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Updated 19.19GMT - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker & Absolute indicted !
Tags: Absolute Poker, Bank fraud, Full tilt poker, Illegal gambling, Money laundering, PokerStars.
Posted on 16 April 2011 by "A".

ATTAN U. S. ATTORNEY CHARGES PRINCIPALS OF THREE LARGEST INTERNET POKER COMPANIES WITH BANK FRAUD, ILLEGAL GAMBLING OFFENSES AND LAUNDERING BILLIONS IN ILLEGAL GAMBLING PROCEEDS.

On Friday, the founds of online poker's "Big Three" was indicted by federal authorities. The founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were indicted on charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. In addition more than 75 bank accounts used by the online poker companies (and payment processors) and 5 domain names was seized (restraining oders issued).

The allegations revolves around the companies trying to circumvent federal laws by tricking U. S. banks into processing payments after UIGEA was passed.

As of now both PokerStars & Full Tilt Poker has shut down real money play for U. S. Players. Players from other countries can however play as normal. PokerStars.com now redirects to PokerStars.eu.

PokerStars has issued the following statement (via pop-up in client):

"As you may have heard, we have had to suspend real money poker services to people based in the US due to legal developments there. The developments are confined to the US and do not have any impact on your ability to continue using our services. Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern. For all customers outside the US it is business as usual."

"The PokerStars website has been moved to www.pokerstars.eu and our support e-mail address is now [email protected]. We apologize to our players for any inconvenience caused by this disruption. Please be aware that we are currently experiencing a very high volume of e-mails, so response times are delayed. We will answer player e-mails as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter."

Full Tilt Poker wrote in parts of their statement:

"Unfortunately, as a result of this action, Full Tilt Poker has decided that it must suspend "real money" play in the United States until this case is resolved. However, Full Tilt Poker will continue to provide peer-to-peer online poker services outside of the United States."

We at BRM will try and keep you updated during the day as events unfold.

Justice dept. official press release: http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April11/scheinbergtalindictmentpr.pdf

U. S. players can as of now still avail our PlayersOnly & Bodog - no deposit offers.

Moneybookers NOT affected (UPDATED 16/4-2011 17.31 GMT):

Official statement from MoneyBookers stated the following:

"Moneybookers is not part of this investigation and have not been approached by any authority. As a general principle we never process transactions for online gambling purposes including poker for US citizens."

Onyx Cup - cancelled (UPDATED 16/4-2011 19.19 GMT):

According to Poker News a spokesperson from Full Tilt Poker has confirmed, that in light of recent events, the Onyx Cup poker series has been cancelled. 

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42 comments on "Updated 19.19GMT - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker & Absolute indicted !"

Displaying only the 25 latest comments. To view all comments, please visit the forum thread:
» Updated 19.19GMT - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker & Absolute indicted !


 linndy16/04/2011 15:42:53 GMT
we are all mad but there is not much we can do.... at least not that i know of.. i am sure they will keep all my money now, i didn't have enough to cash out Sad
 Niklas9116/04/2011 15:51:13 GMT
Surely some bad news for US residents :O

But again.. This would have happen anyways later on, if not now.. So not that big a surprise -.-
 Greenmohave16/04/2011 15:56:16 GMT
Yes! The mighty U.S. where freedom is B.S. I've worked and paid taxes since I was 12 years old starting with a paper route and have worked all these years and paid for what freedom. Freedom for the U.S. to tell me what I can do or can't do. No real freedom here. When I can't play poker without the governments approval then we all know what the word freedom is in the U.S. It's a line of B.S. in which I'm sick of. The U.S. intervenes in every countries business and wants to dictate how the world should be ran. Up yours U.S.! Tired of your definition of freedom.
 rbdflyboy16/04/2011 16:06:37 GMT
I think FTP is now shut down, I can't even bring up the site. I was playing FR's earlier...not now!
 B1gfoot16/04/2011 16:12:35 GMT
@Greenmohave not just the US but mainly, feel free to come over to the UK and live under our democratic dictatorship Australia are pretty much the same too...mahhh at least we rule the world I guess...Ohh how do you say "im sorry please forgive us" in Chinese...never mind im sure my grankids will teach me...
 daraspol16/04/2011 16:16:54 GMT
Posted by Greenmohave:
Yes! The mighty U.S. where freedom is B.S. I've worked and paid taxes since I was 12 years old starting with a paper route and have worked all these years and paid for what freedom. Freedom for the U.S. to tell me what I can do or can't do. No real freedom here. When I can't play poker without the governments approval then we all know what the word freedom is in the U.S. It's a line of B.S. in which I'm sick of. The U.S. intervenes in every countries business and wants to dictate how the world should be ran. Up yours U.S.! Tired of your definition of freedom.


