Online poker news
Not that the first one wasn’t a gigantic, Shaquille O’Neal-sized boot, but since the indictments of eleven principals of the three largest U.S.-facing online poker rooms on April 15th, poker players have been wondering if the other shoe was going to drop. On Monday, it did, although nobody knows for sure how many feet the… Read more »
From the “any news is better than no news” files, there has been some recent activity on the Full Tilt Poker cashout front. While customers from the United States still have not received their funds from the world’s second largest online poker room, Full Tilt has overcome its inertia and has taken what look to… Read more »
The active week for Absolute Poker continues. On Tuesday, the member of the CEREUS Network announced that it, along with sister site UB, has come to an agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, a preliminary step in hopefully getting frozen funds back into U.S. players’ bank accounts. … Read more »
Blanca Games, operator of both Absolute Poker and UB, issued a statement over the weekend in an attempt to clarify the activities on Friday, during which agents of the Organismo de Investigaciones Judiciales (OIJ) (essentially, the Costa Rican FBI) raided the offices of the two poker rooms. As could be seen in a Costa Rican… Read more »
According to a report by MSNBC on Wednesday, indicted online poker rooms Absolute Poker and UB was to be filing for bankruptcy, leaving thousands of players even more concerned about the funds frozen in their real-money accounts. Read more »
3 Official WSOP packages & 1 Official WSOPE package up for grabs… only at WSOP Online Starting from May 1, WSOP Online is offering the following: Daily ONLINE satellites 3 Qualifiers 3 OFFCIAL WSOP VIP PACKAGES to Vegas worth $16,500 each One final tournament for the 27 players who made the final tables in the… Read more »
According to a report by Bloomberg, one of the 11 men indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on Black Friday was arrested in Guatemala and is being detained in Miami. Ira Rubin, 52, is one of five alleged payment processors to have been named by the FBI on charges of illegal gambling, fraud, and… Read more »
According to the preeminent online poker traffic monitoring site PokerScout.com, player numbers have fallen a sizeable 22% worldwide in the wake of the actions of Black Friday. Following the indictments of the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker by the U.S. Department of Justice, PokerScout has found that many players have decided… Read more »
On Tuesday, the financial website Fortune published an article written by Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman in which he expounds upon his desire for online poker to be completely legal and fully regulated in the United States. In the piece, Loveman said that the recent indictments of 11 people involved in online poker, including the… Read more »
In breaking news, PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, has begun processing cashouts for U.S. players. Refunds for Americans began on Tuesday afternoon, when a message started appearing that instructed players to cash out their funds. When players from the “Red, White, and Blue” log into PokerStars, they’re now met with a pop-up message… Read more »
Due to the recent crackdown on online poker in the U.S., PokerStars has made several changes to the upcoming Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) schedule that will better accommodate European players. All of the events have been moved up three hours, meaning that players in the Eastern Hemisphere won’t have to grind late into… Read more »
This past Sunday, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom took on another challenger in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown, the eighth challenger in nine competitions. This installment was against PokerStars player “Mastermixus” from Poland, who qualified online. This match was a lower stakes version of the standard SuperStar Showdown. The regular stakes are $50/$100 at a minimum, but the… Read more »
Over the Easter weekend, the inaugural running of the Everest Poker ONE took place, with Germany’s Julien Kabitzke emerging with the title in hand. The tournament, which started Friday at the Salle des Palmiers in Monaco, drew a respectable field of 221 players from around the world. Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee represented the United States, while… Read more »
The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), a Federal agency that oversees credit unions, is under scrutiny about the way it failed to properly supervise an Arizona institution linked to the indictments of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker in the U.S this month. The Vensure Federal Credit Union in Mesa, Arizona was the only… Read more »
It’s been a hectic 10 days for the online poker community. On April 15th, the founders of PokerStars, Absolute Poker, and Full Tilt Poker were indicted, along with eight others, on charges that included money laundering, bank fraud, illegal gambling, and violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Monitoring the situation has been the… Read more »
After the indictment of the founder of PokerStars, Isai Scheinberg, by the U.S. Department of Justice on “Black Friday,” many in the business and poker communities are asking, “Who is Isai Scheinberg?” An article in a Canadian newspaper attempts to answer that question. The Toronto Globe and Mail presented an article written by Colin Freeze… Read more »
According to a report by Reuters on Thursday, the United States could be facing a challenge from the World Trade Organization (WTO) after the crackdown on the online poker rooms PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker on April 15. Officials from the Caribbean nation of Antigua, which licenses Absolute Poker, are considering taking the… Read more »
In an Associated Press article this week, Steve Wynn, the Chief Executive Officer of Wynn Resorts, discussed the recently dissolved deal between his casino conglomeration and PokerStars. The deal, which was signed on March 24 and terminated a week ago, would have seen one of the biggest names in the worldwide brick-and-mortar casino industry team… Read more »
Following online poker’s Black Friday one week ago, it took almost no time at all for several of the defendants to retain legal counsel. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, as well as two accused payment processors, have selected the attorneys and law firms that will represent them as they fight the United States Department of… Read more »
On Thursday, the CEREUS Network site Absolute Poker broke its silence following the indictments of Scott Tom and Brent Beckley in the United States one week ago. Absolute Poker has enlisted the aid of Blank Rome LLP and is currently in discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. When it will make its next move… Read more »
Still accepting American players is Carbon Poker, which recently announced that it has joined forces with Drag the Bar to provide free poker training for its customers. Through the Drag the Bar for Free program, all a player has to do is rake $1 on Carbon Poker. Once this is done, players will be able… Read more »
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice came to an agreement with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker to facilitate player cashouts by returning their dot-com domain names for that purpose. When the checks will start rolling out remains to be seen, as a press release issued by Full Tilt cautioned, “There exists no authorized U.S.… Read more »
On Tuesday, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) and the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission issued statements regarding the April 15th indictments of the owners of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker in the U.S. In news that shook up the online poker world last week, 11 people were indicted by a Federal grand… Read more »
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deal with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker to begin the process of paying out players affected by last week’s indictments. Although a significant number of questions are still left unanswered, the process of paying out money owed to U.S. customers on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker… Read more »
“Not guilty, your honor.” So said Bradley Franzen to U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas in a Manhattan court on Monday. Franzen, one of 11 people charged with bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling on April 15th, surrendered to FBI agents on Monday morning. The 41-year-old Franzen, of Illinois and Costa Rica, was identified as… Read more »
