PokerStars.com Returned

[CheeseConey]

I'm a little confused about this recent development. Is the DOJ giving a temporary pass to the UIGEA to allow players to transfer their funds to their banks?

 

[nevadanick]

The thing I don't understand is that they say it's illegal etc. However, didn't the government TAX you on poker winnings when you played?

It seems they knew it was going on but thought we will tax them anyway on it. That makes no sense. It's like saying they would tax drug dealers on their earnings yet say it's illegal.

This sounds so very contridicting...

This goes as far back as Al Capone. The feds had trouble convicting him for any illegal activities, but they DID convict him on tax evasion. Same with Gotti iirc, and a lot of others inbetween.

The feds may not be able to get convictions on certain illegal activites, but when taxes on money received are not claimed or paid, it's tax evasion where they have always seen prosecutorial success.

There have also been cases involving such professions as prostitution. They can't get convictions on the prostitution activities, but if there was provable income from the activity, then the tax evasion charges work for the feds.

What the DoJ is doing to the sites is quite similar too. They may not get convictions on the 'gaming/gambling' charges, but the wire fraud etc may well stick and the 'gambling' charges are the 'throw-away'... plea bargain charges.

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[DREW0]

Tried to withdraw from PS but was told that option is not yet available but would be soon.

 

[Zorba]

Finally some good news for our American friends, it may not be that they can play again, but at least they can take their hard won money off poker stars.

Now lets hope that they can get their money off Tilt and UB soon.

 

[curly]

Any recommendations on how I go about doing that? I'm probably just going to email stars

I e-mailed them about what this means to U.S. players being allowed to withdraw their funds from their accounts, does this mean that we will never have hopes of playing at stars again for real money or what?


As usual I got an unclear response about how poker players outside the U.S. will be unaffected by all this and that ALL Pokerstar balances are safe and that was all.

Because I never withdrew any funds in the 4 years I did play at pokerstars, I can just imagine the hoops I would have to jump through to get my money out, being that it is a small amount of money I'm just going to let it sit in my account.

I am more concerned about having the right to play online poker at Pokerstars or any other sites that were affected by this government takeover, as far as that goes I have to say it's not looking good.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Well, that makes me feel great.
I am still holding out hope though....

Hope to play again on Stars & FTP? From what I've heard it's 'never' going to happen. There was an excellent podcast on this week's Pokercast (4hrs. in length), going into details about alot of stuff. It helped me to gain a better understanding of the situation.

Really good news to hear that US folks will be able to get their dollars off of Stars soon. This has got to have put soooo many people in such a bad spot. The loss of Fulltilt & Pokerstars to the US market has just such a huge detrimental effect on poker... both online & live (ie. I'm sure we can expect numbers to be down considerably at the WSOP this year).

 

[Dreams of Tragedy]

Well, that makes me feel great.
I am still holding out hope though....

Hope to play again on Stars & FTP? From what I've heard it's 'never' going to happen. There was an excellent podcast on this week's Pokercast (4hrs. in length), going into details about alot of stuff. It helped me to gain a better understanding of the situation.

Really good news to hear that US folks will be able to get their dollars off of Stars soon. This has got to have put soooo many people in such a bad spot. The loss of Fulltilt & Pokerstars to the US market has just such a huge detrimental effect on poker... both online & live (ie. I'm sure we can expect numbers to be down considerably at the WSOP this year).

from what I hear from that podcast was that if stars and tilt and Ab went under new ownership that they could get a new license that would alow us players back in to the market with the new bill that is on the table