What is "soon"? What about our FT funds?

This is a level. The DOJ's employees have strict contracts not to discuss ongoing cases. This is a fake post.

Confirmed nothing to worry about. Everyone is safe, Kahnawake is here to save you.

I hit and ran from RPM, even if OP is lieing, I get the gut feeling Merge is on the hit list sometime in the future

Can you ask him why Tzvetkoff was given a deal when the crime he was committing was far more severe than the sites the crimes were committing? Or does the DOJ consider outright stealing hundreds of millions of dollars to be less serious than laundering money?

The fact this guy is in witness protections is a joke, its like the DOJ putting Osama Bin Laden in witness protection because he gave up some guy who helped launder money for terrorists.

I doubt they have much within the US. Any deposits I've seen have been made to overseas, and the major reason why it takes so long for cashouts is because the funds are coming back in to the States.

I wouldn't say that these sites are "safe" by any means, and people shouldn't have money on the sites that they aren't afraid to lose, but I'm sure that the sites are preparing for this eventuality by changing their domain names and keeping money out of the US, etc.

You couldn't be more wrong (hint: why does PS still exist?).

Why do you think DOJ was only able to freeze a fraction of the bank accounts of PS, FTP, UB/AP? Why did they only get the accounts located within the USA or allied countries? They couldn't touch (even if they could find) the untold billions that Poker Stars has elsewhere.

As been discussed many times in every form of media, these 3 companies risked exposure by bucking the industry standard and opening accounts in the USA because they wanted to save $$ on processing. Other sites like bodog, (and every other sportsbook), keep their assets in unfriendly countries. Why would they do this? How are they still operating?

I mean, yeah, these sites will probably always have a few million exposed at any given time when processing payments, but it's a standard cost of doing business, and they just make sure they are not over extended like FTP/UB/AP was.

I really don't know how you made that leap, but that wasn't even close to what I was saying (hint: why isn't PS balls up?). WRT FTP, it's the opposite imo. The only reason FTP went balls up is cause they kept too much $$ in the wrong places.

The point I was trying to make was most/all of the remaining companies serving US players already had their assets secreted away in safe countries before BF, except for their domain name. Therefore all sites have changed to a .eu address so the DOJ cannot seize it. Now they are pretty well insulated, and can continue serving us.

We're not really bothered about how many accounts and where the accounts were when considering PS, FTP, UB/AP. It's a whole lot more to do with where players funds were stored. DoJ supposedly seized FT and UB/AP players funds because their gaming regulator didn't require the monies to be held in trust i.e. not in the poker sites name. PS's player funds were not seized, even if they were in ally countries, because they held in trust.

Pokerstars just cruised thru BF because they could maintain cashouts and therefore the confidence of the non US players that made up 78% of their player base. FTP paid no-one, euro market lost confidence therefore no rake, no business income.

PS weren't looking to save $$ on their processing costs - the DoJ had already shut down the processors. DoJ established their own processor and, after DoJ pulled the plug on that PS found 'other ways' to ensure the US deemed illegal cashouts to US players continued.

I can only think of one or two sites that continue to 'find a way' to get cashouts back to US bank accounts, which is still in contravention of UIGEA. Which is why PS etc were indicted. Which is why they MAY face indictment, especially if they decide to re-open to US players.

I just wanted to chime in and say: **** the DOJ

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=3452

I believe OP. Makes sense for DOJ to go after all those internet gambling sites to make it rain in fines and have a good conviction record. No one is going to protect off shore internet gambling sites and politicians are going to favor it since they are backed by land based casinos. One last final shake down before legalizing poker is the most EV+ from the DOJ's point of view. Also lol at the idea of an benevolent, broad minded government. You are dealing with political bureaucrats looking to further their careers, not some bleeding heart patriots.

+1

I am pretty sure this is true. A person I became friendly with on these forums who is a full-time pro who had a significant roll on FTP at the time of BF and does in fact have a brother in-in-law who works for the DOJ. He told me after BF that he spoke with his b-i-l and that he said he wished he could have told him or warned him but he couldn't without himself breaking the law.

I doubt someone would risk their job just to warn someone about this unless they had significant money online. Even then it would really have to be allot for him to risk being prosecuted and losing his job. Also it wouldn't be hard for the DOJ to find out who the OP is and find out who his b-i-l is if this truly was leaked.

I understand OP not wanting to out his relative if the story were true but at the end of the day it is a scare post made on a "new account" so it is hard for me to believe. It seems that many of these stories start exactly like this. They can't out themselves for protection of source, then they take something that could be true and post something that is inflammatory. That being said, I am not saying it isn't but after BF anything is possible but I think it is highly unlikely and would just need to see more proof before I did anything drastic.

Allot of people have allot to gain if players left Merge and played somewhere else.

Nobody should have anything to gain.

If Merge is at risk due to OP's points, then the rest of the US facing sites are too.

And non US players shouldn't really be playing on US facing sites (and for the most part don't really appear to be in large numbers), there are sites with faster non US payment, softer players and larger playerbases.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein hired a Criminal Defense Attorney this week:

Analysis: Why Goldman's Blankfein tapped big-time lawyer

"Blankfein has not been indicted or accused of wrongdoing.

