Today is being called the Black Friday of Poker. The US Department of Justice has seized the following domain names of the Top US poker sites:
- FullTiltPoker.com
- PokerStars.com
- AbsolutePoker.com
- UB.com
- UltimateBet.com
In addition to the 5 domain names, a federal judge issued a restraining order against 76 bank accounts (payment processors) in 14 countries utilized by those online poker firms.
The indictment filed by Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, charges Isai Scheinberg, the founder of PokerStars, and Raymond Bitar, the founder of Full Tilt Poker, as well as nine other individuals, accusing them of operating illegal gambling businesses and violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) enacted in 2006.
All 11 defendants are listed: in the indictment: Isai Scheinberg, Raymond Bitar, Scott Tom, Brent Beckley, Nelson Burtnick, Paul Tate, Ryan Lang, Bradley Franzen, Ira Rubin, Chad Elie, and John Campos.
It looks like PokerStars has already moved to PokerStars.eu for now and they will not be accepting US poker players anytime soon.
As of now, this is only affecting these 4 poker sites (PokerStars, Full Tilt, Absolute and UB). Casino, Bingo and Sports betting sites are unaffected. We recommend not depositing money into any poker sites for at least a few days to see how the dust settles, but if you want to play at a poker site for US players, Bodog Poker is your best bet for right now.
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