Four American banks were asked by federal prosecutors to freeze $33 million in funds that were owed to 27,000 players from four offshore poker websites, including some of the bigger name sites such as PokerStars and FullTilt Poker.

The executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, John Pappas, said prosecutors asked Wells Fargo, Citibank, and two smaller banks to freeze accounts belonging to the companies, Account Services and Allied Systems. Both of these companies are payment processors who make payments to players on behalf of poker sites.

The government’s actions came when checks issued to poker players by these two companies began bouncing. The online casinos have assured Pappas that they are planning to pay players the money that they are owed.

A spokesperson for Citibank did confirm that they have received a request from prosecutors. Wells Fargo received a court order to freeze funds as well, stating they have a policy to comply with “valid instructions to seize funds” and declined to comment further.

From Poker Players Newspaper, I. Nelson Rose says, “It’s very aggressive, and I think it’s a gamble on the part of the prosecutors.” He further explains that it is not clear what law would govern the seizure of money that belonged to poker players, as opposed to the money belonging to the companies involved.

From a letter to one of the smaller banks, Alliance Bank of Arizona, prosecutors stated the funds in question “constitute property involved in money laundering transactions and illegal gambling offenses.”

A lawyer representing Account Services, Jeff Ifrah, explains that as far as he knows, the government “has never seized an account that belongs to players who are engaged in what I would contend is a lawful act of playing peer-to-peer poker online.”