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The nation’s largest casino trade group is going all in to legalize online poker, calling Tuesday for a proposed regulatory framework even as the Justice Department continued its crackdown on offshore gambling websites.

Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., president of the American Gaming Association, which until now has opposed the legalization of online poker, said in a statement that “there are no longer any good reasons to put U.S. citizens at risk by continuing to outlaw online poker in the U.S.”

He called on Congress to approve the group’s proposed online poker code of conduct, which includes conducting background checks for website operators, identifying all U.S. players in order to keep out teenagers and other illegal gamblers and implementing procedures to stop money laundering.

Hours later, the Justice Department filed a motion accusing executives at Full Tilt Poker, including celebrity players Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson, of defrauding customers of more than $300 million while they “lined their own pockets.”

“Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme,” Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

The billion-dollar world of online poker was rocked April 15 when the Justice Department shut down gambling on three of the largest offshore websites: Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker. Prosecutors charged the companies with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling.

The 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act bans online poker websites, although individuals are not prohibited from gambling online. Industry insiders say that while the federal indictments may have closed down a few websites operating illegally in the United States, others have since sprung up to take their place.

The result has been an intensified effort to take online poker out of the shadows by legalizing it. Republicans have in the past represented the biggest obstacle to online gambling, but two House bills introduced this year to regulate the industry are sponsored by Republicans, Reps. Joe Barton of Texas and John Campbell of California.

Mr. Fahrenkopf said he is hoping to work with Congress to develop a third bill based on the AGA’s proposed code of conduct. “I think there’s interest,” Mr. Fahrenkopf told The Washington Times.

At least one Republican presidential candidate, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, has come out in support of legalized online poker, saying on his website, “The federal government should not be involved in restricting lawful commerce that doesn’t harm anyone.”

The movement also has won the support of some top names in federal law enforcement. Former FBI Director J. Louis Freeh and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge drew headlines Thursday when they joined the advisory board of FairPlayUSA, a newly formed advocacy group pushing for a regulatory framework for online poker.

Critics of the online gambling prohibition describe the current atmosphere as “the wild, wild West,” an industry dominated by shady offshore companies with no legal obligation to their U.S. clientele.

“Current laws that attempt to prohibit Internet gambling have failed to stop the illegal Internet gambling market from growing to $6 billion in the United States, exposing minors to Internet gambling sites of all kinds and leaving consumers at risk,” Mr. Freeh said in a statement explaining his decision to join FairPlayUSA.

Tuesday’s motion expanding the scope of the indictment against Full Tilt Poker could be viewed as a red flag on the dangers of allowing online poker to operate openly. But Mr. Fahrenkopf disagreed, saying, “There’s no better example of why we should be licensed here in the U.S.

“As you can see from what the Justice Department did [Tuesday] morning, there’s no protection for consumers whatsoever,” Mr. Fahrenkopf said.

PokerStars has issued a statement on its website explaining to players how to cash out their accounts, but Full Tilt Poker has been criticized for failing to refund its players’ balances after the Justice Department crackdown. PokerStars also is offering U.S. players the option of gambling for “play money” on its website.

John Pappas, president of the Poker Players Alliance, called on the Justice Department on Tuesday to ensure that any settlement resulting from the crackdown is “first dedicated to reimbursing players.” He also renewed a request for Full Tilt Poker executives to “ensure the prompt payment of players as their first priority.”

Critics of expanded gambling worry that legalizing online poker will increase gambling addiction and its fallout, such as divorces, bankruptcies and suicides.

“People may not understand how highly addictive it is, when you’re alone in your home,” said Jerry Prosapio, co-founder of Gambling Exposed and a self-confessed gambling addict who quit 28 years ago. “Online gambling is just another way you’re going to create more addiction, and then you’re going to see more crime. It’s just no good for America.”

But online poker supporters say there never has been a better time to legalize the industry, given the job market and the potential for adding a billion-dollar industry to the flagging economy.

“We’re talking about jobs, tax revenue,” Mr. Fahrenkopf said. “It’s sort of a no-brainer.”

Yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department made a claim against Full Tilt Poker, a website where millions of members played poker for money, saying the site defrauded thousands of poker players out of more than $300 million. On the site, players created accounts from which they would add or subtract funds during games. The site assured them that they could close their accounts and withdraw the money stored there at anytime, but now federal prosecutors are saying Full Tilt's managers had been taking money from the accounts since April of 2007.

Who came out on top in the weekly $100,000 guaranteed online poker tournament held this past Sunday, September 18th? k24b took first place this week, earning $23,600. They were followed by Hixx ($13,600.00) and gripss157 , who rounded out the top three spots while earning $9,100. Here's the rest of the final table results: lowdog ($7,000.00); jsage27 ($5,700.00); Juggernout ($4,500.00); Knockouter ($3,300.00); TheBigRake ($2,200.00) and or_not ($1,300.00).

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Bodog Poker is pleased to announce that another pro has joined our group of poker players! If her name sounds familiar, it's because you probably recognize her from her work with various poker media outlets and hosting duties on the World Poker Tour. That's right, much like our own Tatjana Pasalic, Amanda is as comfortable in front of a camera as she is behind a pair of pocket cards on the felt.

Amanda moved to Las Vegas at 19 years old to learn to play poker. Even if she wasn't legally able to sit down in play in casino card rooms, she spent time in home games taking lessons from the biggest and best players in the game. Her work has paid off – she came out in the money in the 2008 WSOP Ladies No Limit Hold 'Em World Championship, finishing 45th out of 1,190 players and earning $3,682.

Since then, she's been focusing primarily on her presenting career but wants to get back to the tables. She told us: "It’s been a while since I have been fully able to concentrate on playing myself – I’m definitely ready to hit the felt on my own."

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For whatever reason, we're fans of the Borgata Poker Open over here at Bodog Poker. Maybe it's the fact it's underappreciated by a lot of the poker community, or maybe we want Atlantic City to get the recognition it deserves — we don't know. In recent years, the WPT has seen a recent dip in attendance in the states but the Borgata Poker Open stays strong. This year saw 460 players sit down for day 1A and a mind-blowing 853 sit down on Day 1B (the latter number assisted by the 143 players who re-bought into the game.)

As Day 2 kicks off, last year's winner Dwyte Pilgrim has been sidelined and Jeff Madsen, who's earned two WSOP bracelets is in the chip lead, holding 216,925 in front of him. Madsen won a $3,300 buy-intournament at the Borgata last year for a cool $625,000 is looking for a repeat performance this week, but there's still 786 players in contention, including names like Matt Affleck, David Williams and Vanessa Selbst.

Action resumes this afternoon as players attempt to navigate the sea of chance and psychology to win that first-place prize of nearly $1,000,000.

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Cherrywood Business Park, on the outskirts of Dublin, is no Las Vegas.

But here, amidst the neat concrete-and-glass office buildings, the Subway fast-food outlet and the Spar convenience store, a multi-lingual team of 550 people helped run one of the world's largest online poker sites, Full Tilt Poker.

This week, prosecutors in New York alleged that Full Tilt was not a legitimate company but a global Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of online players of hundreds of millions of dollars.

A check of the Full Tilt website says that its system is currently down.

Back in Cherrywood, nearly half the employees of Pocket Kings, which operates the IT, customer services and marketing for Full Tilt, are set to lose their jobs and many of them surf the web for clues about what will happen next.

"At the moment we just sit here and do nothing all day, just reading news from poker websites and message boards. For three months, we are doing nothing," said one French employee, speaking to Reuters on his lunch break on Wednesday.

"If you're not made redundant, everyone is wondering what's next? There is a lot of uncertainty," he said, declining to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

"Some of the people (management from the company) who are mentioned in the news, I couldn't put a face to their names. There was quite a lot of distance even when things were okay."

U.S. prosecutors have accused self-styled "Poker Professor" Howard Lederer and professional poker champion Christopher Ferguson along with other Full Tilt directors of paying themselves more than $440 million while defrauding other players.

