The US federal government has recently seized millions in cash from banking accounts that have been used in the processing of online poker transactions. This attempt by the government to thwart online gambling by US players is one of the most aggressive yet. There are doubts, though, that this will have any effect on the US gambling industry. An anonymous industry official out of Vegas says, “I haven’t heard one person saying, ‘I’m through with online poker.’ It’s just making people more militant and bitter against the government.”
However still, there are some who believe it may actually scare some US online poker players from continuing to deposit their money. Editor of iGaming News, Christopher Krafcik, says, “If I begin to lose players because they’re afraid to deposit with me, then I lose games and the rake they generate. If I was a player, I’d consider taking my money elsewhere.”
The online gambling industry giants operate overseas and don’t consider those US laws that criminalize gambling to be relevant to them, even though billions of dollars of their revenue is generated from US players depositing money online to gamble with. Since the UIGEA, the target of the US government has been the payment processors that facilitate cash transactions. By cutting off the money line, the US government hopes to eliminate the illegal activity (i.e. online gambling). US banks have pretty much backed out of the transaction processing business, but players’ money was, until recently, considered to be safe in the hands of offshore handlers.
But on June 2nd, 2009, a US federal judge authorized a warrant issued by a New York attorney to seize the assets of a Wells Fargo account held by a company that processes online poker transactions from players within the US. The company is Account Services, Inc., but all other details of the seizure are sealed by the US Justice Department.
All that is known is that the federal government has frozen or seized at least $30 million from banks associated with online gambling, including PokerStars and FullTilt, but this isn’t the first time this has happened, and it likely won’t be the last.
The ray of hope here is the Poker Players Alliance, the trade’s lobbying group, which is collaborating with a legal team to prove that the money taken was from the players, not the sites, and there is no law against individuals gambling online. Their side is with the players as well as the sites, as getting the players’ cash back is critical to the super sites’ reputations.