Given the government's thirst for revenue and its propensity for "sin" taxes, it amazes me that online gaming has not been legalized in the U.S.
How Safe a Bet Is Online Poker?
By Matt Richtel
New York Times
June 10, 2009, 6:00 pm
The news that prosecutors have sought to freeze funds owed to online poker players prompted a question from a friend: Is my poker money safe?
What came to light Tuesday was that prosecutors had asked banks to freeze accounts held by two companies, Account Services and Allied Systems, that process payments for players at some of the biggest online poker sites. The total frozen was $33 million owed to 27,000 players, according to the Poker Players Alliance, an advocacy group for online poker.
It’s the latest effort by prosecutors to use indirect efforts to police offshore Internet gambling operations. Rather than going after the casinos, which are outside United States jurisdiction, they go after businesses that work with or profit from relationships with the overseas entities.
One upshot of these efforts is that it has become harder and harder for online gamblers to send payments or receive winnings. That is particularly true in the area of sports betting, which has been a focal point of prosecutors’ efforts. Many payment processors, like PayPal, will simply not take payments for offshore casinos.
But some legal experts have said that online poker playing is legal, or at least has not been deemed otherwise by the courts. This is a matter of some dispute. But since poker has not, until now, been a serious part of the government’s crackdown, there are a handful of payment processing companies that service online poker players.
One of them is Account Services, which has offices in San Diego. It issues checks from such sites as pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com. Jeff Ifrah, a lawyer representing Account Services, said the latest effort by prosecutors led to the freezing of $13 million it owed to 13,000 poker players. (According to the Poker Players Alliance, the poker sites have agreed to fully reimburse players.).
So what does this mean for my friend — and others who play poker and have credit at various poker sites?
I spoke on Tuesday with I. Nelson Rose, a gambling law expert at Whittier Law School, who said that the question of whether it is safe to place a bet is the very one that the government wants players to be asking.
When it comes to poker players, the government “wants to scare the hell out of them,” Mr. Rose said. And he thinks it will certainly have that effect for some players.
“Now, you not only have to find a way to get money to a place you trust and that’s going to be honest, you have to get money back and hope it doesn’t get seized,” Mr. Rose said.
Mr. Rose offers this piece of advice for players who aren’t willing to give up the game: Don’t keep too much money in any one account or with any one site. In other words, diversify.
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