Raymond Bitar, a Full Tilt director, also was named in the federal court motion. Bitar, a former equities trader who has residency in both the United States and Ireland, used to work in the Dublin office but employees who spoke to Reuters said they hadn't seen him in awhile.

"They just tell us the minimum. There is no communications, we get most of the news through online forums," said another French employee, adding that he expected to lose his job.

"It (morale) is really bad. Nobody is doing anything except for H.R. (Human Resources)," he said laughing.

Reuters asked to speak to Bitar but was told he was not in the Dublin office.

Pocket Kings did not return calls seeking clarification on its connection to Full Tilt, which was founded in 2004 with headquarters in Dublin.

Tiltware, a California-based company, owns all the Full Tilt Poker entities.

The EU yesterday ruled that a new Danish law allowing for lower taxes for online gambling companies was in line with its rules.

The move paves the way for state run monopoly Danske Spil to operate online poker from January 1, 2012 as it means it will now be subject to the same tax rates as its rivals.

Some organisations such as the Danish Slot Machine Association argued that lower taxes for online companies amounted to illegal state aid.

Sigrid Ligné, secretary general of the European Gaming and Betting Association welcomed the announcement saying, “We are satisfied that this investigation has led the European Commission to confirm that differentiated tax treatment for online and offline gambling activities is justified and is the result of distinct business environments.

“Online operators are subject to a much higher global competitive pressure than land-based providers. The business model of land-based operators is completely different as casinos in particular operate quasi local monopolies in their specific geographical market”. 


Danske Spil spokesman Thomas Rorsig added, “It has been hard for us to compete with bookmakers because they are based on Malta but now they will have to deal with Danish legislation.”

Up to 25 operators are expected to receive a license under the new law which will largely break up state monopoly in all areas except lottery.

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State Rep. Dan Winslow is pushing for the state of Massachusetts to lead the way in allowing online gaming in the US, and online betting shop services would really like to see this happen.

Online betting shop services learned that Dan Winslow, Massachusetts State Representative, believes that his state should start online poker gambling in the US, and proposed a bill to try to achieve that.

He cited experts who said that the gambling bill would help the state in the form of money generated from taxes. In addition, online gaming in the state would increase the need for workers, many of them in hi-tech fields. In the current economy, jobs are very important for people in the state, many of whom have family members and friends struggling with unemployment.

As other states brought proposals to the floor, online betting shop services can see that none have yet enacted legislation which allows gaming through the internet. States that discussed online gaming include Hawaii, New Jersey, Nevada, California, and Florida.

hen Winslow was discussing his proposal, he said, “This one, I think, is a great opportunity for Massachusetts to take the lead. No state in the country has yet enacted legislation to authorize and regulate Internet poker.” Massachusetts is well known for being a forward-thinking state, but that doesn’t guarantee that the proposal will end up being approved. However, many people with a betting site remain optimistic.

Winslow, who is a Republican, sees the state giving five licenses with a period of five years each, as learned by online betting shop services. Maybe wanting to cash in on the market, Winslow sees 10% levied on every pot, with the state receiving 70% of the amount levied. The representative is planning to allow players around the world take advantage of the gaming.

Winslow believes that his amendment may have to pass muster with the state’s legislative branch. He cited the fact that poker is considered to be a game of skill.

Steven Grossman, the State Treasurer, believes that the plan is illegal as well as “reckless and irresponsible,” and many people with a betting site can see that a battle has started.

The U.S. Department of Justice declared itself "all in" Tuesday in its high-stakes battle against popular online poker room Full Tilt Poker, alleging in a civil suit that Howard "The Professor" Lederer, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and other directors defrauded thousands of patrons of some $300 million owed.

A Department of Justice statement asserts that "insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying" about the safety and security of their deposits.

"Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme," said Preet S. Bahara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office filed the complaint.

Time. Can I get a chip count?

A Ponzi scheme, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, is "a form of fraud in which belief in the success of a nonexistent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors."

See: Bernie Madoff.

