Feds Show Their Cards On Online Poker: Freeze Funds

from the whoops dept

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


Reader Comments

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  1. icon
    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 ]

  2. identicon
    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 ]

  3. identicon
    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 ]

  4. icon
    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 ]

  5. icon
    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 ]

  6. identicon
    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 ]

  7. identicon
    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 ]

  8. identicon
    Ben, 11 Jun 2009 @ 12:40pm

    I think so

    Natively legal, for sure. Interesting post anyway.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 16 Jun 2009 @ 9:04pm

    our govt is gay

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    online poker rule, 15 Mar 2010 @ 10:35am

    great post

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  11. identicon
    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 ]

  12. identicon
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    Good

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  13. identicon
    casinos, 14 Jun 2010 @ 5:01am

    very nice article as.

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  14. identicon
    cracker, 18 Jun 2010 @ 7:32pm

    I only play for fun and free and BlindHit is the best poker site for me. :)

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  15. icon
    bluefirepoker (profile), 18 Aug 2010 @ 3:25am

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  16. identicon
    Poker Coaching, 7 Oct 2010 @ 3:44pm

    Learn poker

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  17. identicon
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    Poker Coaching is how you'll get better at poker.

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  18. identicon
    Pokers, 27 Oct 2010 @ 12:52pm

    Nice

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    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. icon
    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 ]

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  21. identicon
    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 ]


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