Really good post... the entire truth... Thumbs Up
 schmoyster16/04/2011 16:31:43 GMT
I feel very sorry about American poker players but the situation is extremely bad for online players in all countries. The panic is spreading and many non-American players are cashing out of FT and PS to be on the safe side. If the sites will not cope with coming wave of cashouts they might become history. The next couple of weeks will be crucial for these poker rooms. I decided not to cash out in haste and appeal that you do the same.
 rbdflyboy16/04/2011 16:47:38 GMT
It's back..just started up again...playin FR now.
 B1gfoot16/04/2011 17:49:53 GMT
To be honest, it was allways going to happen, FT and PS gave the US law the big "vs" your govenment could not take that, I did not see them doing it to outher govenments such as the french, no they obayed thier laws and went about setting up a site for them to play on, the US had to act on this crime, yep its a crime, poker has not been made illigal for you to play just regulations put in place.
Im actually thinking FT and PS deserve what they are getting, they are greedy and belived they were above the laws....
If I dont like a law for what ever reason, I can not just do what i please, they took a gamble and they lost....heres a song about it...
 Macubaas16/04/2011 17:51:16 GMT
I heard the news first time in the morning. First thing that i did was to check my pokerstars and full tilt poker accounts. There was an software update on both sites that worked out fine and after the installation was complete i was able to acces my account son both poker sites.
Once i was in nothing bad happend, i mean all my money were there, i could even withdraw, so all was good. After that i opened a few tables and to my surprise there were actually some us players on the tables, not cash tables but tournaments on full tilt poker.
I didn't saw any us player on pokerstars though. I understand now there aren't any us players on full tilt poker either. This situation sucks big time, i hope you can get your money back.
 RAPEZOMBIE16/04/2011 18:14:30 GMT
amen, its like nazi germany i swear Aww crap!
 B1gfoot16/04/2011 20:04:05 GMT
Onyx Cup - cancelled well guess its not to much of a shock, just thinking of the knock on effect, WSOP wont be as busy as last year I guess.

Anouther update - PokerStars update to the guaranteed prizepools.

Nightly Hundred Grand => $70,000 guarantee
Nightly Seventy Grand => $30,000 guarantee
Wednesday Quarter Million => $100,000 guarantee
Sunday Million => $1 million guarantee (down from $1.5 million)
Sunday 2nd Chance => $125,000 guarantee (down from $200,000)
Sunday 500 => $250,000 guarantee (down from $500,000)
 secondgunner16/04/2011 22:12:40 GMT
Until you guys confirmed that was aprils fools, I thought that Ivey quiting poker play could be somehow connected Smile
 SuperNoob16/04/2011 22:20:00 GMT
really sad news for online poker, lots of players gone from poker sites. so they will surely suffer, dnt see any hope of issue being resolved.
just wonder who'll be number one / two poker sites now
 rbdflyboy17/04/2011 03:11:50 GMT
It's confirmed enough for me. My icon doesn't work and I went to the FTP site and its locked-out.
 emilszczaw17/04/2011 10:28:03 GMT
I hope that non-USA players will have some promotions which encourage us to continue playing
 timborep17/04/2011 12:13:41 GMT
look on the bright side karmas gonna fill thous crooked ceos @$$es for screwing us for years
 swolocius17/04/2011 12:59:20 GMT
any US players that want to use my account in Fulltilt ( i have 2 there) or pokerstars(3 there) let me know...private message me...
i
 Flippedchips17/04/2011 13:26:36 GMT
Posted by B1gfoot:
Onyx Cup - cancelled well guess its not to much of a shock, just thinking of the knock on effect, WSOP wont be as busy as last year I guess.

Anouther update - PokerStars update to the guaranteed prizepools.

Nightly Hundred Grand => $70,000 guarantee
Nightly Seventy Grand => $30,000 guarantee
Wednesday Quarter Million => $100,000 guarantee
Sunday Million => $1 million guarantee (down from $1.5 million)
Sunday 2nd Chance => $125,000 guarantee (down from $200,000)
Sunday 500 => $250,000 guarantee (down from $500,000)


alot of that is wrong b1gfoot the sunday storm old 1/4 mill is down from 300k to 200k and the sunday warm up is down from 750k to 500k
 Fakiry17/04/2011 14:24:13 GMT
Its in all portuguese tabloids, when i saw it this morning i couldnt believe the names of the poker rooms i was reading, once they are the ones with most credibility among online players. Perhaps this has nothing to do with Pokerstars owners and only involves people who used they acounts to make transfers of huge amounts of money, with excuse of being playing poker.
 grnfing3r17/04/2011 14:52:30 GMT
it wont even let me open ftp. it says software update then sorry coouldnt update then close...ugh wtf make a deal cut ur losses and get the site going
 arsenej117/04/2011 14:55:19 GMT
Posted by swolocius:
any US players that want to use my account in Fulltilt ( i have 2 there) or pokerstars(3 there) let me know...private message me...
i


lol very nice!! lets make multible accounts sell them to the americans so they can have there accounts closed agin..way to rubber in aaaaaa hole
 Kristan17/04/2011 18:15:53 GMT
Found out about if few hours ago, as friday was party up time and yesterday spent whole day with my little princess.

Anyways - fkn insane. Havent played at PS for 4 months now i think, had little over 100$ in there..

Thats just crazy lol - weve been here debatting about the full tilt jurisdiction boarders and money loundery once after a while and now it finally all happened... Wonder whats going to happen next:O
 mazas18/04/2011 07:33:01 GMT
i think soon all be good they ll pay this miliards and still will work in this usa country becouse if they leave it they loose to many
its only my opinion
good luck and have fun
 bummy202021/04/2011 23:04:38 GMT
BASICALLY THE US GOVERNMENT SUCKS!!! IM A US CITIZEN AND I THINK THIS IS A COMPLETE POWER MOVE ON THEIR PART. SAD TO THINK THAT THEY CAN TELL US WHAT WE CAN DO WITH OUR OWN MONEY. WHATS NEXT...ARE THEY GOING TO TELL US WHICH TOILET PAPER TO WIPE OUR ASS WITH!!!

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