The PPA knows how concerned all of you are about the recent actions taken by the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in freezing funds from some payment processors for online poker. The PPA wants to take this opportunity to do two things: (1) clear up the misconceptions about what was done and its implications, and (2) talk to you about what the Poker Players Alliance is doing to protect your right to play poker. Please accept my apology in advance if this is Too Much Information, but given the misinformation out there, I think Too Much is far preferable to Not Enough.

1.The PPA is not aware of any Federal law that restricts your right to play poker online. For many years, the DOJ has attempted a very broad interpretation of the Wire Act (18 USC §1084), a bill first passed in 1948 and revised in 1961. The Wire Act was passed in order to control the transmission of sports bets and sports betting information. The Wire Act does not affect or control online gaming of any type, including poker. This was affirmed in the US Fifth Circuit Court’s landmark 2002 ruling affirming that the Wire Act pertains only to sports betting. [see re In MasterCard]

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) also does not restrict your right to play poker online. The UIGEA is a very specific piece of legislation designed to restrict the transfer of money among between online gaming sites and players by putting the enforcement burden on banks. While the regulations covering the UIGEA were supposed to be in place 9 months after its passage, they have just recently been finalized, but are not yet in effect. Unless something changes (and the PPA is seeking to make that change happen), they will go into effect on December 1, 2009

We have been advised that the action taken by the Department of Justice was NOT an enforcement action based on the UIGEA. Since the regulations have not yet taken effect, the DOJ could not use them as a basis for action. It is important to note that the UIGEA regulations do not try to restrict payouts only deposits to “unlawful Internet gambling” sites. Further, we do not believe that online poker is unlawful under this Act.

2.We have been advised that the seizure attempt was, at the least, technically incorrect and at worst was a serious violation of the rights of the payment processors and you, the poker player. It is our understanding that some of the seizures were done without the benefit of proper warrants and represent an almost shocking trampling of due process. Further, we have been advised that vis a vis online poker, the SDNY does not have the legal authority to act under the two laws they cite in their action, the 1961 WIRE Act and the Illegal Gambling Business Act.

3.The funds that were seized were not the property of any online site – it was YOUR MONEY that was seized. All of the sites involved have made good on any checks that bounced or transfers that were not properly completed, but the Department of Justice seized your money here.

4.This action in no way means that online poker is finished in the United States. There have been many actions like this in the past – the NETeller seizures, cease-and-desist orders against ePassporte, the arrest of SportingBet executives and others. Online poker has weathered those actions, which appeared in several cases to be significantly worse than this one. The PPA has been in contact with several of the leading poker sites on a near daily basis since these events began to unfold, and I can tell you that they are all completely committed to staying the course and remaining in the US market.

5.Your money is safe at the major poker sites. I cannot speak for all the poker sites, but several have assured me that your money is safe and secure; however you should check with whatever site you play on. In most instances the poker sites have a procedure in which they segregate player funds, your assets and not theirs, and keep them in bank accounts that are completely separate from their operating funds – in fact, player accounts are kept in different banks.

The Poker Players Alliance firmly believes that the DOJ has significantly overstepped their legal boundaries in taking this action. Given that this is a public forum, I am unable to disclose precisely our legal strategy to combat this action. I can tell you that 1) we have assembled a legal team which is made of very seasoned criminal and civil action attorneys, 2) we have had direct communication with SDNY and higher ups at the DoJ about this enforcement action and have laid out both or legal and policy concerns, 3) we are briefing our Congressional allies about the situation and preparing them to take action if necessary, 4) we will continue to raise positive awareness for this with the media.

At this time the PPA is not organizing a letter writing/call campaign into the Doj, White House, etc, focused on this issue. A full blown campaign organized by us, could be more detrimental than helpful at this critical juncture – this could change. I am aware, however, that individuals on this forum and other place are taking the initiative on their own and we welcome that.

Now for the really important stuff – what YOU, as a poker player, can do right this minute to help the cause.

1.Send a letter to your Senator and your Representative. This is even easier than you might think – just click here. This link will take you to a site that allows you to create and send letters to your Senator, Representative and to President Obama. This is the quickest and most effective way to make your voice heard in Washington right now.

2.Email or call five of your poker buddies and ask them to do the same thing.

3.Join the Poker Players Alliance. Click here to join – it’s free and only takes a few minutes.

