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Federal authorities busted the three largest online poker websites in the United States on Friday with charges of bank fraud and illegal gambling against 11 people, accusing them of manipulating banks to process billions of dollars in illegal revenue.

The impacted sites are PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker.

Players have not been able to access their winnings from the sites because the FBI has seized the domain names. The sites have assured players that they will be able to access their money again. Still professional poker players worry about the future of online poker.

Barney Frank has weighed in on the events that took place last Friday when the US Federal Government and the NY State Prosecutor seized four of the top online poker sites on the internet and arrested three of their founders. In an interview with “The Hill” Frank was quoted as saying “What an incredible waste of resources” by the FBI and Justice Department. He even went as far as to heckle their reasons as “protecting the public from the scourge of inside straights”. He also went on to comment that the Justice Department is more interested in arresting and seizing online poker sites than finding those responsible for the mortgage crisis and financial meltdown that the entire country is feeling.

Frank is outraged by the events of “Black Friday” and has no problem voicing his concerns over the government’s use of resources and time on something that should be legal to all US citizens. Frank tried to pass a bill he authored in 2010 but was completely stopped by Republicans who are defiantly against any form of legal online gambling in the US. This year he has begun the process of re-introducing the same bill but this time with help from Representative John Campbell [R-Calif.]. Hopes were high that this time there would be enough backlash from conservatives who view banning online gambling as problematic because it gives the federal government the right to intervene in a free market and ask banks to regulate and police online transactions which is an enormous job and almost impossible to manage, not to mention the huge revenue that would be brought into a country that so sorely needs a fiscal boost.

The three sites involved in the crackdown of last Friday had an average year of $16 billion in wagers and this revenue could greatly help this countries economic crisis.

Annie Duke's made headlines recently with the launch of the Federated Poker League, but it looks like she's still remembering the outreach that got her where she is now. She'll be the MC and host at a poker fundraiser for the 1736 Family Crisis Center on May 14th. In a press release sent out, Duke went into detail about the event and why she's throwing her support behind it.

"On Saturday, May 14, I will be hosting a poker tournament with all proceeds going to 1736 Family Crisis Center. This tournament will take place at the L.A. Center Studios in Los Angeles, CA. I invite you to consider joining me as a sponsor, player or spectator and help this nonprofit agency, whose work I admire. 1736 Family Crisis Center offers life-saving services to domestic violence victims and abused, homeless youth. I firmly believe that every man, woman and child has the right to live their lives in a healthy and safe enviornment and to conduct their lives without emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, or the fear of such abuse."

Poker celebrities confirmed for the event include Jamie Gold, Tom McEvoy, J.J. Lieu, Cyndy Violette, Joe Reitman, Yosh Nakano, Marsha Waggoner, John Hennigan, Ali Nejad, and poker industry professionals Lupe Soto, Jennifer Winter, World Poker Tour Director Matt Savage, Lisa Wheeler, and Rob Grackie among dozens of others. Also attending are Producer/Director Yancy Arias with his wife, Actress Anna Alvim, and Erik Aude.

It was a multilingual battle for the ages at the inaugural event at the World Series of Poker* Circuit stop at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas as Italy's Guiseppe Bianvociso and the Ukraine's Leonid Ryandynskyy went head-to-head at the final table to determine who'd walk away with the ring and the first-place purse. With a robust field that was 98% American, the fact that two men who winged their way from Europe (one of whom was on vacation) ended up opposite each other had tongues wagging with some likening the duel to something out of the World Cup.

In the end, though, Italy prevailed in the $300+50 No Limit Hold 'Em poker tournament, earning Biancoviso his first-ever ring, points on the leaderboard for the million-dollar freeroll and a very tidy $28,398 added to his bankroll. Ryandynskyy can't whine too much about his second-place finish, however: he is going to be taking over $17,000 back to the Ukraine.

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The crackdown on the nation's Internet poker industry has put the spotlight on a shadowy world where players all around the world engage in a supercharged form of gambling on a daily basis _ all without leaving their homes.

