Reports have turned up that FBI agents in Washington state are interviewing online gambling customers of Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt is one of the largest Internet poker sites and may be the first case of a gambling operator being prosecuted through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
Small-time players on the twoplustwo poker forum said they have received unannounced visits form FBI agents asking about their transactions with Full Tilt. The agents are not looking to prosecute the players, but instead gather information on Full Tilt. This could be an indication of an information gathering process to build a federal case against Full Tilt.
Washington was probably targeted because it is one of the few states where online poker is illegal. Players from the state have been contacted and warned that charges against them are pending. The UIGEA only penalizes violators under existing gambling laws, so gambling operators accepting Washington residents would fall under those existing laws. Internet gaming in Washington is a felony, so reluctant gamblers will be pressure to cooperate, unlike the past with other jurisdictions.
The UIGEA takes effect June 1st, unless Congress changes or repeals the law before then. Barney Frank’s bill is trying to regulate online gambling before that date. Full Tilt could be in for a load of hurt as the Department of Justice could give the gaming operator so much financial and legal trouble as to force it out of the U.S. market. Full Tilt is the second largest online poker site.
In the past, Mastercard has wanted to block deposits made by United States residents at online gambling. But, they could not identify a coding system that would stop payments only from those they wanted to exclude from going through. Instead, they were processed as uncoded transactions.
Now, Mastercard has figured out a way to prevent those attempted online gambling transactions at online casino and online poker sites from being processed. In the future, online gambling sites may figure a way around it. But, for now, if you live in the U.S., online gaming sites are blocked for Mastercard users.
This comes at a time when online gambling is at a crossroad. The UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was delayed from the beginning of this year to June 1st. So, the online casino world is waiting to see if Congress will pass Barney Frank’s online gambling bills. Basically, it doesn’t look good for online gambling until the UIGEA is abolished and U.S. Congress adopts the online gambling bills as law. In the meantime, online gambling software needs a way to be effectively blocked, just in case the UIGEA is enacted. Then, credit card companies must be ready to put the blocks in place or face the legal repercussions.
Visa has not solved the coding problem as effectively as Mastercard, so players that use Visa credit cards are still able to make online casino deposits with them. Online gambling sites are still processing them as uncoded transactions. This may be temporary for Visa, which could use the methods discovered by Mastercard. In the past, financial institutions have wrongfully blocked gambling transactions that shouldn’t have been blocked, such as lottery tickets. All in all, this is not good news for online gamblers in the U.S.
What do Doyle Brunson, David “The Devilfish” Ulliot and Phil Laak all have in common other than being able to beat you at poker? Well, they all have their own online poker sites. The Cake Poker Network has announced that Laak will get his own site called Unabomber Poker. It will feature Laak in action on the network and a blog by him.
Laak is known for his trademark gray hoodie and sunglasses patterned after the forensic sketch of notorious convicted mail bomber Theodore Kaczynski. He has made the big time after joining the online poker world, similar to DoylesRoom with Brunson and Devilfish Poker with Ulliot. Unabomber Poker will be similar to many other sites on the Cake Poker Network, where players earn gold chips and gold cards to be exchanged for cash, merchandise or free play in tournaments. The site will also participate in the network’s premier monthly event, the $250,000 Guaranteed online poker tournament.
Laak is known for his great play and exuberant behavior at the poker table, which includes push-ups, talking to the cards and offering buyouts to players to show their winning hands. He came onto the scene in 2004 with a World Poker Tour Invitational win. He was a runner-up in 2005 at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event, losing to Johnny Chan who earned his tenth bracelet. In just six years, Laak has earned more than $1.8 million from the tournament poker circuit. Laak is also in the highest-profile poker relationship with former WSOP Ladies’ Champion Jennifer Tilly. He was on the television show based on their prop bets around the United States called “I Bet You” with longtime friend Antonio Esfandiari.
The Cake Poker Network is adding other poker rooms, such as 7Win Poker, Redback Poker, Amsterdams Poker, Safari Poker, Dimeline, Rags2Riches Poker, and Burro Poker. These bring the network total to 55 online poker sties. According to PokerScout.com, the network is in the top ten in the industry by cash game traffic with an average of 2,100 real money ring game players.