Saturday, April 16, 2011

Poker Stars Suspends US Players

Friday, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney charged the principals of 3 of on the internet poker's biggest internet sites with bank fraud, illegal gambling and laundering billions of dollars.

In all, 11 defendants
had been charged, such as PokerStars' Isai Scheinberg, Fill Tilt Poker's Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtnick and Absolute Poker's Scott Tom.
The net domain names used by PokerStars, Full Tilt, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet were seized and now redirect to a message from the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the FBI.

In response, PokerStars issued a statement
as a result of a pop-up on its poker client saying it has suspended real-money play within the United States.

"As
you could possibly have heard, we have had to suspend actual income poker services to people today based within the U.S. as a result of legal developments there," the statement reads.

"The developments are confined
towards the U.S. and do not have any impact on your capacity to continue utilizing our services. Please be assured player balances are secure. There isn't any trigger for concern. For all clients outside the U.S. it can be enterprise as typical."

The statement goes on to say the PokerStars
internet site has been moved to www.pokerstars.eu and its support e-mail address is now support@pokerstars.eu.

Full Tilt Poker also released a statement saying it supports poker players and Bitar, the company's chief executive, but has been forced to pull out
of the U.S. industry.

"Full Tilt Poker is saddened by today’s charges against its CEO Raymond Bitar and
gives its full assistance to Mr. Bitar and Nelson Burtnick," the statement reads.

"Online poker
can be a game of skill enjoyed by tens of millions of people within the United States and across the world. And, Full Tilt Poker remains as committed as ever to preserving the rights of these players to play the game they enjoy on the net.

"Mr. Bitar and Full Tilt Poker
think on the internet poker is legal - a position also taken by some of the ideal legal minds inside the United States. Full Tilt Poker is, and has generally been committed to preserving the integrity from the game and abiding by the law."

The statemet goes on to say Full Tilt Poker has
made the decision to suspend real-money play in the United States till the situation is resolved, but will continue to give its services outside from the United States.

“I am
shocked and disappointed by the government’s choice to bring these charges," mentioned Mr. Bitar.

"I
look forward to Mr. Burtnick’s and my exoneration.”

At press time, no public comments
have been created by principals at Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet or the Cereus Poker Network.

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