Poker Player Obama Seizes Online Poker Sites?

from the seriously-now? dept

Mon, Apr 18th 2011 1:54pm — Mike Masnick

One of the big stories on Friday was the Federal Government's questionable decision to seize the domain names of some of the biggest poker sites in the world. The indictments against the operators of those sites focus on some of the "money laundering" tactics -- but the early details seem to suggest the only reason some of those sites were doing questionable things to get money was because of the bizarre federal government dislike of poker -- which is mostly driven by big casino lobbying money. Some have been pointing out that President Obama has a history of being a poker player, and even held regular poker games when he was a state Senator in Illinois. Apparently, that kind of gambling is okay. But... this other kind of gambling? Well, the government will come down on you hard for that.

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Filed Under: barack obama, legality, online poker, poker

24 Comments

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dave blevins (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:01pm

Wrongo --- just tax it.
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Irving, 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:22pm

Why wouldn't all businesses just avoid US-controlled TLDs by setting up the sites in other countries? They could carry out their business without worrying about the US's judgement of their suitability.
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:36pm
  
  Re:
  Becuase the internet IS US jurisdiction, or at least that is what they are leading us to believe.
  
  Personally i think it would be a good idea to store dns records in such a fashion that they are part of the multicast group, making it impossible to seize a domain name without seizing all the servers, or shutting down the whole internet. That way if they want to actually get rid of something they will do it, instead of just turning their backs and pretending it is gone.
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- Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:50pm
  
  Re:
  Because then you're just a terrorist...and your country certainly has WMDs.
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weneedhelp (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:42pm

Nobody noticed yet:
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weneedhelp (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:45pm

Nobody noticed yet:
Whoops, dunno what happened there, anyway:

Nobody noticed yet:
"Barack was always focused on anything he did, but he would certainly engage in banter," said Stephen Selcke, a lobbyist for AT&T. "Barack was one of the guys."

Disgusting.
Barack was one of the guys. Y e a h. One of the guys we can pour money in to his pockets and buy legislation. Sickening.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:53pm

Actually the US Casino's are actively trying to get the anti-online gambling laws overturned. Contrary to the tone in the above TD commentary.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/internet-poker-bill-us-casinos-share-online-gambling/s tory?id=12308088
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:00pm
  
  Re:
  And imagine how disappointed they'll be that the DoJ took out their primary competition before it does become regulated.
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:53pm
  
  Re:
  Actually the US Casino's are actively trying to get the anti-online gambling laws overturned. Contrary to the tone in the above TD commentary.
  
  Yeah. They are now. Now that they realized they're missing out. However, when those laws were passed, it was very much due to their lobbying.
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Josef Anvil (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 2:58pm

AC Get it RIght
Yo, AC...

Yes the casinos are trying to overturn the anti-online gambling laws now. For the casinos poker was never a huge profit center, however, once they saw how EXTREMELY profitable it is online, that changed the game.

Now they want in on the action. Getting the major competition arrested is a good ante.
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- The Devil's Coachman (profile), 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:29pm
  
  Re: AC Get it RIght
  The Mafia has always been very good at that,
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johnny canada, 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:26pm

The end of " .com " is coming.

Once the main stream finds out that .com falls under the fancy of the U.S. and Homeland Insecurity.
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hommer, 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:38pm

What I did right away was to go and set up a Neteller account. They are the safest company out there, and last time this happened they paid every one of their customers.
Keep ur money w then than in the poker site. Much safer. US government can't them reach it, and you can get it out w a credit card.
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 4:11pm
  
  Re:
  And thanks for reminding me that they're no longer available to US customers... :(
  
  Ahhh, the good old days... Lots and lots of fish, and no problem moving your BR from site to site via Neteller.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 3:47pm

I wonder if his screen name would be Ace Of Spades.
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Dan, 18 Apr 2011 @ 6:27pm

Funny Thing Is A Few Days Before This,,,,
Hi,

*** Funny thing is�a couple days ago, they �legalized online poker� for: Washington DC***

http://www.tightpoker.com/news/washington-dc-legalizes-online-poker-2338/

______

04/1 6/2011

Already �Un-foreseen Consensuses� as a result of these seizures:

�Domain Seizure Advocates Eat Their Own Medicine�

http://torrentfreak.com/domain-seizure-advocates-eat-their-own-medicine-110416/

Be st
'D'
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Old Timer NW, 19 Apr 2011 @ 6:00pm

Killing off the competition and political payback
I find this very interesting that they're killing off the competition. I think they want to open the way for the Washington District of Columbia. DC is planning on introducing a big gambling operation.

Just what we need, are politicians gambling away America's taxpayers' money in DC another way.
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Clouser, 20 Apr 2011 @ 9:35am

Obama's War on Poker
Libertarian Party retorts:

http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarians-speak-against-obamas-war-on-poker
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Joshy, 20 Apr 2011 @ 11:21am

Yes there might have been a day when the Casino's opposed online gaming. However this is a good story of how an industry doesn't stick there head in the sand like the RIAA and after further consideration threw there support behind a new a untraditional distribution model.

The fallacy that the Casino's are joyful in the shutting down of there competition is easily dismissed. Two of the largest casino operators weeks before the shutdown announced partnerships with the online gaming sites that are now shut down.
Furthermore much of the ad revenue for many of the broadcast poker games along with the majority of tournament players (some say as much as 80% of the players are staked at the big competitions by the sites now closed and by winning online) This cuts out much of the new blood being introduced to poker who become regulars at the casino's. Again I'm saddened by the tone this TD article takes.

http://www.streetinsider.com/Insiders+Blog/Major+Casino+Operators+Partner+With+the+Two+Largest+O nline+Poke+Sites+In+Push+To+Legalize+Internet+Gambling/6399207.html

http://blogs.forbes.com/natha nvardi/2011/03/25/billionaire-steve-wynn-makes-big-online-poker-bet-with-pokerstars/
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Jun 2011 @ 9:57pm

All you liberals who were bashing the Bush Administration were right to do so for their anti online gambling agenda.

Where are you now hippocrates?
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MrOperation507, 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:46pm

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MrOperation507, 29 Jul 2011 @ 6:46pm

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Don W, 21 Aug 2011 @ 10:45am

Another Government Money Grab
The Obama administration is working against free enterprise. This is another in a long list of "Money Grabs" by the current administration.I say less government regulation and bureaucracy is best.
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donw (profile), 21 Aug 2011 @ 11:07am

Another Government take over
The Obama administration is working against free enterprise. This is another in a long list of "Money Grabs" by the current administration.I say less government regulation and bureaucracy is better.
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