Poker Players Alliance says US Govt Froze $30 Million in Players Withdrawals

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...R1YPAD98ND5BG0

An advocacy group for online poker said Tuesday that the federal government has frozen more than $30 million in the accounts of payment processors that handle the winnings of thousands of online poker players.
The Justice Department has long maintained that Internet gambling is illegal, a view that the poker group challenges.
The Poker Players Alliance told The Associated Press that the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York instructed three banks to freeze the accounts.
Documents obtained by the AP show that a judge in the district issued a seizure warrant last week for an account at a Wells Fargo bank in San Francisco, and that a federal prosecutor told a bank in Arizona to freeze an account.....

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/APNews...-15482624.html
I hope all of your winnings are safe.....
Thought i would post it here, may get more views...

The US Govt is full of crooks and idiots



Snow

What the **** is wrong with these people?!?!?
Stealing 30M(yes i said stealing cause thats exactly what there doing) is just mind boggling.

Maybe more of you need to sign up with the Poker Players Alliance, and start lobbying your local government representative? Don't have these problems in England...

I wonder if this is the reason PS and FT are not accepting e-checks any longer?

Yes that is why. This really sucks....

I'm so tired of this crooked and moronic government. There are bigger fish to fry. Go deal with North Korea or Pakistan or something. Why harass honest citizens?

This is so sickening. They want a peice of everything. They're always trying to find something new to tax or just outright steal.

Land of the free, Home of the Brave? My ass this is the land of the free and these cowards continue to make these gutless, unwarranted and unprecedented maneuvers to take away more of our rights!

Honestly, voting in a 2 party poker system will do nothing but keep the status quo of crooked politicians in power.

This is tiresome BS! Why must they control everything we do. Why don't they just legalize it, take their cut like the bloody thieves they are and be done with it. I'm tired of them taking our freedom and the citizens giving it to them. I sware, every day they give us a new reason to leave this country before it becomes just like every other that slowly succumbed to Socialism.

so does this mean it will do me no good to cash out

i asked ultimatebet support about it this is what they said Please wait while I transfer the chat to 'Monica'.
You are now chatting with 'Monica'
thechosen_1: the us goverment just froze 30 million in withdraws so does this mean i would not be able to cash out
Monica: Please hold while I look into your query.
thechosen_1: ok ty
Monica: As far as we are concerned, you should not have any problems cashing or depositing your check.
thechosen_1: ok ty very much

just dont keep your money in a payment processor have them send you a check and you should be ok

I 2nd that, i have been signed up with them, and sent out emails......

-Steven

Every government has their problems.
I would support that if I thought for a milli-second it would make any difference. Lobbying politicians about this is about the same as lobbying for legalizing marijuana or deporting every illegal immigrant. It's just not going to happen.

This is completely false. There is currently a bill in Congress that has a lot of support. I'm not gonna get into it too much here but the legislation forum on 2p2 basically has a bunch of threads with ppa reps who are actually working directly with members of Congress to get the bill passed.

What pisses me off is that a lot of states have legal online Keno - which somehow isn't considered online gambling - because it raises funds for the state, of course. Hypocritical bullshit.

Yeah, I see all the time in the grocery store the lottery slogan, "It's good to play." But apparently only against the house (state).

I'd know more if I was a 2plus2 member. Can I get a gold star when the bill doesn't pass Zack?

But didnt they (I mean our crooked ass government) deal with the banks?? So as far as they are concerned, everythings good on their end...doesnt mean you will actually be able to withdrawl and deposit your winnings.

no what they siezed was from online processors like ewallet clicktopay and such if you have them send you a paper check your bank can cash it

Are you a ppa member? Their press releases also include most of that information although the forums they answer specific questions. As for the gold star let's just say I would bet a good amount of money on a bill passing by the end of the year. The questions are more of the details of states opting out and what the criterias of regulating would be. Obviously it's not a lock by any means, but I'm putting our odds above 50%. Obviously I could be dead wrong but I've yet to see any facts supporting your opinion while I can base my opinion on hearing from people who are currently lobbying and in direct contact with members of Congress as well as others who are professional lawyers. One thing's for sure if the bill does not pass we are looking at a very real possibility of an outright ban in the future.

True Dat.

I'm pretty sure I signed up to the PPA with an email I don't use anymore and need to look into that.