A bluff, on the other hand, is "an attempt to deceive someone into believing that one can or will do something."

See: U.S. Department of Justice.

If anything, Full Tilt Poker was operating under a fractional-reserve banking system in which, like virtually all banks, its obligations greatly exceeded its reserves, or on-hand deposits.

Fractional-reserve banking is the most prevalent banking system in the world. It's also the reason Washington Mutual and IndyMac failed in 2008, and Full Tilt Poker in 2010.

WaMu and IndyMac, however, aren't considered Ponzi schemes, which is telling.

"Players were not investing in any company-run investment vehicle," said Jeff Ifrah, Full Tilt Poker's attorney. "Players were never promised any type of high rate return."

Their deposits were guaranteed, though — by the company.

Bank crises are generally averted by regulation — the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, for instance, guarantees the safety of its member banks' deposits.

But there is no regulatory authority for online poker rooms, which were prohibited with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

Prohibited, of course, in the same sense that alcohol was prohibited in 1919 — not at all.

The 2006 legislation didn't target the players but instead sought to limit online gambling sites' ability to transact with American financial institutions. As a result, millions of Americans continued to play poker online, but the sites moved offshore, using unregulated third-party financial processors as intermediaries to facilitate players' transactions.

Notwithstanding, the obvious solution would have been to enact legislation regulating the booming online gambling industry — which, incidentally, would have protected the players affected by Full Tilt Poker's failure.

To boot, the tax implications of a hypothetically regulated online gambling industry are staggering. A 2009 report from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that online gambling regulation could ostensibly result in tax revenues of $72 billion over the next ten years.

$72 billion?

No, it's not the indiscretions of Lederer and Ferguson et al. that's put me on tilt. It's the government's. As the Kenny Rogers song goes, you gotta know when to hold ‘em and, more importantly, know when to fold ‘em.

Toss in the cards, Uncle Sam.

Phil Sweeney is a 25-year-old English senior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_PhilSweeney.

While nobody has ever won back-to-back World Poker Tour titles (thanks to tough competition, large fields and high buy-ins,) Will "The Thrill" Failla is coming close to being the first at the Borgata Poker Open, which just wrapped up day 3 in Atlantic City. He skipped the Grand Prix de Paris, but getting two domestic events back to back is still something that's never been accomplished by any player.

In the third day of play, Failla acquired chips steadily before a big jump thanks to David Williams midway through the day. Williams had been the chip leader and peaked at around 2.5m before Failla wounded him and he was finished off by Vanessa Selbst, who is in the money for her first time at a World Poker Tour event.

As of this writing, here are the top ten chip counts. Action resumes this afternoon at the Borgata.

Will Failla – 3,255,000
Doug Kim – 2,686,000
Ricky Hale – 2,554,000
Darren Elias – 2,547,000
Fred Goldberg – 2,176,000
Joe Dittmar – 2,067,000
Ryan Eriquezzo – 2,007,000
Matt Glantz – 1,962,000
Dan Colman – 1,800,000
Kevin Calenzo – 1,723,000

You may not be in Atlantic City, but you can play in Bodog's online poker tournaments anytime!

The Alderney Gaming Control Commission’s (AGCC) hearing to decide the fate of Full Tilt Poker’s licenses, which the AGCC had suspended this June, has been adjourned to yet another day, but no news has been released to the large number of online poker players who are eagerly waiting to know more about the fate of the online poker giant. In spite of the large number of Full Tilt Poker players waiting to get back their poker funds from Full Tilt Poker, neither the AGCC nor Full Tilt Poker appears keen on updating the public.

Meanwhile, security is very tight at Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel, the venue of the AGCC hearings on Full Tilt Poker’s licenses. Security personnel were posted at the doors of the conference room in which the hearing was held, obviously to prevent any furious player from entering. Although a few interested people turned up, only one managed to gain entry, but there was absolutely nothing to see or hear at the hearing.

