Disclaimer: I never claimed to be anything close to Hunter S. Thompson in the first place, but this blog will be especially jumbled. Hope you enjoy anyway.
If you follow this blog you probably already know what has happened. If you don’t just read the two posts below mine.
I guess I’ll start by how this affects me. Barring any significant changes I will be moving to a new country very soon. When I tell people this they think I am crazy, which is understandable I guess, but everyone that plays online poker for a living completely gets it. Pokerstars has been blocked to all US residents and my account has been frozen. Pokerstars has expressed that account balances are safe, but the best/quickest way to get my account unfrozen is to move to another country and get a non-American address at a non-American bank. This will at least give me a chance to unlock the money in my account. This is very important because a huge % of my net worth is locked up in that account. Also considering I was going for Supernova elite I must at least finish out that goal to realize the equity I have earned this year. I don’t want to get into explaining why this is, but if you don’t understand just ask me some time. I basically have no idea how hard moving will be so if you have any details about immigrating to a country please let me know (nhatley@gmail.com).
Now for the sad part: Like most Americans I have been disappointed with the government and the general nature of our country in the past few years. The economy has been at an all time low since the great depression and this has had a direct effect on me. This put a bad taste a mouth. I started working hard at poker and have experienced a great deal of success this year. I was on pace to make more than I could have expected by receiving the degree I was on track, and I would be doing something I actually enjoyed. It gave me a sense of accomplishment to be doing well in a society in which most were not. These recent activities just make me feel like the government has failed me again. Maybe I’m just being overly sensitive but this is how I feel. When I walk around in public places I look at people wondering why they are not freaking out, but then I realize no one really knows anything about what is going on. Makes me realize how tiny of a blip on the radar every person really is.
Poker has taught me to have a very analytical mind so I have been spending a ton of time in the last few days just thinking about the motives of the DOJ. Usually behind any course of government action, in poker at least, there is some sort of company behind it. This indictment had nothing to do with any kind of company. This was not a move of anyone for financial gain. This was simply the DOJ proving that no one is above them and no one is outside the “law”.
On Friday the FBI shut down the domains of Pokerstars.com, FullTilt.com, and AbsolutePoker.com. No type of trial, no jury, nothing other than immediate shut down. This and the indictments forced all of the sites to cut off access to Americans and sent the millions of people who play poker for money in America into a frenzy. Wasn’t our country founded on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”? Where in that statement lies, “ We’ll seize your domain and freeze accounts, but when you prove your innocence you can have them back.” The most upsetting part about this is that most legal minds estimate the chances of the DOJ winning this case to be low, but it could take years to finish the trial and get these pokersites back to the place they were Thursday. After reading more into how the FBI could even do this I learned that congress passed an act in 2006 that permits the FBI to seize domains, mainly the ones with unlicensed media, child pornography and other “illegal” websites. Online poker has NEVER been illegal. Anyone that tells you that is wrong. The DOJ is arguing that is illegal under The Wire Act. This has NEVER been proven in a US court. Actually it has been proven otherwise. How is this even possible? How can the FBI seize a domain and the DOJ indict under a pretense that US courts have already proven to be false? This I just cannot get past.
I’ll probably blog again in the next few days out of sheer boredom. Talk to you guys soon.
I'm a lawyer. I'm curious where you get your idea that online poker has never been illegal (other than drinking the PPA kool-aid). From my viewpoint, poker almost certainly is illegal in most states. Not necessarily playing poker, but rather operating a for profit online poker room is illegal. And while we're on the issue of legality, every appellate court to consider the issue has ruled poker to be gambling subject to state regulation.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the legality of poker per se, the biggest charges are finance-related: money laundering and bank fraud. These are serious charges related to the machinations used by the poker sites to process payments post-UIGEA. The poker sites are almost certainly guilty on these counts. Everyone in the poker world knows how the poker sites tried to hide payments to/from the sites. It's not going to be all that tough for the DOJ to win on those charges.
I'm a poker player, and I would love for online poker to be legal and regulated. I would also prefer that current sites like Stars and Tilt be able to continue operating. But, it looks likely they broke the law (however much I might disagree with those laws), and nobody is above the law, particularly when the sites are as big and as flagrant as they are. The sites made themselves juicy targets, so it's easy to see why the DOJ took them on.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the Big Three sites are almost certainly going to lose, whether at trial or in a punitive settlement. The poker world better start thinking about how to move on and re-establish a viable online poker industry in the U.S. with whoever steps up to take their place (likely WSOP, MGM, and Zynga) once the federal government can get around to legalizing it.
Best wishes regardless of your future employment and residence decisions.
It's nice to have an opinion from a person who actually knows the law and has an educated perspective. My notion is that poker shouldn't be illegal, not that I think it isn't illegal. The government always has to get their piece...it's always been that way and it will always be that way. They have no reason to regulate it other than financial gain (taxes), and possibly to prevent more American dollars from leaving the country. I simply want one person to give me one reason why poker should be illegal, other than taxes. Furthermore, it should be noted that for most people who play online play for recreational purposes only and either lose or do not make enough money to warrant a government tax reaction. Most "pros" do pay taxes and give their piece to the federal government even though they could probably get away without doing so. It's incredibly frustrating to see people who know NOTHING about poker have the poker to decide whether or not the rest of us can play.
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