Casinos are strictly regulated online poker sites should be as well. If poker sites were legal and regulated, we could trust the regulator - an arm of the US government - to protect gamblers' funds. In a weird way, strict anti-gambling regulations in the US are responsible for this fiasco. While acknowledging that Full Tilt looks dirty, Felix Salmon also curiously blames the government for partly precipitating the affair:
Conspiring with payment companies to disguise electronic fund transfers, such as "e-checks," used for betting purposes as non-gambling transactions. Using bogus pre-paid debt and phone cards that gamblers could use to place bets, with the defendants also accused of arranging for fake consumer reviews to make the cards seem legitimate. Creating phony companies, including online flower shops and pet-supply stores, to trick banks into processing gambling payments disguised as common credit card charges. Using third-party payment processors to deceive banks about the kind of financial transactions Full Tilt was conducting. 
gamblers to be disguised as payments to hundreds of non-existent online merchants and other non-gambling businesses
Arranging for money received from U.S. Here are a few other aspects of the purported scam, which DOJ says violated a 2006 law - the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act - that made it a federal crime to accept payments for online betting: The company is accused of failing to pay users more than $300 million in winnings, even as Full Tilt's 23 owners withdrew $444 million from the firm over a number of years. If true, it makes you wonder if criminal charges might be forthcoming given that the complaint alleges bank and wire fraud, along with money laundering.Īs laid out in the suit, Full Tilt seems to have operated less as a pyramid scheme than the kind of racket Henry Hill of "GoodFellas" fame might have admired. The Justice Department's civil lawsuit against Full Tilt's owners, who include well-known poker pros such as Howard Lederman and Chris Ferguson, is damning. Instead, the government is lowering the boom on Full Tilt Poker, alleging that the online gambling site defrauded players and operated as a global Ponzi scheme. Amazing how boldly the feds can move to halt wild financial speculation when they're in the mood.
0 kommentar(er)
