GOP Frontrunner Mitt Romney Against Online Gambling. Says He Doesn’t ‘Want to Increase Access to Gaming.’
by Brian Pempus

Mitt Romney, the frontrunner for the GOP’s nomination to run against President Barack Obama, told Las Vegas political journalist Jon Ralston last week that he is against online gaming.
When asked if he is a supporter of legalizing the activity, Romney responded: “No, no I’m not. Gaming has a social effect on a lot of people. I don’t want to increase access to gaming. I feel that we have plenty of access to gaming right now through the various casinos and establishments that exist.”

Check out the full Romney interview below.

The former governor of Massachusetts, a Mormon, is not alone in his stance against online gaming among his faith. About a week ago, a Utah lawmaker introduced a bill that would preemptively ban online gaming in the state.

While the federal government mulls over online gaming, some states are considering the industry. Nevada, with regulations already in place and licensing on the horizon, is by far the furthest along.

It’s possible that Romney’s position isn’t all that relevant.

“Ultimately, I don’t think any presidential candidate’s current position on online gaming is going to matter much, since many states are going to take it upon themselves to legalize online gaming within their own borders,” UNLV’s Dr. David Schwartz told Card Player. “Just as with Indian gaming in the late 1980s, Congress will likely be forced to act.”

But while Fresen’s changes are designed to limit the expansion of gambling in Florida, the state Senate went in the opposite direction last week when it adopted amendments to a similar bill by Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff that opens the door to Las Vegas-style slot machines in every horse and dog track and jai-alai fronton in the state, so long as voters approve.

Under Fresen’s proposal, the state would authorize three destination resort casinos and, like the Senate bill, allow them only if voters approve in a countywide referendum. Bogdanoff’s bill, however, would allow for the three resort casinos to operate in any part of the state.

Fresen’s amendments would also permanently ban the so-called Internet Cafes and maquinitas parlors that rely on a loophole in the state’s sweepstakes law to operate slot machine look-alikes — a contrast to Bogdanoff’s bill, which would regulate the games. Another amendment would also prohibit the state from issuing any new parimutuel permits, repeal the 17 dormant parimutuel permits now in existence, and would use the proceeds from the casino taxes to buy back permits from up to four existing parimutuels.

Fresen also proposes an amendment to give the state’s existing parimutuels the same 10 percent tax rate on their slot machine games as the new destination resort casinos, once the resort casinos open.

“The crux of these amendments is to address some of the desires an some of the concerns expressed by members,” Fresen said.

The bill sponsors continue to look as if they face an uphill climb to win agreement on the plans this session. House Speaker Dean Cannon has repeatedly said he’s skeptical that the resort casino bill would pass the House, where a majority want to reduce gambling options in Florida.

Fresen said his bill, HB 487, will get its first hearing in the Business and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, within the next two weeks.

While Bogdanoff’s bill has moved through its first Senate committee, Fresen’s nearly identical proposal has remained in limbo in the House despite heavy lobbying by the gaming industry and an influx of more than $2 million in campaign cash into Republican Party of Florida coffers, including $628,000 from the Malaysian-based Genting alone.

“The pace of movement of all bills in the house is much slower than in the Senate,” Fresen said.

Return of Player Funds Update

No issue is more immediate to PPA members and leadership than the return of player funds. The PPA believes, as it has since Black Friday, that while the government has targeted the online poker sites, it is the players who have been the victims.
Thankfully, one affected online poker site has been able to fulfill its obligations. We commend PokerStars for repaying its U.S. players in an efficient and timely manner. It was reported earlier this month that they have returned more than $100 million in players’ accounts. PokerStars continues to be the most popular site for players around the world, no doubt in no small measure due to their fiscal and customer policies.

Unfortunately, the other sites targeted on Black Friday — Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker – have been unable to do the same and their U.S. customers are understandably angry.

Recently (5/30/11), Full Tilt Poker provided an update to players about status of player funds. Regrettably, no specific timeline was provided on return of funds. Full Tilt Poker continues to maintain, as they have to the PPA directly in the past, their intention to refund players in full. As far as we are aware, there have been no recent updates provided by Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. Each passing day without communication — or refunds — increases harm to the players.

