FBI seizes online poker sites

[MMA_scientist]

Well that is where I have my money (5d and BM). I am going to try to cash out Monday. I am going to start depositing just enough to cover my bets. It is stupid of me to keep it all in the online account anyway.

[Svino]

I wouldn't keep too much in. (Certainly no more than the 5k or so that triggers mandatory reporting.) But of course, it's expensive to make a lot of transactions because these sites always find a way to charge for cash-outs.

[Luke]

Well that is where I have my money (5d and BM). I am going to try to cash out Monday. I am going to start depositing just enough to cover my bets. It is stupid of me to keep it all in the online account anyway.

I think you'll be ok with 5dimes and BM. I'd probably withdraw money too if I had just got a lot back from matchbook

[Svino]

From what I can find, only the sites PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were targeted so far. But I think all internet gambling sites have to do this kind of illegal shit to operate in the US. It's not legal for US financial institutions to make these transactions, so the bookies either have to fool them or bribe them.

[Vandelay]

I think their main priority is poker sites. If they shut down Bodog or Betus (which i consider to be the biggest and most accessible sites), then i think were fucked. Until then, im not too worried about it. 5dimes doesn't accept a huge amount of US customers anyway and i'm pretty sure their main deposit method is cash transfers.

[Thewisemann]

i have around $3,000 or so in 5d and bookmaker, all pending at this point. im cashing it out if i can

[Luke]

mmaweekly:

A major player in the world of MMA sponsorships may have just come to an end.
Federal indictments were handed down on Friday naming three major poker sites: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, and the companies’ executives.
Online gambling is illegal in the U.S., but several sites have found ways to work around the laws, but the Federal government cracked down on the sites on Friday. According to a report from the L.A. Times, the affiliates involved with the sites were charged with bank fraud and money laundering with several arrests already made.
“These defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.
The poker sites have been shut down by the government, and while some people may still be able to access them currently, it will only be a matter of time before they are shut down completely and inaccessible.
In the MMA world, poker sites had become a major sponsor of fighters and promotions over the past several years. One manager speaking to MMAWeekly.com on Friday stated that many of the poker sponsorships rivaled the money of what any two or three other sponsors could offer, and the poker sites considered it ‘chump change.’
Full Tilt Poker, who had been a major sponsor of many fighters in the UFC, have been banned from sponsorships in the organization for the past two years. While speculation ran wild that the UFC kicked Full Tilt Poker out for being a competitor to Zuffa owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta’s own casinos, sources have indicated it was for a different reason altogether.
Independent sources confirmed to MMAWeekly.com that one of the major reasons the UFC banned the online poker site had more to do with the company wanting to avoid dealing with a sponsor who was allegedly doing illegal business. The Federal government has long sniffed around the online poker industry. UFC officials read the writing on the wall, choosing not to do business with companies in that industry.
Prosecutors in the case are looking to shut down the sites permanently, send their executives to jail, and recover over $3 billion dollars from the companies.
Bellator Fighting Championships had also banned the online poker sites from sponsorships, but companies like Full Tilt Poker remained in place as sponsors of fighters in Strikeforce.
It’s unknown at this time how fast the money currently owed to some fighters might get pulled or paid out. The company websites had all been shut down and seized as of Friday night, but it’s unclear what business will be going forward in regards to sponsorships for fighters.

[poopoo333]

I ain't scared homie.

[Luke]

I ain't scared homie.

+1

[Luke]

[Luke]

Here's how it got started :

The internet is still coming to grips with the huge online gambling bust that just took down the U.S.'s three biggest online poker sites.
But Australia's Courier-Mail newspaper already has the scoop on the one man who may have single-handedly built the online industry ... then handed it to the U.S. government on a platter.
According to this story, Daniel Tzvetkoff was a young Australian entrepreneur who set up the payment processing schemes used by the biggest poker sites to handle their (mostly illegal) transactions.
He is described by those who know him as a "boy wonder" and "genius" who started his first company at 13 and knew all the intricacies of e-commerce.
He made Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars millions of dollars — and made as much as $150,000 a day for himself — but then got even more greedy and started taking their. They sued him, accusing Tzvetkoff of taking more than $100 million of their money.
Then last April, Tzvetkoff was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with the same crimes those sites' founders were charged with today: money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud. As an Australian citizen with a lot of cash, he was considered a flight risk and denied bail.
Then after a "secret" meeting with prosecutors last August, he was suddenly out on bail. And now his former colleagues are the ones facing serious prison time.
Daniel Tzvetkoff knows the operations of these poker sites inside and out. It was knowledge of the financial industry that allowed them to operate. He's the one man positioned to give the U.S. Attorneys everything they needed to take down their businesses.
And it looks like that's exactly what he did, cooperating with the authorities to avoid his own lengthy jail sentence.
All the major gambling prosecutions in the U.S. since Tzvetkoff's arrest have been run out of the office of Arlo Devlin-Brown, the Manhattan Asst. U.S. Attorney who is Tzvetkoff's "handler."
According to a source, Tzvetkoff "knows how to reverse-engineer transactions to determine its original source," making him very valuable to investigators.
And the biggest irony of all? It's been rumored that the only reason the FBI got their hands on him is because Full Tilt or Poker Stars (the companies he used to work for and stole from) tipped off the FBI that he was going to be traveling to the United States last year.
They ratted him out ... and he turned the tables. No honor among thieves.
And as the Courier Mail put it, if this were still the old days, he'd buried in the Las Vegas desert right now.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/boy-g...#ixzz1JerWhg5g

[zY|]

LOL at 'business as usual'.

[edman5555]

God damn I can't log into 5 dimes. I have 2 grand in there.

[edman5555]

I just requested all my money from Bodog. Taking out 1336.

[edman5555]

Shit nevermind bitches. I'm in! Time to withdraw.