4.Excuse the sales pitch, but – if you really want to help us, join as a Premium member. It only costs $20, you get a lot of cool stuff and your money will be used to convince Washington that online poker needs to be legalized and regulated.

I will be tuning in here when possible, so please feel free to ask questions, or you can direct them to the PPA privately at email@theppa.org.
Sincerely,

John A. Pappas
Executive Director
Poker Players Alliance

John,

Thanks for the post and thanks for helping to fight this. Quick question

Is the PPA planning to update the letters to Reps/Obama to reference this action? Just wanted to know because I will wait for the update to take place before I send it out to my reps.

Thanks.

We are not changing our letter at this point. We want to keep our grassroots message to Congress focused on the legislation. The PPA is directly connecting with our friends on Capitol Hill to make them aware of the SDNY situation.

Thank you Mr. Pappas... hopefully your post isn't lost too deep in this thread. I urge you to cross-post it elsewhere if you haven't already. I'd also like to say that, although this is clearly a tough time for online poker in general, I'm thoroughly impressed with the quick and powerful PPA response. Each online article I've seen thusfar has had a distinct pro-poker tint, and we largely have the PPA to blame for this.

Although not previously a premium member, you've completely convinced me that my $20 will be well used.

Thanks.

OK, thanks.

Im upgrading to a $20 membership as well. I'm also sending this to anyone I know so they can sign up and email their reps as well.

I don't have time to read this entire thread ATM, but I was wondering if someone could answer a couple questions for me:

1) What would happen if I tried to withdraw funds from Stars right now? Would it work?

2) Do we have any reason to be worried if we currently pay our bills playing online poker?

3) What is the time table on this getting "resolved", and what would a "resolution" entail?

1) Yes, although e-checks are still down and processing is taking longer than usual

2) Hard to give a short answer. In terms of getting money out reasonably quickly as of today, not a big worry.

3) For the seized funds, most likely a long drawn out process. Resolution for the player is either funds back to the account (poker sites are eating the loss) or trying to resend the withdrawals through other methods

Isnt the whole point of the US laws, that we're apparently violating, to protect Americans from getting robbed and losing all of their money?

Baby? Bathwater?

Great post, John. Thanks for clarifying. I think the above point in detail fires on all cylinders with regards to this illegal action taken by the SDNY.

i keep hearing that pstars is still accepting cash outs. i cashed out on 6-7 and my cashout just remained in pending. It was still there so i cancelled it today. Is it simply just taking longer to process? and where the 10 percent bonuses for withdrawls or deposits??

Apparently not. I'd love to hear the SDNY justify his action.

Ive been waiting on a $800 cashout from fulltilt since 5-29. Prior cashouts were taking about 2 business days. After a week (6-5) I emailed them and got the standard "wait 15 business days then email us" blow off letter. Its now been 2 weeks since my cashout request.

lol...

So it hasn't been 15 days yet? lol

[x] Impatient

Yea, no kidding. With their enforcing the law and all. What next? Collecting taxes? Building a military? Where will it end?

this isnt good...In a letter dated Friday and faxed to Alliance Bank of Arizona, Arlo Devlin-Brown, the assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said that accounts held by payment processor Allied Systems Inc. are subject to seizure and forfeiture "because they constitute property involved in money laundering transactions and illegal gambling offenses," according to the AP.

That's exactly what this thread is all about.

You're missing a good thread here.

I have a feeling neither site knows who exactly was paid before the seizure. They might be worried about people double-dipping (claiming not to have been paid when they actually were). Maybe the e-check process is a lot murkier and harder to track than paper checks.

sounds like the government wants some of the rake.

Our government if filled with greedy pigs. "We can't figure out how to tax it, so we'd better get rid of it!"

p.s. Post #100. Movin on up!

I hate whats going as probably more than you do, but lets not be stupid about it. You have to remember we are talking about a government that has figured out a way to tax everything you make, tax your employer for hiring you, tax you for every transaction you perform, tax you on your property, tax you for gifts, put extra tax on certain items (bad tax), even tax you after you die. Governments has failed in many things, but figuring out ways to tax its people isn't one of them.

Funny the Canadian government doesn't give a **** about anything you mentioned in your post.

Really? How does canada get money, donation from citizens?

Fines for non bilingual billboards.

lol