Black Friday's shut down was never about going after the guys playing poker, it was about the companies and sites providing the "service" and how they processed funds and ran their business.
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, expressed his view when the indictment was unsealed:
"As charged, these defendants (the poker sites) 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 added: "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."