ATTENTION FREAKDADDY;

Did you miss my question, or are you ignoring it? If so, why?

So absolutely ridiculous. The people who run our country need to get their goddamn priorities straight.

/vent

I get a kick how this is moved out of News Section. I mean, Im sure threads like "aba20 lookalike found (and other poker lookalikes)"; "View- Poker Boxing Would Be The POO."; "The best poker chat put down?" are all much more interesting and important Poker News and Gossip than the FBI goes to online players homes!!!

This story has ZERO to do with Poker Legislation. Last I checked FBI was not in the legislative arena (the FBI certainly does not vote on laws).

Just seems funny-starnge is all....

Maybe, but it might bring some traffic to the legislative forum and maybe they will read some of the other threads

Thank you. Yes. This is an appalling waste of taxpayer dollars, in addition to being morally bankrupt considering how many states and municipalities host lotteries, which offer an infinitesimal chance of a big payout and a guaranteed -EV.

Poker, at the least, offers you a chance to learn and win. Nothing you can ever do will make you likely to be a breakeven lottery player.

RF

If he was questioned by the FBI as reported by OP, they weren't there to talk about his possible state felony. As to "public", the FBI, very likely the state authorities, many 2+2 posters, likely some 'gambling news' types, FullTilt/Stars/Uwho?/Cake etc., now know about his WA gambling activity. I don't see how he is harmed by relating a few details about the FBI questions. It's his call and he may want to let it drop. If the FBI investigation is widespread, we'll get details soon enough.

What law has he possibly broken that could lead to an FBI arrest?

First, I are not a lawyer. Obv. .
I Googled predicate offense.
Sounds to me like a RICO investigation.
And the reason this NEVER came up before?
The Clonie Gowen lawsuit.
WHETHER OR NOT she had a case...
Are the early Team Full Tilt photos [with her IN THEM] and the motins made during the lawsuit, enough evidence [even if it's hearsay evidence, since the DOJ and FoF might be chomping @ the bit on this] to crank up a RICO investigation?

also,
as a regular @ FTP forum,
I can assure you that no FTP forumer regs have been approached as of yet,
and no threads were brought up regarding this until earlier this evening...

Folks, it is probably time to end the speculation here (though if there are any more reports of FBI visits PLEASE do post them).

As hinted at before, WA is the best state law for the DOJ to build a Federal case upon. That its the best does not mean its sufficient, but it clearly is a state where at least some of our legal arguments (skill v. chance, for one) will not apply.

So it is not a surprise to see the FBI gathering evidence related to WA state (again assuming there is not more to this story - no offense Freakdaddy; although I appreciate your posting it, the information is still second-hand at best).

And ultimately, even if true, whether this is just follow up to past actions or some indication of a new action is impossible to know for certain.

Only time will tell.

Skallagrim

PS - putting this thread in the legislation forum is the only way to make sure it gets intelligent attention and responses. NVG is not a good place to post information capable of multiple interpretations. I am not even sure its a good place to post actual news. It is a fun place though ...

Although it's possible he already admitted to committing a felony, or the FBI already knew, a law being broken isn't the relevant factor here imo.

me:

Banks don't fear breaking the law, they fear potentially violating any law or regulation real or perceived that will damage their bottom line. And guess what? They'll insta-muck my business b/c it's not worth the potential damage to their bottom line. Therefore, I maintain a position of drawing as little attention to me as possible. Personally, I could care less if it actually happened, life will go on. But it will be a colossal pain in the ass to deal with, and could even bring undue burden to some of my family members.

dude in WA:

With the FBI, there are any number of unwanted scenarios that could happen were this guy to attract more attention to himself and none involve any laws he's breaking. We still don't even know their intent, and he probably doesn't either. It's not that I think he shouldn't discuss it here in public, but who am I to know what his best course of action is? This guy has a family, former involvement with the military, and who knows what else.

Here is my question. How did the FBI know he was playing online poker and specifically at Full Tilt?

The "Poker journalist sites" are all reporting that players, not necessarily a single player so I am waiting to hear about more stories. But this is cause for concern.

If they try to indict your friend, it would seem to me that he would have a legitimate claim of selective prosecution. More than likely they are trying to build a case against the site owners and operators.

Our tax dollars (or rather our grandchildren's debt to the Asians and the Arabs resulting from our enormous borrowing) at work.

The mods let it sit in NVG for awhile, and the only thing that happened was that this thread developed into a trollfest. The mods cleaned it up significantly prior to moving it here, and now there is some decent discussion ITT. It's too bad that the average NVG**** can't hold one end of an intelligent conversation.

The only "poker news" sites that have picked this story up are the ones that are notorious for simply parroting back posts from 2p2 and pocketfives. It's not that I doubt OP - his statements seem quite plausible - it's that I want to see some solid evidence before I draw conclusions.

+1

There is no evidence atm of what the FBI is doing in regards to FT or any other site, or what is/was the intention of the FBI when visiting the OPs friend. It's all speculation at this point but that doesn't stop some of some of these so called poker "news" type sites or running the story without evidence and report a scare story like this.

Most likely from a processor they busted or shut down. Google Douglas Rennick, Ed Courdy.

They can prove the processor's accounts were used to pay proceeds from online gambling but connecting any site with it's ownership is a bit harder. The older online companies may have been sloppy when they first started but the new poker giants were presumably more careful and pinning down who owns/runs them may be next to impossible.

This navy seal guy was probably interviewed in relation to what is happening with some processor they busted but all those TV commercials might be more than the DOJ can take.

Another scenario would also make it pretty easy. Bank makes routine report on Full Tilt deposit/withdraw to Treasury Department. They would then have persons info, where they deposited from, etc. Not hard at all if Govt decides to crack down on Sites or Players. Banks have been directed for years now to make reports on deposits/wds concerning Online Gambling.

Are you sure about the free part? The Washington State Gambling Commission says the following:

Gambling with free play points
Free play is okay. However, if points accumulated
on a free play site are then used to play on an
Internet gambling site, the points have taken on
“value” and are consideration (a wager or fee).

It's on the fact sheet you can find here

http://www.wsgc.wa.gov/gambling/internet_gambling.asp

Apologies for the minor derail

Quote:
Originally Posted by soulvamp
Google arrogant lawyer blowhard and then come down off your high horse and make your point.


Me, too.

A word to the wise is considered sufficent. I have enough respect for the posters here to trust that those interested might appreciate a research lead.

People in this forum by and large are willing to dig a little. My post was quite a bit short of a "treatise", but was pretty succinct and highly relevant to the thread. I think the discussion was fairly handled by subsequent posters.

(Soulvamp wants to be spoonfed, and NOW. If he was unwilling to do his own research, all he had to do was wait.)

I also agree but what evidence are you looking for? A picture of the FBI at this dude's house?

Washington changes the laws to fit their interests. Recently they lost a case in their own court of appeals, so they decided to change the law instead (Nick Jenkins, betcha.com) Furthermore, they have exemptions for certain types of gambling (e.g. "fishing derbies") and their governor is unequivocally a hypocrite.

It's a remarkably backwards state.

They also continued for some time to print Negreneau's syndicated column even though it was clearly against their laws. I can't explain that either.

Hi Howard!

I have been questioned by the FBI three times as my last workplace was raided by the FBI for other reasons. I told them I played online poker and had played at work as they had confiscated all the work computers. They seemed like they could care less and they have never brought it up in followup questioning.

apparently there IS something going on with FT and players in Washington State.