No major changes thus far in regard to the USA poker ban with all the big rooms still closed to the US market but some rather interesting developments have evolved during the course of this week.

UB/AP have now reached an agreement with the US government in which the US Attorney’s Office has agreed to provide all necessary assurances that third parties may work with Absolute Poker to facilitate the return of funds, currently held by third party processors, to players located in the US. However many in the know are somewhat skeptical that UB/AP have enough funds to make the payments to all their US based players.

US Attorney Preet Bharara confirmed that an agreement had been struck between the US government and Absolute Poker “Absolute Poker of Costa Rica agreed to return funds owed to U.S. customers and prohibit deposits of American players.”

Absolute Poker has not requested the return of their seized domain names in www.absolutepoker.com, www.ultimatebet.com or www.ub.com. Both Pokerstars and FullTilt Poker were returned their .com domain names as part of the deal with the US DOJ.

After nearly a month since the US poker ban known as “Black Friday”, FullTilt Poker and UB/Absolute Poker are in the same position since the USA poker room closures in that neither of them offer their gaming services to the US market and both sites have failed to repay their US players their outstanding balances to date.

PokerStars on the other hand seem to be rapidly gaining trust amongst non-US players as they have overcome the payment hurdle, the main reason they could do so is because the player funds are held separately from the main PokerStars account which is enforced by their licensing agreement with the Isle of Man as such PokerStars have already begun paying back the owed money to their former US players.

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Great news for USA poker players, well sort of at least. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker have re-acquired their .com domain names after having them controlled for the last few days by the DoJ, the bad news is that this still changes little in terms of US players being permitted to play at the popular online poker sites but it does help in allowing USA players to cashout their money. The remainder of the world will once again be able to use the .com site names to play.

The funny part is that PokerStars signups are actually up 20% over the past week; even accounting for Friday’s decision, showing that player confidence still remains high for the world’s largest online poker site. Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and the U.S. Attorney’s office have all made recent statements regarding the USA poker ban and we cover which rooms are still allowing real money play for Americans.

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The land of the free, American poker players have once again been the target of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) with the closing of the most trusted internet poker sites namely PokerStars, FullTilt Poker and UB in the USA.

The Poker Players Alliance is not taking this issue of infringing on Americans right to play online poker lightly, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) is a nonprofit membership organization comprised of poker players and enthusiasts from around the United States who have joined together to speak with one voice to promote the game and to protect poker players rights.

The PPA have released an email requesting that all poker players who feel that their right to play poker online has been violated should stand together and fight back as the action taken by the DOJ should be viewed as nothing less than a declaration of war against poker and the people who play the game, players need to inform U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder about their disappointment with his decision to shut down trusted Internet poker sites in the USA plus remind Congress and President Obama that now is the time to pass sensible legislation that licenses and regulates Internet poker in America.

The PPA have set up a webpage with detailed instructions on what action you as a poker player can take to voice your concerns. This issue will not simply resolve itself, now is the time to take action !

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Latest news about Full Tilt Closed Worldwide.
Friday was a dark day for online internet poker in the USA which saw the likes of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker closing their doors to USA poker players as online poker’s big three PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were indicted on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling in the US with restraining orders issued against over 75 bank accounts used by the popular online poker sites and their payment processors, plus five Internet domain names.

The U.S. Department of Justice named 11 defendants in a press release: Isai Scheinberg, Raymond Bitar, Scott Tom, Nelson Burtnick, Paul Tate, Brent Beckley, Ryan Lang, Bradley Franzen, Ira Rubin, Chad Elie, and John Campos. Scheinberg and Tate are identified in the indictment as representing PokerStars, Bitar and Burtnick of representing Full Tilt Poker and Tom and Beckley of representing Absolute Poker. Lang, Rubin, Franzen and Elie are identified as people who ran payment processors in the USA. The 11 defendants listed above are each being charged with four counts – violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, operation of an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. These charges can carry hefty penalties. The maximum penalty for violation of the UIGEA and operating a gambling business is 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss for each charge, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud is 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million or twice the gross gain or loss, and for money laundering conspiracy is 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000 or twice the amount laundered

The charges the three top rooms are facing are based on the Illegal Gambling Business Act of 1955 and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

Preet Bharara a Manhattan U.S. Attorney press release said, “As charged, these defendants concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits. Moreover, as we allege, in their zeal to circumvent the gambling laws, the defendants also engaged in massive money laundering and bank fraud. 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.”

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said, “These defendants, knowing full well that their business with U.S. customers and U.S. banks was illegal, tried to stack the deck. They lied to banks about the true nature of their business. Then, some of the defendants found banks willing to flout the law for a fee. The defendants bet the house that they could continue their scheme, and they lost.”

At least $3 billion in civil money-laundering penalties from both the poker companies and defendants is being sought. According to the indictment, Campos and Elie were arrested Friday morning in Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada, respectively. Franzen is expected to appear in court for his arraignment on April 19, 2011. Those who are not in the U.S. — Scheinberg, Bitar, Burtnick, Tate, Tom, Beckley, Rubin, and Lang — have not been arrested, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York is working with foreign law enforcement agencies and Interpol to arrest the defendants.
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