Was the Calvin Ayre indictment a surprise to you?

[MichaelCorfman]

On Monday evening this week the Bodog.com domain was seized based on a seizure order issued earlier that day and on Tuesday indictments against Calvin Ayre and the Bodog Entertainment Group and three other defendants was unsealed.

You can see our announcement of the domain seizure in the thread Bodog.com domain seized by Maryland and the actual seizure warrant on the APCW website. And you can see the actual Calvin Ayre and Bodog indictment on the APCW website as well.

Unlike the actions taken before on Black Friday against a number of poker sites, these actions don't appear to have the same immediate effects - most specifically, Bodog had long before changed the way it operated so that it no longer relied on the seized Bodog.com website, switching to domain names outside the control of US authorities. So at least the initial impact to the business is not so substantial.

For this week's poll I thought it would be interesting to find out whether this was something you expected would happen, or whether it comes as a surprise. Share your thoughts on this action, and also on whether you think additional actions will be taken against other operators in the near term.

Michael

[Anthony]

I have to say I am surprised. Calvin has been out of the game for some time and the brand is no longer serving the U.S. market. So in the grand scheme of things I figured the risk was minimum.

[ocreditor]

Personally, I am not surprised. The US is determined. As long as there is a ban, they won't allow themselves to look the other way. This will go on as long as the law is in place.