As soon as the hearing was adjourned, headlines of major poker news portals began screaming about the DoJ’s latest amendments to its civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker, accusing the online poker company of being a Ponzi scheme, cheating players of millions of dollars. This is possibly the worst news for Full Tilt Poker as the DoJ can easily seize all its assets if the Ponzi scheme charges are proven to be true. It may be recalled that, shortly before the DoJ swooped down on Full Tilt Poker on Black Friday, there was news that the online poker company had a shortfall of $330 million. This possibly explains Full Tilt’s requests for top secrecy at the AGCC hearings.

The chances of FTP losing its license permanently have now more than doubled. The AGCC had been criticized for continuing to allow Full Tilt Poker to operate after Black Friday, but most probably the company had successfully convinced the AGCC of its credibility. The online poker gaming community should not be surprised if AGCC refuses to renew Full Tilt Poker’s licenses to operate after the DoJ’s latest amended civil complaint.

The AGCC has booked the conference suites of Riverbank Park Plaza Hotel till Wednesday, and online poker players are still waiting for an AGCC announcement at the close of the hearing. In the meantime, all players can do is wait and watch for the latest developments.

Thanks to New Jersey's democratic senator, Raymond Lesniak, there is good news for everyone who loves to play poker. Raymond Lesniak plans on introducing a bill, which will make it legal for casinos in the state to provide their customers with the facility to play poker online for money. According to PlayPokerOnline.com, a trusted name in the field of online poker, this legislation would make sure that it covers the problem areas of a similar bill introduced last year. The previous bill introduced in 2010 was ultimately vetoed by Governor Chris Christie in March 2011.

Lesniak says that Governor Christie vetoed the 2010 poker bill, as she was apprehensive about the fact that profits from online poker may go to horse racing as well. She was also concerned that the bill may lead to opening of numerous internet cafes in the state. To counter these drawbacks, Lesniak has ensured that his new bill forbids both these activities. Lesniak has even reached out to the U.S Attorney General, Eric Holder, by writing him a letter that emphasizes on the fact that it is up to the state governments to decide whether they want online gambling to be legalized within their own borders.

However, not all senators are in sync with the views expressed by Lesniak in his letter to the U.S Attorney General. Senator Harry Reid, who is a democratic senator from Nevada, and republican senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl, both have been on the other side of this debate. Both of them firmly believe that if states were to legalize real money poker and online gambling then they would be going against the U.S Wire Act of 1961.

It has been estimated by a trade association for offshore casinos that if this bill were to be passed and online poker legalized in NJ, then casinos in Atlantic City could generate as much as $250 million dollars in revenue. This amount would include almost $55 million in taxes. Money is not the only benefit, it is also expected that this move might end up creating more than 2000 new employment opportunities.

This November in London, the International Federation of Poker (not to be confused with the United Federation of Planets) is going to be hosting a unique event at the iconic London Eye. Players representing 12 different countries, including the USA, UK, German, Spain and France will play for the Championship Trophy, medals and national pride all inside individual pods of the world famous landmark on the 17th before laying out the final stages in County Hall on November 18.

The unique setting is just one thing that's setting this tournament apart from the others: it's also going to be the first major event featuring Duplicate Poker. What is Duplicate Poker? It's a variant where each table is dealt an identically-shuffled pack of cards. That means that the guy sitting in the third seat at table four has the same hand as the guy sitting in the third seat at table ten.

The IFP touts this as a "pure mind-sport version of poker" and ANthony Holden said "The Nations Cup will be a genuine celebration of all that is best in intellectual sports. Some of the world’s best players playing for pride and the honour of representing their countries in an intense competition with the added spice of international rivalry. Poker is played by millions around the world and Duplicate Poker is the game in its purest form. Players compete against each other based on skill, without any fluctuation in chance. I believe that it’s the best way to highlight poker as a game of strategic skill and as a Mind Sport. The Nations Cup will be a genuine celebration of all that is best in intellectual sports with the added spice of international rivalry."

Well, color us intrigued, if not exactly sold on this variant.

