D-day for online poker has arrived

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/April11/scheinbergetalindictmentpr.pdf

In a word, WOW. This is huge. We knew this day would come and I for one thought it would be much earlier than today. I'll have to see if I can login tonight on the poker sites. Not sure if those domains were the ones seized. This is such a joke. On-line poker is no different than the stock market which many more people partake in and much more money is "gambled" every second than what is gambled in on-line poker. This government needs to regulate and tax this instead of indicting people. Even the companies and players want this. When was the last time a industry was begging to be regulated and taxed.


EDIT:

From Pokerati.com

12:20 PM - Pokerstars is starting to block US players from their cash games, and its hard to think the others won’t follow suit.

12:00 PM - News orgs both in and out of poker are starting to come together with their releases. Pokernews is the first (and so far only) poker news site to release something on the subject, whereas the WSJ, Fox Business, and Forbes all have releases as well. At this point I’ll refrain from posting a story unless it reveals any new information, as now the story is gaining traction, but needless to say here is where we stand:

The download IPs to Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars, and the Cereus Network are reported to have been seized by the US Government.
The charges are widely varied and include bank fraud, illegal gambling, money laundering, and UIGEA violations.
The owners of the three sites have been targets, but so far none of them have been apprehended. Some other defendants related to the banking end of the accusations have been arrested and are due for arraignment in the coming days.
About 75 bank accounts in 14 countries have been seized or are in the process of being seized by the US Gov’t in connection with the indictment
As of 12:05 PM PST, UB.com is still seized by the DoJ. fulltiltpoker.com and pokerstars.com are still up and running. All three clients are reported to be up as well.
11:45 AM - Gary Wise (of former Poker Beat and current Pokerstatic & ESPN fame) posted a short blog on the subject. I agree with both things he has said. The sites are in trouble, the DoJ did this for a reason, but poker will go on….it may be much more live-based than online-based after this, but it will go on.

11:30 AM - Just after taking a quick glance at the DoJ’s statement, this is definitely the real deal and likely the result of years of investigation. In other words, they aren’t messing around. The fact that SDNY is asking for $3 BILLION dollars in damages certainly suggests they plan on bankrupting the companies involved and shut them down. Of course in any civil case you generally don’t get as much money as you ask for….but the repercussions for online poker in the US now that the Department of Justice has definitively said “what these sites do is ILLEGAL” could be massive.

11:20 AM – Marketwatch has the first story on this. The indictment is against the founders of the three sites and includes the seizure of 75 bank accounts used by the sites and payment processors. The DoJ has also released the necessary information about the indictment on their website. Looks like its definitely serious.

11:06 AM – This is a fast moving story, so its worth just getting something up now and elaborating later, but it appears that the three biggest US-facing poker rooms, Pokerstars, Full Tilt, and the Cereus Network, have all been hit with illegal gambling charges. Right now UB.com is the only page that I can see that has the “official DOJ notice” of a site seizure, but FTP and Stars are currently still up. If this is true this could mean a world of hurt for US poker players, depending on how things go down.


Wow on-line poker in America will never be the same. Pokerstars already blocking players. Once FTP follows suit, no more on-line poker in America.

Gary Wise with screenshots of the home pages.

This is just the beginning of indictments also. I'm sure Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson will get snapped up also with their association with Full Tilt Poker. I hope not but wouldn't be surprised.