Currently there exists no legal or civil authority by which the PPA could force or require that players be paid immediately. The PPA does, however, have an obligation to represent our membership of over 1.2 million U.S. poker players and we again publicly call on Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet to fulfill their promises to allow U.S. players to cash out their account balances and to do so sooner rather than later, despite what difficulties may exist. Players relied on assurances by these sites that their money would be safe and these sites must honor their commitments to the players. The immediate return of U.S. player funds must be the top priority of all the parties involved.

http://www.no-limit-internet-poker.com

Does This government have nothing better to do than protect adults from playing poker with there own money!
On Monday, a federal grand jury in Baltimore, Maryland returned indictments charging two companies and three defendants with conducting an illegal gambling business and money laundering.
by Brian Pempus
As a result of an undercover sting by Homeland Security Investigations in Maryland, the two-count indictments include Darren Wright and David Parchomchuk of ThrillX, a software solutions provider registered in Canada, and Ann Marie Puig of BMX Entertainment, a company based in Limassol, Cyprus which operates six online-gambling websites.

One of the 10 sites seized in the raid was DoylesRoom, an online poker operator incorporated and licensed in Nicosia, Cyprus. Doyle Brunson has allegedly been in the process of leaving the site and removing his name from the brand.

The indictments allege that the defendants own and manage illegal offshore gambling businesses, stating that internet gambling operators rely upon the U.S. banking system and payment processors to facilitate the movement of funds. In addition, 11 bank accounts — located in the United States, Guam, Panama, Malta, Portugal, and the Netherlands — were seized on Monday.

http://www.no-limit-internet-poker.com

Below is the complete list of the domains:

Bookmaker.com
2Betsdi.com
Funtimebingo.com
Goldenarchcasino.com
Truepoker.com
Betmaker.com
Betgrandesports.com
Doylesroom.com
Betehorse.com
Beted.com
“It is illegal for internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein said in a press release. “We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.”

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for operating an illegal gambling business and a maximum of 20 years in prison for money laundering. No court appearance has been scheduled.

Justice: Online poker players to get refunds; sites’ future still in doubt
By Gautham Nagesh – 04/21/11 03:23 PM ET

The Department of Justice reached an agreement with two online poker sites Wednesday that will allow users to recover funds from their accounts, but the future of the industry remains very much in doubt thanks to the Obama administration’s crackdown last Friday.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced the government has entered into domain-name use agreements with PokerStars and Full Tilt so that users can recover funds they had tied up in the sites. The move should help quell the growing backlash from users who have been unable to access their money since Friday.

“No individual player accounts were ever frozen or restrained, and each implicated poker company has at all times been free to reimburse any player’s deposited funds,” Bharara said in a statement.

“In fact, this Office expects the companies to return the money that U.S. players entrusted to them, and we will work with the poker companies to facilitate the return of funds to players, as today’s agreements with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker demonstrate.”

Both sites were seized, along with Absolute Poker, by the FBI — their executives have been charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses. The government alleges the sites were used by criminal organizations to launder large sums of money in violation of the law.

Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas welcomed the announcement in an interview with Hillicon Valley but said it came only after countless emails and phone calls from more than 65,000 members of his organization and other online poker players. Pappas said his membership reacted to Friday’s events with “shock and dismay.”

“Last week not only were many individuals stripped of their hobby, but in many cases their livelihood,” Pappas said in reference to the 4 percent of his organization’s 1.2 million members that identify as professional poker players. He said before Friday’s events he had been optimistic about the prospect of legalizing online poker.

“We felt there was a real, rational discussion on Capitol Hill about the appropriate steps needed to license and regulate an industry millions of Americans already engage in,” Pappas said, adding that the seizures wouldn’t eliminate online poker but only drive it underground.

Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) told Hillicon he still believes there is interest in moving forward with a modified version of the bill he co-sponsored with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to legalize online gambling. He argued the seizures have made the need for legislation more urgent.

“When we make laws that Americans think are unjust, law-abiding people will break them,” Campbell said in a phone interview. “We can make it legal, safe, regulated, taxed — or continue to watch this sort of thing happen.”

The bill appears unlikely to move forward in the House Financial Services Committee, which passed a nearly identical bill last year under Frank’s leadership but is now chaired by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who helped outlaw online gambling in 2006.

Campbell said his understanding before Friday’s events was that the committee would hold a hearing on the issue this summer. The bill has also been referred to the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), another opponent of legalizing online gambling.