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Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. the President of the American Gaming Association, which has always been outspoken of their opposition to legalized online poker, has now changed their stance and is pushing for legalized and regulated online poker in the U.S. In a statement made on Tuesday, Fahrenkopf Jr. said, “there is no longer any reason to put U.S. citizens at risk by continuing to ban online poker in the United States.” The AMA has called upon Congress to approve their proposed online poker code of conduct bill which details laws that would include, conducting background checks of all website/online gaming site operators, having a system in place that would identify all US players as to keep underage activities from being allowed and including procedures that will stop money laundering in the country.

Note that this all happened on Tuesday, the same day that Full Tilt Poker’s newest allegations of corruption and criminal charges were filed against three of its top members including the CEO and two celebrity players. The Justice Department alleges the three of defrauding Full Tilt Poker players of over $300 million, which they used to their benefit instead of paying winning players. With these latest developments in the online gambling industry which is still vibrant in the US, the AMA realizes there is really no way to stop US players from partaking in the gambling community so the best steps forward to protect citizens from this type of corruption would be to legalize and regulate the industry.

Recently some big names in politics have turned the corner and joined in the fight to legalize the industry including a few Republicans who on an average have been 100% against the legalization of any online gambling. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has joined in the effort as well as Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge and Former FBI Director J. Louis Freeh. The latter two have also joined Fair Play USA, the organization that was formed recently to push for regulation of online poker. Some say that the latest developments prove that regulating online poker in the US is a bad move which just invite more crime, but Mr. Freeh disagrees as do most advocates of the gaming industry who have stated that this event just proves why we need to regulate and control the industry in the U.S., to stop money laundering and criminal activity.

SACRAMENTO - A slim majority of California voters wants to legalize online poker if it means more revenue for the state, a new survey shows.

The Field Poll released today is one of the first public indications of voter sentiment on an issue that has consumed months of high-powered Capitol negotiations without producing a deal.

Fifty-three percent of registered voters want to license online poker and have the state tax its proceeds, and 41 percent oppose it, according to the survey. Support for the idea is highest among younger voters, Democrats, independents and people who have played poker in a casino or card club.

Older voters, Republicans and women are more skeptical of online poker, according to the poll.

An online poker bill pending in the Legislature is backed by a coalition of card clubs and American Indian tribes led by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Banning and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near San Bernardino.

A second bill would legalize types of online gambling besides poker.

Neither measure has advanced. The issue has split prominent gaming tribes, with the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians near Temecula among the tribes opposed to both bills. Other influential special interests, such as online poker firms, software vendors and the horse-racing industry, are involved in the negotiations and seeking a role in the country's most lucrative online gambling market.

For the third year in a row, the Legislature adjourned this month without acting on the issue. But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg last month said he expects a vote on online gambling legislation as early as January, after lawmakers start the second half of their two-year session.

A NATIONAL LOOK

The state debate comes as lawmakers in Washington weigh legislation to legalize online poker nationwide, and federal authorities continue to crack down.

In April, U.S. prosecutors indicted the operators of three offshore poker sites and this week alleged that the owners of one of the sites, Full Tilt Poker, had stolen players' money.

Proponents of legalizing online poker in California say state-sanctioned games would protect players from fraud while earning significant revenue for California's ailing treasury. The Legislature needs to act before Congress, they say.

State Sen. Lou Correa, the author of the online poker bill backed by the coalition that includes the Morongo and San Manuel tribes, said he has seen private polls that show more voter support than the Field Poll found.

"In terms of the revenue potential for California, it could be explosive. What we need to do now is cut a deal," said Correa, D-Santa Ana.

But opponents doubt that Washington will act anytime soon. They contend that legalizing online poker or other games, such as blackjack, could void tribal revenue-sharing agreements that earned the general fund $263 million in the fiscal year ending July 1.

David Quintana, political director for the California Tribal Business Alliance, which has opposed the Morongo-backed bill, said today's Field Poll justifies a go-slow approach on the issue.

"Fifty-three percent is support, but barely," Quintana said.

Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said California voters usually back so-called sin taxes. A survey last year, for example, showed that many people were OK with taxing marijuana.

In the case of online poker, he said, younger people back its legalization three-to-one.