I just heard on a major New Network and also, read the CC threads, that the US Government has seized or frozen on line poker accounts to the sum of 34 Million dollars or so.

It appears they are attempting to put a stop to On Line Poker in the USA.

Does that mean, that all this on line poker playing is now just for play money, since no one is going to get a payout?

mange

I dont know this sucks though, I was in the middle of a cashout and pokerstars sent me an email while the check was already on its way saying it was denied. Why does the U.S. government have to be so goddamn retarded. If gambling is so horrible why the **** do they have video poker and scratch its with zero skill. Frustrating.

Best thing we can all do is start firing off emails. There is nothing else we can do.

I had cashed out prior to the freeze but as my paper check was en route I got this email. So it is not just payment processors that are frozen. Stars actual bank accounts are frozen at the moment.

http://img191.imageshack.us/my.php?i...arsaccount.jpg


So although you are correct, check cash out will work for now, you are wrong about what the government has seized. Also I wouldn't just keep going about my business playing on pokerstars carefree, at some point something is going to get worse than it already is and we will not even be able to cash out with checks. Start sending out those emails cardschat friends.

You don't need to leave the country. All it needs is people that are not simply content to cry about it in a thread like this, and are actually willing to get up off their backsides and fight it.

No way is this a "tin foil hat" type of issue, such as deporting all immigrants, or legalizing cannabis. This is a serious infringement of your civil liberties. The reason they are succeeding is because so many gamblers have low self esteem, and simply let them get away with it. Fortunately poker players tend to be a little more aggressive and assertive than your average gambler, so hopefully you guys will start to stand up and fight back!

Ok.... so maybe I'm a little slow this morning.... The US Government JUST recently froze $30M in withdraws, or is this just a followup to the whole thing that happened months back?

No, payouts are back up again. Furthermore it's obvious to just about everyone that what they did was illegal (remember the UIGEA regulations even say that cashouts are still 100% legal and only attempt to stop deposits, and of course they need warrants to do anything) and the PPA has already said they are going to fight this case in court. Obviously this stuff takes time and who knows how long it will take. The bigger concern in Stars/FTP seeing all the trouble (they're currently eating the money) and deciding serving the US market isn't worth it like partypoker.



No Stars bank accounts are not frozen. Their bank accounts are in foreign countries where the US has absolutely no jurisdiction. The accounts frozen were the accounts of the payment processors in the United States which is why the US-based checks were bouncing. The one thing I do agree is sending those emails and getting to action.


They recently froze it as in within the last week or two.

Thanks for the response.
Yeah to add to what you said about the PS bank accounts..... All online sites use some sort of payment processor in the US to allow our US banks to cash the checks..... If you walked into your bank with a $12,000 check from some oversea's country, your bank probably would start asking questions and possibly not cash or deposit your check. Last time I made a withdraw from Bodog, the check came from NY.

So I just went to Click2Pay.com to maybe sign up an account (or at least get the details on the service) and it just told me that I'm using an IP not that is not in the US lol..... Got to love Level3!

Yea - the deposit dept at Pokerstars said I could use Click2Pay but it wouldn't let me sign up either. I sent them an email and got this response:

Thank you for contacting the CLICK2PAY Serviceteam.

Unfortunately it is not possible to register with CLICK2PAY from the US.

We would like to ask for your understanding in this matter.

Should you have further questions about the information given above, please
reply directly to this email including our original text and ticket number.
This will help us to deal with your inquiry much faster.

Please note: CLICK2PAY will never ask you via e-mail to disclose your login
details on the Internet or to disclose or confirm your login details via
telephone or fax.

Thank you for using CLICK2PAY.

Kind regards

Anne Winkler
CLICK2PAY Serviceteam

lol ok... Then why have a US phone number (which is still an international DID) and say that registration is limited to the US, UK, ect.. Either we are confused, or they are....

Does anyone know the trick of using a Canadian address and a shadow IP? I read how to do it once on a site but don't know where it was or how to do it.

yup was just gonna post this,it is in my local paper today,, guess its another blow to us Law Abiding U.S. Citizens, were over 21, obey the law, (most of the times,lol ), pay taxes, and are generally good people, and they dont want us to play poker online, its a Shame you cant do what you want in your own home, were not selling drugs or murdering people, Ah, the good old U.S. Govt. SUX,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, buck