I believe by Monday or Tuesday PokerStars & FullTiltPoker will be completely shut down and unable to operate anywhere in the world. The source of the rumor seems to be in the know-

"GamblingCompliance is the leading publisher, both online and print, of legal, regulatory, political and business information for the global gambling industry."
http://www.gamblingcompliance.com/

Stars is based in the Isle of Man, the Lord of Man is Queen Elizabeth II and is controlled by the UK. FTP is based in Ireland.

The US Govt is notoriously aggressive and they are alleging criminal bank fraud & money laundering against these companies. They have tremendous influence to force the UK & Ireland to shut them down for what they consider a massive criminal enterprise.

i wonder if shawn sheikhan is glad he felt up a little girl?

free flight to a country where he can play on stars. sign me up?

so basically, if we got money on FT right now, even though i am in euroope, i am screwed??

I'm an a non-us player outside the US and though I can play on FTP as usual (after the update), I cannot access anything within the cashier.

I live in AZ (Phoenix) and cannot play on stars, but but not a problem on FTP.
On FTP, no withdrawls or deposits and obviously on stars as well.

Wow FTP actually listed a phone number.

**To give an update I'm in US-PA still playing. Been on FTP all day since I woke up (haven't been playing the whole time) Players are dropping decently fast, less and less US at my tables, (playing some CAP atm) traffic is 35k players on 25k tables.***

wow they just talked about this on sportscenter

even if u were sincere and didnt wanna steal peoples money it doesnt matter. I am still logged in from earlier today on FTP i dont wanna log out...i can play at tables no problem. The ****ty part is my money is locked i can no withdraw OR transfer so even if a US resident could logon like my self you are unable to transfer or withdraw.

Also I love all the folks who say "o well blahblahblah now i can go on with life" u people must be the fish and losers and probly have no money to lose or else you would be concerned that all your money is gone for good. Im pretty pissed that all that money that i have made ill never get back.

Maybe. Or maybe the banks that were putting "online games of skill" back on their acceptable list were the banks that were supposedly being bribed by the sites.

lmao

Well, try to login to FTP if you are not currently logged on. My guess is that anyone anywhere that has the updated DNS will be unable to get the update.

There is a way around it however. That would be to redirect *.fulltiltpoker.com to the correct IP address.

Does anyone know the correct IP address of fulltiltpoker.com?

No reason to think FTP or Stars are going down on an international scale at this point.

Both companies apparently intend to keep servicing the actual free world.
Wouldn't worry about it, if I were you.

Wait a minute... Someone just posted a list of the 11 names involved, and a link to the FBI site...

that post is gone?

FK FK FK FK FK FK

anyone in the know wanna give me an estimate of the % they think this actually happens?

That was me.. post got deleted?

Names:

Defendant Citizenship Residence Age
ISAI SCHEINBERG Canada; Israel Isle of Man 64 (est.)
RAYMOND BITAR United States California Ireland 39
SCOTT TOM United States Costa Rica 31
BRENT BECKLEY United States Costa Rica 31
NELSON BURTNICK Canada Ireland 40
PAUL TATE Isle of Man
RYAN LANG Canada Canada 36
BRADLEY FRANZEN United States Illinois Cost Rica 41
IRA RUBIN United States Costa Rica 52
CHAD ELIE United States Nevada 31
JOHN CAMPOS United States Utah 57

Dont log out of FTP if you are logged in...

yea saw this to...hopefully they'll talk about it on the radio shows or something since this pokerboom and how big the online poker industry has gotten is due mainly to espn

That isn't it. That is the same as fulltiltpoker.co.uk

They got a felony conviction.

Enjoy it while you can if you are playing on FTP and DON'T LOG OFF!

That report came out earlier today. The sites have both since released statements that all non-us operations will continue as normal and that all funds are safe. Pokerstars steve said that funds for US players are also safe in the SNE thread.

And I guarantee Donald Trump will be on TV next week talking about how he will legalize online poker once he's President and ban foreigners from owning the sites. He's going to be a great dictator.

Having sex with a 17 year old when you're in your 20's, =/= "feeling up a little girl" Not to mention, he was never deported and still lives in the US.

I was really praying that somehow Full Tilt was going to stay operational. I can still play at the moment but I guess once I close the client and reopen it I am going to have to update? I'm than screwed, correct?

Plenty of new free time coming up, and won't have the money to do anything. At least the weather is getting warmer and I'll actually see the outside of my apartment more often.

I actually wouldn't be shocked if the DOJ actually ends up prosecuting the U.S. players a couple of years down the road since what we were doing was illegal. The FBI will eventually almost surely get their hands on all of FTP's and PS's files. Then they will find out the identities of all of the U.S. players and could then press charges... probably by sending you a letter to appear in court or eventually a knock at your door. Once in court, you can either fight the charges and likely lose leading to jail time and felony conviction, or plead guilty and pay a large fine, $1000 to $10000 or so and receive a misdemeanor. As hard up as the govt is for money right now I wouldn't be surprised. I mean really, they almost freaking shut down the govt a few days ago due to lack of funds!!!