It's a far different atmosphere than casinos, where gamblers have to play one hand at a time and wait for dealers to shuffle cards and opponents to make decisions. There, the smarter players will attempt to read their opponents to notice "tells," a sign a person gives off that can show strength or weakness in a hand.

On the Internet, people constantly play multiple tables or hands at once, wagering from minuscule amounts like 10 cents to hundreds of thousands of dollars in a hand. With no way to read their opponents expressions' and body language, most players try to pick up clues through betting patterns, while some sophisticated competitors rely on special software that tracks players' betting tendencies and quantifies their weaknesses. The information can track, for example, that a player has a tendency to over-bet weak hands, allowing his opponent to exploit those weaknesses.

Like in live poker, the best players are known as "sharks," and the weaker ones are "fish." The good players live for the opportunity to devour the bankroll of a "fish," often relying heavily on the tracking software to wipe out opponents.

For 25-year-old Michael Borg of Sacramento, the shutdown of Full Tilt Poker has meant he can't play Rush Poker, a spruced-up version of Texas Hold 'em on the site that bounces players from table to table immediately after they finish a hand. There's nothing comparable in a casino.

The switch between hands happens within half a second, and even one Rush table at once isn't enough for Borg.

"I was playing four Rush Poker tables, which is like the equivalent of 16 tables in terms of hands per hour played," he said. "Literally every minute that you're doing it, you're engaged and you're actively making decisions."

"So when you're doing poker for three hours it feels like you're working a regular job for eight," he said.

Poker players who want to compete online typically go to one of the three main sites _ PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker _ and fund their accounts through a credit card.

But federal law makes it illegal for banks to knowingly process such transactions. Prosecutors say the poker sites have manipulated the system by creating fraudulent intermediaries to process the transactions and trick the banks into thinking the money is going toward legitimate purposes when in fact it's going to an off-shore gambling site.

The stakes can be incredibly high online.

In 2009, online sensation Tom "durrrr" Dwan issued a challenge to all high-stakes poker players: to play heads-up at four tables at once for 50,000 hands in no-limit Texas Hold 'em or pot-limit Omaha, with minimum bets of at least $200 and $400. After 50,000 hands, Dwan offered to pay any opponent $1.5 million if they came out ahead. If Dwan wins, the opponent would have to pay $500,000.

Players including Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey have accepted the challenge, and Daniel "Jungleman12" Cates is up $1.25 million on Dwan through 19,335 hands in 19 sessions, according to Full Tilt.

A session late last month that lasted just over two hours yielded pots worth more than $108,000, $101,000 and nearly $97,000.

The amounts are enough to buy a modest home in Las Vegas _ and enough to make even the city's biggest gamblers pay attention.

54-year-old recreation poker player Randy Huberty won Event #2 at the World Series of Poker* circuit stop at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. The semi-retired construction worker was on vacation in Vegas with his wife and he casually decided to enter the $500 (+60) No Limit Hold 'Em poker tournament. That offhand choice to spend a day at the tables left the man with his first major tournament victory and over $29,000 more in his bankroll.

What makes Huberty stand out from the rest of the pack, even more than his strictly amateur status, is the fact that he recently received a liver transplant and that his trip to Vegas was his first vacation since the operation a few months ago. The bearded man won in style too, coming back in a big way when playing heads-up against an opponent named Brian Hunt when he was behind by nearly 3:1 and then finishing his opponent off in short time. Just after he beat Hunt and kissed his wife, Huberty called his son at the University of Kentucky to give him the good news.

Skill is a big part of poker, but a little luck never hurt anyone, and Huberty seems to have that in spades.

In a move that could spell the doom of some forms of online gambling in the United States, the FBI has shut down three of the largest offshore poker websites, citing a 2006 law that makes it illegal to process financial transactions related to online gaming.

