Founders Of Internet Gambling Sites PokerStars And Full Tilt Poker Charged With Fraud
PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker are the leading online poker sites in the United States. The Internet poker marks was approximately $5.1 billion and the global online gambling market is approximately $30 billion. The FBI also seized the domain names for these companies. One analyst stated that this will end U.S. online game effectively. It is clear that the U.S. Department of Justice thinks that online gambling is illegal.
The indictments allege that the poker companies used
fraud to short-circuit federal laws to have banks process payments on their behalf. These companies concealed the money that they received from on-line gamblers by making it appear as if the money was coming from online merchants who sold everyday items.
The civil complaint filed by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara seeks at least $3 billion in money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the poker companies. Already, a federal judge has seized over 70 bank accounts in 14 different countries.