It’s not been a great month or so for online poker websites in the USA – and it’s got much worse after the Department of Justice (DoJ) shut down 10 more “illegal” gambling domains, ranging from bookies to poker sites.
Just over a month after ‘Black Friday’ rocked the poker world when three websites – Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars – were shut down, a federal grand jury in Baltimore has charged two firms and three defendants with money laundering and conducting illegal gambling business.
There followed an undercover operation, conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, into payment processing in the USA that resulted in Doyle’s Room and TruePoker being shut down.
As with the seizures of the first three domains on April 15, the homepages for the above sites have been replaced with a message from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The DoJ also froze 11 bank accounts that are located in the Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Panama, Guam and North Carolina.
Additionally, David Parchomchuk and Darren Wright, of ThrillX – a Canadian-based company that operates as BetEd and which provides online sportsbook software and casino software – and Ann Marie Puig, from Cyprus-based BMX Entertainment, which runs six online gambling sites, have been indicted on two counts.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) representatives, as well as Homeland Security and Immigrations and Rod J. Rosenstein – the US Attorney for Maryland – issued the indictments.
The indictments contend that the three defendants manage and own illegal offshore gambling companies and rely on the US banking system to make possible the movement of money, with Rosenstein stating that “it is illegal for Internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland” – no matter “where the website operator is located”.
He added that “we cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country”.
The three defendants could face five years’ imprisonment if convicted of operating an illegal gambling business, while there is a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail for money laundering. No court appearances have so far been scheduled.
Several poker websites have been attempting to distance themselves from the US market since last month’s crackdown, with Victory Poker – which runs the Cake Poker Network – opting to ban American players from their sites.
After this week’s developments, it seems likely that many more sites will follow Victory Poker’s example, with Bodog Poker having already announced that visitors to BodogBrand.com will be redirected to Bodog.eu.
Poker legend Doyle Brunson, meanwhile, has apparently been attempting to leave DoylesRoom – which is incorporated and licensed in Cyprus – while also insisting that his name be removed from the site.
However, there was some good news for poker site operators with the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday clearing an early version of a regulated online gambling bill.
The bill proposes that the state create a regulatory and licensing process for online poker and have it primed to be ready if the federal government legalises Internet gambling.
The bill will now head to the Senate for a vote that could be staged this week.
Meanwhile, one of the first sites to be hit by the DoJ, Full Tilt Poker, have announced updates for American poker players still waiting to receive funds.
A statement pointed out that they are “absolutely committed to making sure that US players are refunded as soon as possible”, but “apologise for the delay” on that promise as they “underestimated the time it would take to work through these issues”.
The statement concluded by saying that “we will update our US players when we have more specific information to provide”.
The seized domains are:
- Doylesroom.com
- Truepoker.com
- Beted.com
- Bookmaker.com
- 2Betsdi.com
- Funtimebingo.com
- Goldenarchcasino.com
- Betmaker.com
- Betgrandesports.com
- Betehorse.com