Online gamblers looking for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and other popular websites are now likely to find seizure notices from the Department of Justice. Eleven people, including the founders of three of the largest online poker companies (overseas firms that operate in the U.S.), have been charged with bank fraud, money laundering, and online gambling offenses. Prosecutors allege that the companies tried to get around laws prohibiting banks and credit cards from processing gambling payments by making billions of dollars from U.S. gamblers look like payments for golf balls, jewelry, flowers, and other items to online merchants that didn’t actually exist. “Foreign firms that choose to operate in the United States are not free to flout the laws they don’t like simply because they can’t bear to be parted from their profits,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who better not have any skeletons in his closet if he wants to keep making up for lost time.
Poker Websites Targeted in Federal Crackdown [WSJ]
Related: The Next Best Crooks [NYM]
