US Breaking News

[casinogod]

I just recieved a strange email from Party Partners titled 'US Breaking News' I have pasted the email below.

It seems to imply one of the operators in the US has had their payments frozen. Does anyone know anything else about this?

<<< Start of Email Quote >>>>
Dear PartyPartner,

You may have seen the news about the freezing of payment processor funds in the United States and its effect on certain competitor online operators. PartyGaming Plc, the parent company of PartyPartners, withdrew immediately from the United States following the change in the law that took place back in October 2006. As a result, we are completely unaffected by these recent events in the US and your account with us will not be subject to any payment issues or lost revenue streams.

PartyPartners offers the best known brands in online gaming and an established affiliate system. If you have any queries you can contact your account manager. PartyGaming Plc, the parent company of PartyPartners is regulated and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Your PartyPartners Team
<<< End of Email Quote>>>>

[simone]

Hi Andy

I work for betonline and we certainly are not having any processing issues. So seems like a very strange email for Party to have sent out.

[goopxx]

REAS ALL ABUT IT HERE WHAT A MASS THAY HAVE TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL THIS CONTRY!!
http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/united...er-funds-2830/

[CityGuard]

For additional detail on the frozen funds, there is a discussion at https://www.gpwa.org/forum/us-gov-se...rs-181520.html. It impact just over $30 million for American poker players' withdrawal payments.

At least one of the impacted operators has made a public statement that it will not impact player's funds (basically the poker room is taking the loss, and re-sending the payments). It will be especially important to see how this plays out because as far as I am aware it is the first seizure that focuses on non-sports activities. It appears to be based on laws from prior to UIGEA.

Check out the full thread on it -- there is a good post from Vinism that includes a summary of what facts are known at this point. He is talking with people behind the scenes to get more detail and is working on a full story, which I expect he'll post in that thread as well.

Hope this helps.

[vinism]

Here's the story we ran on this:

PPA says it will fight for money seized from payment processors

10 June 2009
By Vin Narayanan

Late last week, poker players flooded popular poker forums with word that some checks from PokerStars, Full Tilt and AbsolutePoker issued to American players were bouncing due to payment processor difficulties. This week, poker players found out why.


A federal prosecutor from the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has ordered the seizure of about $33 million from two payment processors, according to the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

"We learned about [the seizings] last Thursday," said John Pappas, the executive director for the PPA. "We spent the weekend and the end of last week trying to figure out the entire situation, how many players were affected, building a legal case and making determinations on how we wanted to proceed.

According to the timeline posted on the PPA's Web site, a federal agent and prosecutor sent a seizure order to Wells Fargo freezing at least $14 million intended to be used to pay players. About two days later, the same agent and prosecutor contacted at least two banks in Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Ariz., and directed them to freeze accounts containing about $19 million of deposits and payouts.

"It is important to underscore that in at least two cases, the prosecutor acted and the banks responded without a warrant being issued," the PPA said in its timeline.
The U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment directly on the case.

"It is our office policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigations," said SDNY spokesman Rebekah Carmichael in an interview with Casino City.

The poker rooms have refunded player accounts, and moved to assure their American players that their funds are still available to them.

"The issue involving the freezing of some funds affected only one of the many check processors that Full Tilt Poker uses to support player withdrawals," said Full Tilt in a statement. "We do not expect any further interruption in check withdrawals or any other withdrawal methods, and any player who wishes to make a withdrawal should expect normal processing times. All players who were affected by the current situation have had their funds returned to their Full Tilt Poker accounts and all new withdrawal requests are processing normally."

PokerStars has returned the seized money to player accounts with a 10% bonus, according to reports in the TwoPlusTwo forums.

Whether this case ends up going to court depends on the SDNY, Pappas told Casino City.

"We are in direct discussion with SDNY and others at the DOJ and see if this enforcement is something they want follow through with," Pappas said.

"We're need to determine if it's a shot across the bow or a strong organized effort (to purse online gambling interests)," Pappas added.

The federal prosecutor working on the case is citing the 1961 Wire Act and the 2002 Illegal Gambling Act as the basis for its actions, according to the PPA. But Pappas is comfortable that the PPA has a strong case to make in court if gets that far.

"We think we have some strong legal arguments on our side and will go to court if necessary," Pappas said. "Re: MasterCard found the Wire Act did not apply to Internet poker, only sports betting."

If the SDNY prosecutor moves forward with the case, the PPA will try to stop it, Pappas added.

"We'll file an injunction on behalf of the players because it's their money being affected," Pappas said.

"The money they're going after is not the site's money, and can't be construed as the proceeds of unlawful Internet gambling," Pappas said.

"Because we'd file the injunction on behalf of the players, we're comfortable with (our) standing in the court," Pappas added.