I had a friend of mine who is a small time online player in Washington contact me last night and say he got a visit from the FBI. They came to question him about his account on Full Tilt poker. He doesn't even have large amounts of money across 4 poker sites. He's an older ex-Navy Seal, and was really surprised that they showed up at his door. So I'm not sure, and he's not sure what's going on, but something is going down.

Just an FYI. I have no idea if anyone else is talking about this yet, or any other players have said they are being questioned.

I don't know if it's directly related to the past seizure or not, but just wanted to give a heads up and see if anyone else has been visited.

I'd be astounded if the FBI ever took any action against some random guy who has a Full Tilt account. Even if they wanted to it'd be silly to make a federal case out of this against someone from Washington when I'm pretty sure state law there makes playing online poker a felony and if they really wanted to it'd be a lot easier to win in Washington state court.

+1

It's seems very unlikely to me the FBI would show up to investigate someone for playing online poker, though I suppose anything is possible. Keep us updated OP with any further info you may find out.

Did they have a search warrant or did they just come over for a little chat?

Do you know what the conversation was like?

He did not mention a search warrant, so I assume not.

I know little beyond that he was asked about how many sites he played on, how much money he had on FT, and if he'd done any large transfers. I don't know anything else beyond that. I couldn't really talk to him at the time as I was out with my wife. If I get more details though I will post of course.

There's no way this is real. Either that or your friend said the FBI when he meant something else....if I recall Washington is the one state that has a law against playing online poker.

a) how well do you know this friend
b) how reliable is he
c) what drugs was he on last night

No, he wasn't. He sounded quite frazzled when he told me all this. He's not some kid. He's 48 y/o, and a very stand up guy. I wouldn't bother posting this if I didn't believe his story.

Like I said, I'm sure others will be visited, so hopefully they can post more info as it comes and we can piece this together.

what other states is online poker illegal to play?

If this isn't just BS and your friend is tell the whole story to you, then he should IMO not talk to them and get an attorney.

I wonder if maybe he has done a lot of large money transactions with online sites and maybe the bank filed a series of SAR's on him or something like that, maybe the FBI is investigating that, though I'm just speculating here.

Does friend have a security clearance with a sensitive job? That could be something the FBI would definitely have an interest in.

I really don't know anymore right now. When I get more info, I will post. I'm interested to see if others have been questioned recently.

The main thing my friend was asking me about was the security of his funds. I couldn't advise him on this of course. I don't want to start any kind of panic, so I'm hoping others can add more information as this unfolds.

The player in question should contact the PPA. They have a staff that handles this sort of thing.