Goldman Sachs and Blankfein declined to comment for this story, but on Monday, the bank told Reuters that the hiring of Weingarten was routine.

"As is common in such situations, Mr. Blankfein and other individuals who were expected to be interviewed in connection with the Justice Department's inquiry into certain matters raised in the PSI report hired counsel at the outset," the bank said, referring to the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations."


http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...77N7X920110824

This. Also the "brother-in-law" is stupid enough to risk his job then the OP is stupid enough to tell everyone on a public forum this information that could get his "brother-in-law" in trouble. IP addresses can be tracked so its not hard to find out who OP is. Pretty boring level if you ask me.

OP doesn't seem to show any love for his brother in law.

If OP is telling the truth, he's doing a great service to the community. OP may also not be doing anything wrong by telling us this.

OP could also have asked a friend to post this for him on a different account, particularly an overseas IP.

Just some thoughts that came to mind when reading your post.

Thanks, OP. Everything you say makes sense to me because I follow poker legislation news as much as I can. And anybody who has more than they can afford to lose on any poker site right now is just an idiot begging for it to be taken away. The Kyl/Reid DoJ letter kind of set the stage (and warned us) that other sites will fall. And a lot of things point to some of us being able to play on U.S. sites within 12-18 months. Thanks for posting.

Why would he reveal details of an on-going investigation to a poker player?

"“what do you think they don’t know how to use google?”

Right. They also know how to catch people leaking classified information. o.O

Yeah this is what I've been trying to tell people. We have to fight fire with fire.

We need to understand that there is no guarantee the federal government will EVER regulate online poker. If they do, its certainly not going to be for years and years.

Take back your right to gamble in your own home. Take back CONTROL. OVER YOUR OWN MONEY.

People will come in and say I'm a shill, but ignore them. Do the research on your own on bitcoin, and understand what it is. The entire point is to get these scum sucking leeches like banks and governments hands OFF OF PEOPLES MONEY.

The government can't shut down bitcoin poker software, it can run through Tor if it has to. No person who truly understands the goal of the bitcoin community is opposed to it taking over as a currency someday. Gambling with it is just one step towards that acceptance.

The two main sites right now are betco dot in which is completely open source and very trusted and btcontilt dot com which is newer but seems to have more action.

THATS IT. DO WHAT YOU WILL WITH THE INFORMATION

Oh and dear community...this is someone......as u know....i never win any pots.....and am currently playing on btcontilt....so if u ever need money.....just barrel.....4 streets....increasing size....and i will pay off

I thought some skins were better than others irt cashouts

I think it is pretty sad that you are hoping for Jon Kyl to succeed.

There are some legal facts that ought to be considered in this discussion:

1) The majority of the charges against the owners of PokerStars, FTP, and AP/UB, six out of nine, depend on the allegation that offering online poker to US citizens violated state law; and thus Federal law that is based on violating a state law (with a few additional facts regarding the size of the business and the need for some cross state border action). It is very possible that proving whether offering online poker was illegal will vary from state to state.

2) To the extent PokerStars, FTP, and AP/UB are guilty of these six charges based on violating state gambling laws (and therefore Federal laws) then any other site that offers real money online poker to US citizens is equally guilty of these six charges.

3) Of the other three charges, two are bank fraud/wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud/wire fraud. These charges are, so far, unique to the big three. Whether any of the current (or future) US facing sites engage in any similar activity I have no clue.

4) Of the money laundering charge, that can be based on both bank/wire fraud and/or running an illegal gambling business. But the severity of the money laundering is extremely lessened if ONLY the fraud charges stick.

5) The DOJ's ability to freeze or seize (but not forfeit) accounts in foreign jurisdictions has increased significantly over the last few years (mostly due to, I kid you not, laws labelled as "anti-terrorism" laws). This ability is still a long way from complete, however.

Although Bodog is changing in the future (and that too is a relevant fact to consider) its history is instructive: despite running an undeniably illegal (in the US) online sports book, Bodog has continued to operate for years despite difficulties and occasional seizures of its processor's funds. There are some very lengthy threads in the Internet Poker forum regarding the reliability of money transfers with Bodog.

Skallagrim

Sadly thats about as likely to happen as the DOJ prosecuting the voter intimidation that occured in Philadelphia by the New Black Panther Party.

Eric Holder is an idiot he was when he was the US Atty in Washington DC and he hasnt improved (not to mention the traitor was representing terrorists down at Gitmo)

Its simply they dont care what Tzvetkoff stole from the sites because they were trying to steal the rest themselves. Tzvetkoff gave them the big poker sites on a platter which was more important in the end to them. To the DOJ the big bad evil poker sites were worse I mean hell the government steals billions every year why should they think it was a crime if somebody stole a few hundred million after all he was just STIMULATING the Economy roflmao.. (Obviously because he sure as hell didnt have that kinda of funds liquid and available)

Come on DOJ!!!! Thousands of us are hoping you will push the rest of the fish to us in the B&M's. Please don't stop now....