. Barrack, I suppose in the interest of saving the economy, has appointed some of the same members of the fed who have been in there and they are just continuing on fckng with online gaming, probably now because they don't like to see all that money going overseas????? as oppose to placating the so called moralists.

I don't see how pokerstars can continue doing business in the U.S. if they are going to be subject to risk of this scale.

I'm in a bad spot now because, even though stars has credited my account, I definitely don't want my money to be in limbo again, and don't want to be part of a huge withdrawal run on stars. But maybe now is the time to run since we in this thread are the early informed?

I wish I was Canadian.

I disagree. It seems that almost every state has a Mom and Pop Casino nowadays and if they are all lobbying their local politicians it could be awhile before you would see it come back. In this economy the Pols can pitch it as saving jobs as well as protecting America from terrorists. Like Osama funds his operation from 1/2NL on Stars.

so we should cash out or wait ?

looks like it may soon be time to move to Canada.

fyp

It is a shakedown pure and simple. They don't give a **** about seeking justice for some injured party. They just want the ****ing money. They sure as hell don't care who's money it is either.

The government has ceased money from thousands of Americans who have committed no crime.

The sites have made good for their customers because they intend to keep doing business with U.S. customers.

no need for this, your money is safe

If you can't read the writing on the wall, you sure as hell can't read between the lines.

I NEVER said that Stars was doing anything illegal, DF. I said their business acts outside of US jurisdiction. They are not subject to US laws. Maybe international law to some extent, but not US law. With that said, they obviously do choose to act within the legal environment of the USA. It is up to interpretation if playing online poker is illegal. We think we may all know the answer, but it ultimately comes down to a judge, judges, or politicians.

Hi All,

Understandably, many of you have concerns regarding certain bank accounts with poker players' money being frozen in the US, and I'd just like to reassure everyone that your funds remain safe and secure at FTP, and the processing of withdrawal requests is proceeding as normal and is still available to all of our players. I've been gathering information on our side to address some of the rumors and conjecture that have been flying around, and here's what I know:

• We have multiple check processors. Only one processor was affected by the current situation, and we don't expect any further interruption in check withdrawals or any other withdrawal methods.
• All players who were affected by this issue have had their money returned to their Full Tilt Poker account and all withdrawals are processing normally.
• We always make sure we can cash out any of our players at any time. You should never have to worry that you won't get your money, and we're doing everything we can to ensure you always have plenty of methods available for both deposits and withdrawals.
• eCheck deposits are temporarily unavailable, but we expect it to return as a deposit option sometime this week or next.
• I'm not sure where this particular rumor started, but there are absolutely no plans to leave any market.

If you have any questions, or would like to know if there are more deposit or withdrawal options available that haven't appeared in your cashier, please contact support and they will be happy to help you out.

Click on the following link for an official statement from Full Tilt Poker regarding the frozen funds.

Doug

You kids keep patting each other on the back. And keep whistling past the graveyard while you're at it.

Doug,
Thank you so much for posting. the first bullet especially is encouraging to me.

I got the "bad check do not cash" email a couple days ago and re-cashed out last night by check once the money was credited back on Stars. The cashier window shows it to still be pending as of right now. Has anyone else done this and is your check still pending or did it clear already?

Doug, a few questions.

How much did FTP have to eat in order to make restitution to their players?

What is FTP threshold in dollars if the US govt continues to seize processors funds before they bar US players?

TY doug....

Not to be argumentative, you have your job and we have ours... but we know which way the wind blows. If more processors are seized... it simply will be too costly for you to continue to do business in the United States... I really can't imagine a situation where this isn't the case.

Please correct me if I am wrong...

also any info regarding upcoming litigation would be greatly appreciated

once again, TY

He's feeding us lines. Nothing more and nothing less. You think they are going to come to this forum and admit defeat, or say ANYTHING that would hurt their business beyond what is already happening? I think not.

From FTP statement:

In light of recent events involving freezing of certain poker players’ money in the United States of America, Full Tilt Poker would like to assure all players that their funds remain safe and secure. Processing of both deposit and withdrawal requests is proceeding as normal and is still available to all of our players in the US.

Doug, why do you assume the the US Govt will stop at the 30 million dollars they have already confiscated/frozen? What plans does FTP have to get players money back to them if processors refuse to continue to handle these transactions?

I think I am going to wait because I don't want want to go through another ordeal. I don't want to be one of those who rushes to the door and gets trapped or trampled. But I was only withdrawing because I was sick of bad beats, not to pay bills. If I really needed the money I would withdraw right now tbh.

I will wait and see if more accounts are frozen. When it seems like the coast is clear I will make another withdrawal attempt and if the coast doesn't clear then I will follow whatever ad hoc procedure the 2plus2 crowd or pokerstars engineers to get the money out. That might take a while but whatever I will just try to increase my account in the meantime.

This I believed yesterday. Today, I'm not so sure. It's possible that the figure went from 14M to 30M because they shut the other accounts of said processor from Calif. My check should be here tomorrow...