The Energy and Commerce Committee, lead by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), currently appears to be the most likely path forward, but House GOP leadership, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), have opposed Web gambling in the past and won’t be eager to prick social conservatives ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Campbell said both he and Frank are open to changing the bill in response to concerns that its enforcement provisions are not strong enough. Like Pappas, he argued the government’s enforcement actions would only spawn illegitimate operators with less interest in treating players fairly.

“That’s what markup is for,” Campbell said. “I believe there is good and strong regulation that protects consumers and ensures only legitimate operations are [occurring]. The computer servers would be required to be in the U.S. because we have to be able to audit the servers.”

Pappas said an estimated eight to ten million Americans play online poker, most betting less than $20 a week, and called the allegations of money laundering over the sites “absurd.”

“If there was even a legitimate concern there, wouldn’t it better for these sites to be licensed in the U.S. and regulated through American banks, which undergo greater scrutiny?” Pappas responded.

He argued that without the sites most Americans are left without a place to play, since casinos are not always accessible and generally require significantly higher bets than virtual poker rooms.

“If the same policymakers are condoning the activity at a casino they certainly should be allowing individuals to enjoy it in the privacy of their own homes,” Pappas said.

“Poker has been played in the privacy of people’s homes since the beginning of the game. Unlike craps, roulette, etc., poker has always been played at home at the kitchen table.”

These recent developments should be viewed as nothing less than a declaration of war against poker and the people who play the game. It is a clarion call to all poker players to take action. We cannot sit idly by and wait for this issue to resolve itself. We need to let U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder know we are disappointed with his decision to shut down trusted Internet poker sites in the United States and we need to again remind Congress and President Obama that now is the time to pass sensible legislation that licenses and regulates Internet poker in this country.

Today is no day to be a passive poker player. Your right to your personal property has been trampled on and your recreation, and in some cases livelihoods has been jeopardized. We need to fight and seize back what is rightfully ours.

The PPA wants you and every poker player to take action this week. Please go to this specially created PPA Action Page to learn what you should do. If every person who loves poker takes a few minutes to take these actions we will make a huge impact. Your support of PPA in these efforts ultimately supports your right to play!

Thank you for your continuing support.

Proud to Play
Senator Alfonse D’Amato

The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes and other financial media outlets are reporting that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has indicted the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UB and seized their websites in the latest attempt to crack down on online gaming.

Instead of the site’s usual homepage, visitors are given the message, “This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant in Rem obtained by the United States Attorney’s Office.”

The U.S. Department of Justice released a press release about the indictment, naming 11 site representatives as defendants for allegedly violating the terms of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006. The allegations state that the poker companies illegally coerced U.S. banks into processing payments after the UIGEA was passed.

In addition, restraining orders were issued against 76 different bank accounts and payment processors who were named in the Department of Justice’s recently unsealed indictment.

Full Tilt Poker issued a statement Friday night, explaining that while they do not agree with the actions taken by the Department of Justice, they have decided to suspend all U.S. players from their real money games.

Full Tilt’s CEO Raymond Bitar, who is one of the defendants named in the indictment along with colleague Nelson Burtnick, said in the press release, “I am surprised and disappointed by the government’s decision to bring these charges. I look forward to Mr. Burtnick’s and my exoneration.”

The PokerStars client greets players with a message assuring them that their account balances will remain intact. “As you may have heard, we have had to suspend real money poker services to people based in the U.S. due to legal developments there. The developments are confined to the U.S. and do not have any impact on your ability to continue using our services. Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern. For all customers outside the U.S. it is business as usual.”

After hearing the news, Poker Players Alliance chairman Alfonse D’Amato released a statement. “On behalf of the millions of poker players across the country, we are shocked at the action taken by the U.S. Department of Justice today against online poker companies and will continue to fight for Americans’ right to participate in the game they enjoy. Online poker is not a crime and should not be treated as such. We are currently gathering all of the information around today’s announcement and will offer detailed analysis when the full facts become available.”

Some close to the case speculate that Daniel Tzvetkoff, an alleged former payment processor for online poker companies, has provided details to the U.S. government.

http://www.no-limit-internet-poker.com

The next step for H.R. 2267 is a vote on companion legislation, H.R. 2268, in the House Ways and Means Committee. Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank has made it clear that both H.R. 2267 and 2268 must be brought before the entire House of Representatives together. So be on the lookout for emails from PPA on when that vote will take place and how you can help.