"It's definitely age-related," DiCamillo said. "I just think it's their greater familiarity with things online."

Inland poll respondent Michael Gartley, 33, of Fontana, said he supports legalizing online poker because of the revenue potential. Online gamblers, he said, "need to be responsible for themselves."

"If they're not able to gamble only what they're capable of losing ... then honestly they shouldn't be gambling," he said.

But another Inland respondent, Norman Andersen, 71, of Apple Valley, said he worries that online players would get addicted.

"I'm not against playing a little poker," said Andersen, who said he has a regular monthly game. "But I think there are too many people who would fall into a trap."

Today's poll was conducted for The Press-Enterprise and other California media subscribers Sept. 1-12 among a random sample of 520 registered voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

Thousands of people around the world allegedly lost money at the hands of Full Tilt Poker, an online poker site the government said last week was a massive Ponzi scheme.

But Adam Levy, a 26-year-old New Yorker, says he is one of scores of poker players who unwittingly benefited from the alleged scheme.

Mr. Levy says he tried to transfer $150 to Full Tilt in December to finance his online poker bets. He quickly won $9,000 in two poker tournaments and soon cashed out $7,500, but he says he later was surprised to discover that the original $150 was never debited from his bank account.

"I was never intending to defraud the site," Mr. Levy says. "I always thought that eventually they were going to take the money, and I made sure there was money in my bank account for that purpose. It just never happened."

Mr. Levy's experience raises a key question in the Full Tilt case: how did the company get to the point of paying out winnings to customers when it wasn't collecting money from them in the first place?

The answer has its roots in previous government actions that crippled online poker sites' ability to accept money from players in the U.S. Those difficulties are at the core of new allegations the government made against the company last week, part of a campaign to stop online poker in the U.S., which the government says is illegal. The online-poker industry argues that it isn't illegal because federal gambling laws aren't clear and because poker is a game of skill, and not chance.

Full Tilt allowed some U.S. players to wager with funds it never collected, creating what the government says was $130 million of "phantom money." The government said the business became a Ponzi scheme when it started using other players' money, which it had said it would keep secure for them, to pay players cashing out funds and owners of the company.

Full Tilt's attorneys, however, say that while the company may have been mismanaged, it wasn't operating a Ponzi scheme.

After a government crackdown in April on the online poker industry, the company ended up unable to pay $300 million the government alleges it owes players around the world, including around $150 million to U.S. players.

What appears to have tipped the balance were the travails of a tiny credit union in Arizona that turned itself into a clearinghouse for online gambling money, say people familiar with the situation and government filings.

In 2006, after the U.S. made it illegal to process funds related to online gambling, poker sites started using companies that concealed money flowing between the sites and players' bank accounts, according to allegations by the government.

As the government gradually closed off those middlemen, the sites found small, troubled banks and credit unions in the U.S. willing to openly process poker-related funds, in the belief that a loophole in the 2006 federal law made it legal for them to do so. According to legal experts, regulations allow for a bank or credit union to process transactions if it can get a "reasoned legal opinion" that the transactions are legal.

By the end of 2010, Full Tilt relied mostly on one such institution, Vensure Federal Credit Union, to process funds from U.S. players, people familiar with the situation say.

By then, Vensure had gone from a nearly illiquid "sleepy little credit union" connected to a defunct Knights of Pythias lodge in New York's Adirondack mountains into a fast-growing processor of online poker funds, federal credit-union regulators said in a May filing after they took control of Vensure, whose business they said was too risky.

Several executives of the credit union didn't respond to recent requests for comment. In July, Vensure Chief Executive Tom Lindsay said in an interview that Vensure had complied with U.S. laws. In a federal court filing seeking to reverse its seizure by regulators, Vensure said that it had provided the regulators full transparency and proof of the legality of its poker-payments processing. The Justice Department hasn't accused the credit union of any wrongdoing.

In 2009, a surge in Vensure's assets attracted scrutiny from federal regulators. A year later, they determined that the company was processing online gambling funds, according to a court filing by regulators.

