Finally, A MLB Team Gets A Deal For In-Market Online Streaming

Feds Show Their Cards On Online Poker: Freeze Funds

from the whoops dept

Tue, Jun 9th 2009 6:41pm — Mike Masnick

For years, the federal government has insisted that online poker in the US is illegal, and reinforced it by tacking on punishment for payment processors who process gambling payments onto a totally unrelated bill about harbor safety. Poker players, on the other hand, have insisted for years that there are no laws against online poker -- in part because the laws are all against games of chance, whereas poker is a game of skill. This position received a small boost recently when a judge agreed that poker was a game of skill rather than chance. On top of this, there's been an ongoing effort underway (led by Barney Frank) to specifically make it clear that online poker is legal. However, until that bill goes anywhere, the feds apparently still believe it's very much illegal and have now started going after the payment processors, freezing the funds of payment processors who work with a variety of online poker sites. Expect quite a legal battle to follow.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: feds, frozen, funds, legality, online poker

21 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Hulser (profile), 9 Jun 2009 @ 8:16pm

WSoSM
There's a reason that there's no such thing as the World Series of Slot Machines.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Paradox, 9 Jun 2009 @ 8:29pm

Point of View
Depends on your point of view on 'new things'.
Is something natively Legal, or Illegal?

Are they trying to expand gambling prohibitions beyond their bounds?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ronster, 9 Jun 2009 @ 9:31pm

Re: Point of View
Nothing is natively illegal! For something to be illegal, there has to be a law expressing exactly that point.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
iyogi (profile), 9 Jun 2009 @ 9:39pm

RE:
The PPA will pursue every legal course available to ensure that poker players' funds are not seized and their right to play poker online is protected.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Paul Brinker (profile), 9 Jun 2009 @ 10:55pm

Anyone care to notice freezing credit card processors is a bad thing? im sure there like my credit card processing company in that there are a TON of companys who use them. Telling all of those people that the gov just froze your payments when geting credit is already a pain in the ass can spell death to companys who rely on cash flow down to the day or week.

if you dont think thats correct just realise that for a small store you can have 10,000 in payroll, sales tax (paid quaritly or daily).

a lot of companys are running a vary narrow edge and the gov locking away all the credit card payments is a really bad thing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dan, 10 Jun 2009 @ 12:13am

The moral is this: Only our state run gambling is legal. The house always wins!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jason, 10 Jun 2009 @ 10:07am

Re: Point of View
Natively legal/illegal?

Do you mean malum prohibitum vs. mala in se? Or what the hell do you mean?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ben, 11 Jun 2009 @ 12:40pm

I think so
Natively legal, for sure. Interesting post anyway.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2009 @ 9:04pm

our govt is gay
[ link to this | view in thread ]
online poker rule, 15 Mar 2010 @ 10:35am

great post
http://www.pokerplayrules.com/ is one of best resource for learning poker rules. Here you can find information on everything from rules to kitchen table home poker games, to where you can enter million dollar tournaments online. We have explained the poker rules for dozens of games, including all of your favorites like Texas Hold'em and Omaha, as well as some rarities like Anaconda and Trees (you never heard about this game earlier). We recommend browsing around the site to find the poker rules you would like to learn.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
poker show, 6 May 2010 @ 9:05am

nice post
The moral is this: Only our state run gambling is legal. The house always wins!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
stew biff, 8 May 2010 @ 1:40am

Good
This Post on Cards On Online Poker is very interesting jeux casino
[ link to this | view in thread ]
casinos, 14 Jun 2010 @ 5:01am

very nice article as.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
cracker, 18 Jun 2010 @ 7:32pm

I only play for fun and free and BlindHit is the best poker site for me. :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
bluefirepoker (profile), 18 Aug 2010 @ 3:25am

Great post
Thanks for sharing useful information, now playing poker online is very interesting na...First you complete your .Poker Training then you play it's best for you and you enjoy it a lot..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Poker Coaching, 7 Oct 2010 @ 3:44pm

Learn poker
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Learn Poker, 7 Oct 2010 @ 3:46pm

Poker Coaching is how you'll get better at poker.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pokers, 27 Oct 2010 @ 12:52pm

Nice
Hey, Great blog design and posts, like it ! Thanks see you soon.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
casinoetp (profile), 17 Feb 2011 @ 5:01am

Pro's and con's
there are pro's and con's to the poker issue but forbidding something makes that thing even more attractive, so forbidding online poker doesn't mean that people will stop playing it, right?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
machine a sous sans telechargement, 20 May 2011 @ 3:17am

machine a sous sans telechargement
[ link to this | view in thread ]
New Poker Star, 28 Jan 2014 @ 2:45am

online poker games
It's not illegal to bet online with an off-shore poker room! There is NO federal law that makes the act of wagering online illegal. The only federal law that addresses gambling is the wire act from the 1960's which makes it illegal to place wagers via the telephone.
Poker Games
[ link to this | view in thread ]