BLACK FRIDAY ONLINE POKER INDICTMENTS — LATEST UPDATES

Steven Stradbrooke
April 16, 2011
34 Comments

black-friday-pokerstars-full-tilt-smallThis story is obviously evolving rapidly, so bear with us as we try to summarize the latest casualty figures. Meantime, here are links to the main Department of Justice documents:

READ THE DoJ PRESS RELEASE ON THE INDICTMENT

READ THE FULL CRIMINAL CHARGES

READ THE FULL CIVIL COMPLAINT

First off, looks like Sen. Harry Reid’s going to get that blackout period after all… (Sorry, too soon?)

✖ In the day’s least surprising news, those US land-based casino giants are all disavowing the online poker deals they struck just weeks ago. Wynn Resorts says it has “terminated” its deal with PokerStars, while Fertitta Interactive says its deal with Full Tilt was always contingent on the poker company getting a US gaming license, and so the deal has thus “expired.” We take that definition as having nothing to do with anything time-related, but more to do with the ‘breathing its last’ connotation.

✖ Full Tilt’s CEO Raymond Bitar has released a statement saying he is “surprised and disappointed by the government’s decision to bring these charges,” although he is looking forward “to my exoneration.” In the meantime, Full Tilt recognizes that it “must suspend ‘real money’ play in the US until this case is resolved.”

✖ PokerStars has also suspended US real money play and changed the default URL on its associated sites to PokerStars.eu. Money transfers have also been disabled. ESPN’s Andrew Feldman is speculating that the affected poker sites will shut down across the globe within 48 hours.

✖ Chad Elie, the payment processing figure (and former Intabill staffer) arrested in Nevada, appeared in US Magistrate Court in Las Vegas on Friday, and was subsequently released on his own recognizance (and, presumably, that of his FBI shadow) with a hearing scheduled in a New York court for this Tuesday (19th).

✖ Richard Perkins, the former Nevada politician and current PokerStars lobbyist, claims the push to pass the PokerStars-sponsored intrastate poker legislation AB 258 will soldier on despite the day’s events, as the bill “is not just about this company, it is about the policy of this state.”

✖ The Poker Players Alliance released a statement saying, in part, they were “shocked” by the DoJ’s actions. The PPA was good enough to note that “online poker is not a crime” but that’s not exactly what the DoJ is alleging here.

✖ Former Intabill head Daniel Tzvetkoff – who handled hundreds of millions for PokerStars, Full Tilt and others, plus allegedly funneling millions more into his own pockets — is being fingered as the canary singing loudest into DoJ ears. (Australia’s Courier Mail has a feature detailing the payment processing boy-wonder/Icarus and his subsequent fall from grace.)

✖ The scope of the internal company emails the DoJ has in its possession appears formidable. Our current personal favorite is the Sept. 29, 2009 message in which John Campos, the SunFirst Bank vice-chairman arrested in Utah on Friday, refers to a lawyer warning Campos of the risks involved in processing online gambling payments as a “wet blanket.”

✖ Among the details revealed in the emails is the wide variety of e-commerce websites used by the poker sites to handle transactions, including sites purporting to sell flowers, pet supplies, golf clubs, bicycles, clothing and/or jewelry. There was also a Green2YourGreen site that claimed to be a “direct sales” business in which consumers purchased enviro-friendly household products for resale to other customers in return for commissions. The site allegedly went as far as to include bogus ‘testimonials’ from satisfied customers re the green products. A DoJ sting apparently had two gamblers send queries to these phony co’s customer service re the charges that appeared on their bank statements, only to receive replies sent from PokerStars’ customer service.

✖ Worse, these emails directly indicate the poker companies’ complicity in these schemes, with PokerStars documents admitting that they were employing company names that “strongly imply the transaction has nothing to do with PokerStars” and that they used whatever names “the processor can get approved by the bank.”

✖ Is anyone buying the DoJ claim that these poker companies took in “one-third or more of the funds deposited by gamblers” via the rake? Makes the French regulated market look positively generous.

✖ It remains to be seen how foreign governments will react to the DoJ’s call for arrests of the indicted figures living outside the US, and for assets abroad to be seized.

✖ Finally, a big thumbs-down to FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk, who decided to pepper her statement to the press with poker-related terminology. To wit: “These defendants … tried to stack the deck. They … bet the house that they could continue their scheme, and they lost.” Epic humor fail, Jan…

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Tags: Absolute Poker, Article, Department of Justice, Full Tilt, indictment, PokerStars, Ultimate Bet
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  • http://www.conspiracy.me Wnmitch

    This is ridiculous. The feds just want to monopolize the revenue for themselves and convince you, the American people that you want it that way and that it will help the deficit.

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  • Not A Merkin

    “Land Of The Free”, oh yeah.

  • Fishhead2

    Dont understand why they went after these 3? Is it because they are by far the 3 biggest?

  • http://www.streakgaming.com/forum/black-friday-online-poker-indictments-latest-updates-t26545.html#post203356 Anonymous

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  • grndnmthfckz

    good luck

  • Rcasterline

    Hasn’t been the land of the free in a long time. This is just one step of many that has brought us closer to The People’s Republic of America.

  • Leo

    land of the monopoly! seems like uncle sam has a hidden interest with online gaming now.. i mean very SERIOUS interest.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_F2QE3X35R3U42OGDGHATB5AOVU COMIC

    It was a black friday for online poker, but not all hope is lost. It seems the sites are up again at fulltilpoker uk and pokerstars eu but real money games and deposits are blocked for US players.

  • http://CalvinAyre.com Calvin Ayre

    ya..these three were in a league of their own..still are internationally.

  • Craig_Christ

    Im an infantrymen in afghanistan in i can tell you this pisses me off to all end fukn cock sucker take anything and everything people have for fun and fuck it all up. if they wana take the rake wtf ever fuck it idc im way up on these sites lol they can rake shit players to death maybe they will learn and wont play no harm no foul and for what make a few people rich so millions can have fun… fuck it have a mercedes or 2 i dont give a flying fuck! god dam america get your fuckn shit togather!

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  • http://twitter.com/pokerwaldorf Gary

    ✖ Is anyone buying the DoJ claim that these poker companies took in “one-third or more of the funds deposited by gamblers” via the rake? Makes the French regulated market look positively generous.

    Yes that is about the right ratio. An online gaming company can expect that every $1 deposited will generate between 25% and 40% rake, dependant on whether they are a tournament centric or cash centric site. Lots of variables related to player quality, but Stars and Tilt will dilute player quality / mix issues with sheer size, so looks right to me.

    Been working in industry for years – hence knowledge.

  • Calperch29

    american communist pigs

  • It's Not Fraud on Players

    This is so ridiculous! The Federal Government going after the company where people want to play poker. It has nothing to do with collusion on the game or anything about the integrity and fairness of its game. Instead, they go after this theory of “fraud”. Every player that deposited these monies knows exactly where it was going; there is not one player who got defrauded. They are saying, the banks got defrauded when it's not even the Bank's money.

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  • Wewewew

    mega bitch fbi janice… find something real to do with your time like stopping real crime

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