Under this scrutiny, Vensure, through attorneys, tried to persuade federal authorities its actions were permissible under the 2006 law, according to its court filings. By December 2010, however, it had stopped processing transactions for players in 17 states, according to an audit the company filed in federal court in April.

Among those states was New York, where Mr. Levy had unsuccessfully tried to transfer $3,000 to $5,000 to his Full Tilt account in various installments over the course of a few months. Though he noticed that Full Tilt didn't collect the money from his bank account, the site still allowed him to use the money for bets and to cash out winnings.

Another player, a mechanic in Oregon, got an email from Full Tilt in March confirming that he had deposited $100 to his player account. A week later he got a second email from the company saying it was "experiencing delays in the processing" of some of its transactions. Both emails were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The $100 was never debited from his bank account, he says. He says he continued to try to deposit small chunks of money, and Full Tilt gave him credit for them, even though the sums never left his bank account.

By the end of last year, talk of the deposit problem was popping up on poker-related online forums. Participants expressed bafflement that money they had tried to send to Full Tilt from their bank accounts was never withdrawn.

Players noted that Full Tilt's bigger rival, PokerStars, was indicating the same processing problems. But instead of crediting the players with money that it couldn't collect, PokerStars, which still operates abroad, refu

There was a time when we all believed that revenues for online poker would never reach critical mass; that they would just keep growing and growing as the game continued to grow in popularity. However, we are seeing drops in revenue for online poker, in particular in the US, and this is for obvious reason – like DoJ indictments for example.

The latest to be hit by a falter after the flop is the Merge Gaming Network. It is not only revenue that matters in this industry however, traffic makes all the difference. This poker network has been subjected to a 10% week-on-week cash game drop, supposedly instigated by another US DoJ targeting of the network. This is an as yet unconfirmed report, but once again the Department of Justice supposedly has its sights set on the assets of payment processors for the network. This is understandable, based on their Black Friday action against the biggest online poker sites and payment processors operating in the US.

According to an online poker monitoring and review site; Merge had refused to comment, however prime-time traffic was down by as much 25% on Monday the 12th September.

Despite a rather bleak outlook it appears that some US pokers sites are sticking to their guns, and continue to operate in the face of a highly uncertain future. There are still sites moving to the Merge Gaming Network, with Pokerview being one of the latest to migrate from the Everleaf network. They have released a statement that they would continue to accept new registrations from US players. On the flip side of the coin, another Merge skin – Hero Poker stopped taking new US sign-ups in May 2011, the remainder of the network followed suit not long afterwards. Merge has also suggested that they were close to lifting these restrictions. The one thing that springs to mind is – are online poker networks that still accept US players behaving in a responsible manner towards these players?

Public consultations are a good snapshot of the opinions of the people. Washington D.C.’s proposed online poker entity is undergoing a serious look by those who feel it’s their job to keep the status quo. The District of Columbia Lottery will hold public forums during the consultative phase in every ward in the district in order to explain the ins and outs of the proposed scheme. The D.C. Lottery is the vehicle chosen by public officials to implement the online poker proposition.

While the government has been busy getting its delegation on the road an online survey has been conducted by the Washington Times. The poll asks if online poker should or should not be legalized with the possibility of registering personal opinions. The results were overwhelmingly positive with 85% of those polled approving of the proposed plan to legalize online poker in Washington D.C. 14% of those who responded said no to the idea with only 1% being undecided. The opinion of one individual regarding the issue was voiced, "Poker is a game of skill, plain and simple. Here in the “land of the free” we are not allowed to play, but yet so much of the rest of the world has already legalized it.”

Jack Evans, the chairperson for the Committee on Finance and Revenue which is responsible for the public consultations is a fierce opponent of the online gambling legislation. Further hearings will provide more information for the Committee to consider. The D.C. inspector general will also provide details on the contract process awarded a few years ago by the city council.
Not waiting for the public process to be completed a few council members have introduced a bill to repeal the portion of the law that authorizes online gambling which was introduced as a supplementary included in a budget bill.