Poker bank accounts frozen in US by Department of Justice

There have been reports that bank accounts operated by online poker sites have been frozen by the US Department of Justice, the accounts affected include Full Tilt and PokerStars. There have been reports that the amount of cash frozen under the orders of the United States District Court of Southern New York citing the 1961 Wire Act is around $33 million. This is shocking news for the online poker world as until now other such cases of the Wire Act being used to determine the illegality of online gaming in the US have been in relation to sites that include casino or sportsbetting and not poker-only sites.

The Poker Players Alliance was quick to defend the poker players affected and sent a terse communication threatening potential legal implications if the funds were not released, in brief the letter sent on 8^th June read "The PPA is disappointed that this unprecedented action has been commenced against law abiding poker players. The payment processor funds frozen by the Southern District of New York belong to individual poker players - not operators of poker websites - and do not represent the proceeds of any gambling activity, much less illegal gambling activity. This money should be immediately released by the Southern District to ensure that player payouts are not further disrupted”.

At the same time that this action has been taken there has been a 94 page report from the European Commission published on the Remote Gambling Association website that declares the US gambling laws are in breach of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules as outlined in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GTS) and had effectively placed an unacceptable trade barrier on EU gaming companies. The EU found that although US online gaming companies were free to provide online gaming that foreign gambling companies were criminalised and had placed an illegal trade barrier against EU businesses.