Cool. I was just trying to help, I will mention it no more.

Yea, I knew all that stuff but I thought it only applied for withdrawals (I'm not a US resident, I only did a light reading on the subject a while back when UIGEA stuff was happening), didn't wanna be that specific as you were, for obvious reasons, but I guess there's no harm in it since it all came out anyway.
btw. people who "lost their living" playing online will find offline ways to do it, their the ones for witch I have 0 sympathy.

Why are you so glad Jake?

What if there was a law that said you had to wear a blue shirt on a Friday and expose yourself to old ladies when they said "hello"? Would you be so delighted when people got convicted for breaking it?

Winston Churchill said that "laws for the discretion of wise men and the blind obedience of fools" Which camp are you in Jake? The UIGEA is an utter bullshti piece of legislation that practically forced companies to break the law in order to allow us to play poker online.

By the way, the FBI now seem to have changed their tune and are saying that "yes, it was illegal to play online poker all along" (rather than just assist payments to gambling sites). Presumably if you played online that makes you too, a criminal. So I presume you are looking forward to the FBI knocking on your door??

And don't forget these allegations haven't been PROVEN yet. The FBI have issued a press release and you are swallowing it all as fact. Nearly ALL of you are.

The sensationalist language in that press release, with its lame gambling terminology, is designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. You would usually expect better from a law enforcement agency.

Right at the bottom of the indictment it states something along the lines of "these are only allegations - innocent until proven guilty" - but I suppose you didn't read that far

Why would you expect that? Seriously.... why would you? You're acting like you've never seen a photo-op with the bales of weed, or brick of coke, or perp-walks after an indictment.

Of *course* it's for the lowest common denominator. THOSE PEOPLE VOTE.

there is no way this will resolve in less than 12 months.

So I'm guessing there's going to be a huge amount of account buying/ghosting in this upcoming FTOPS now right?

bump

If this plays out like a "court case" think of how long that is, adjournments, discovery, subpoenas, etc before a trial starts in earnest. Or, possibly there can be a settlement sooner?

How long do you think it will take for online poker to become legal in conjunction with Ceasars/Harrahs taking over the market? Makes you wonder how much of their political contributions and power had a hand in this.

I just saw this on pokerstrategy.de.

the charges are:

- Conspiracy to Violate Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
- Violation of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
- Operation of Illegal Gambling Business
- Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud and Wire Fraud
- Money Laundering Conspiracy

thx to Doubleu007

If any of you US players are still logged in my advice would be to try and find someone you trust in Europe and lose your entire roll to them playing HU cash games. Since you can't transfer monies. Then they can take the monies out and presumably get it to you somehow. Obviously if you're logged out you're screwed.

On another note Stars have gauranteed $1 million for the Sunday Million. Pretty bullish. Could be a huge overlay for that one....... not that you'll probably ever see the 150k+ for winning.....

It's quite likely that some judge in the US will take pity on himself as he has his own money locked up in PokerStars/FullTilt.

That'd be pretty f-ing sick lol. But unlikely because if he's a judge then he's not losing his primary source of income.

Just snapped off email to Obama so all should be well soon. In fact I do feel better sending it.

Casablanca

obama needs to reduce deficit

I've always hated you on the tables so I won't miss you!

I don't quite understand the stampede for people to remove their money. Maybe someone can explain it to me. Its obvious that stars would invest money thta is in its control in vehicles like a GIC instead of letting the money collect dust. So beyond the fact that some of the money may take some time to become liquid...what's the panic/rush for from some people?

Unless stars is operating a ponzi scheme the money is there. And even then... there's still 185,000 people playing last night and the whole world still has lots of money in there.

fulltilt.com redirects to .co.uk for me

160,000 players on Stars right now, will probably pass 200k tonight. How long since they first passed 200k players for the first time? 3 years maybe, max. And tonight they will do it without a single US player. Still the biggest site there is, by a massive margin.

Anyone who thinks this will kill Pokerstars is a) probably American and b) kidding themselves.

I'm not saying this is a good thing, it sucks a big bag of dicks, but the reality is that if Pokerstars never gets their USA business back, it will still be the biggest and an extremely profitable business.

I'm playing from the UAE, FWIW.

doesnt king hellmuth knows obama

lets get ph lobbying to save us all

I don't think you guys are right about how long it will take (x years and other numbers pulled out of your ass). My understanding is that US needs money, and it needs it fast (something about debt of the country or w/e, I don't really bother to care) if so, in case the DoJ has more than circumstantial evidence that cardrooms knowingly used illegal payment processors, at least the money laundry charge becomes solid and they're gonna settle. I can't guess how much the poker sites are gonna pay but is gonna be a lot either way.

??????????????? really?

My thoughts exactly. My life will probably be much better if I quit poker, and there´s a good chance it´s not just me.

My tables are full of lots of Russians and obviously zero Americans. Just want to point out the obvious that Russians now appear to have choices Americans do not.

That' s a sad example of the the freedoms lost in the US over the last 10 years.

Mr. Obama... tear down this wall.

Pathetic that people continue to tolerate being subjugated.

Dope on the damn table.

Online poker is big money by many measures, but compared to US debt it's like a mouse pissing in the Atlantic.