If there’s one thing the American DOJ has made clear it’s that they are ready and more than willing to enforce their strict interpretation of the UIGEA, the Black Friday indictments were evidence of that.
As a result, many international operators who had landed on Plymouth Rock have switched gears and gotten the hell out of dodge, before Plymouth Rock lands on them. Many, but not all.
Since Black Friday, the Merge Network hasn’t exactly made the best effort to avoid conflict with the DOJ, and by still allowing existing players to continue playing for real money, which is a big “No-no” in the DOJ’s books.
Subject: Poker is currently reporting a planned US Department of Justice action against the Merge Gaming Network in some capacity. According to Subject: Poker sources, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland plans to seize the assets of payment processors who facilitated transactions between the Merge Network and its US customers.
Subject: Poker couldn’t say exactly which payment processors are reportedly being targeted or whether indictments are planned in addition to seizures, or whether the DOJ intends to seize domain names as well.
According to the Subject: Poker report, the seizures were planned for mid- to late-September, but given the fact that the news has now gone public, that now may be subject to change.
Subject: Poker speculates that if the DOJ does follow through, customers would unlikely be able to withdraw before seizures occur because currently, withdrawals on Merge take over a month to reach customers.
As Subject: Poker reports, “If Merge and its payment processors begin to move funds in an attempt to avoid potential DOJ action, this could lead to further processing delays and possibly even bounced checks. Again, because of the slow withdrawals on the Merge Network, it is unlikely that players withdrawing now would be able to avoid such problems; they may instead simply be subject to delays and possible failed transactions.”