As reported by the Associated Press, the federal agents blocked gamblers from accessing the foreign-operated websites, “which are accused of tricking and bribing banks into processing billions of dollars in illegal profits.”
The AP noted that in addition to blocking recreational gamblers, the move prevents those who make a living playing poker, many with substantial sums banked on the sites, from plying their trade or even accessing their winnings.

“It just cut the head off of everything,” Las Vegas poker pro Robert Fellner told the AP. The 27-year-old gambler said he has an estimated $250,000 bankrolled on PokerStars.com, one of the sites shut down by the feds. “It’s scary,” Fellner said.

In addition to PokerStars, the FBI shut down the two other biggest online poker websites accessed by gamblers in the United States, FullTiltPoker.com and AbsolutePoker.com. Visitors to the websites now see an official notice explaining that the domains have been seized by the FBI and warning that “conducting, financing, managing, supervising, directing, or owning all or part of an illegal gambling business is a federal crime.”

The warning also puts online gamers on notice with this message: “For persons engaged in the business of wagering or betting, it is also a federal crime to knowingly accept, in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling, credit, electronic fund transfers, or checks.”

The warning implies that, although no action has been taken against illegal gambling in the five years since the 2006 law was enacted, online poker players and their hosts have been making money unlawfully the whole time and now it is time to pay up. While federal authorities have said that players with assets frozen with the blocked sites will be able to get their money back, no one is quite sure when that will be.

What is certain is that, with the indictments of nearly a dozen bankers and gambling site operators in the takedown, the online poker industry, estimated to generate $6 billion annually, is in jeopardy, along with other gambling venues such as televised poker tournaments, which have helped to fuel the craze in poker nationwide.

The AP reported that, according to one agent who represents several high-stakes professional poker players, owners of the Full Tilt and PokerStars websites have spent an estimated $200 million per year on marketing, “directly or indirectly funding almost all poker-related television shows, news websites, magazines, and several live tournaments.” The agent said that the two sites alone “were wholly responsible for the poker economy and its growth over the last five years.”

Following the shutdowns, online poker traffic worldwide dropped 22 percent, with the average number of individuals playing online poker for real money dropping by between 15,000 and 20,000 participants in the four days after the bust.

In announcing the indictments, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said those charged “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal gambling profits.” Bharara said that foreign firms doing business in the United States “are not free to flout the laws they don’t like simply because they can’t bear to be parted from their profits.” The federal case seeks an estimated $3 billion in penalties and alleged gambling proceeds from scores of bank accounts in 14 countries.

Among those indicted by federal prosecutors was Bradley Franzen, a “payment processor” who federal agents said helped to create “fake companies and websites that purported to sell such items as golf balls and jewelry to disguise payments and lied to banks about the transactions,” reported Reuters News Service.

Also indicted was John Campos, a vice chairman at SunFirst Bank in St. George, Utah, who prosecutors said “agreed to process gambling transactions in return for letting co-defendant Chad Elie and an associate invest $10 million in SunFirst, giving them a more than 30-percent stake in the privately-held bank,” continued Reuters. Elie was also charged in the fraud scheme.

Proponents of online gaming say the poker sites have operated for years with no discernable harm to anyone. In fact, the AP noted that while there aren’t many studies on the correlation between online gaming and gambling addictions, “a Harvard Medical School study from 2009 said most people who gamble online do so moderately.”

But with the dramatic increase in gambling addictions among teens and young adults, opponents of online gaming were understandably relieved by news of the shutdown. Among those hailing the move were the editors of the Christian Science Monitor, who noted, “Internet gambling isn’t like going to a casino. Compulsive gamblers and teenagers can’t be screened at the door. And it’s all too easy to click away a few thousand dollars in an instant. That’s why Congress decided to outlaw it.”

One prominent pro-family organization, Focus on the Family, has for years pointed out the devastation gambling can cause to both individuals and families. The group’s analyst for gambling research, Chad Hills, applauded the indictments, calling them long overdue. “Foreign gambling operations are not supposed to be soliciting U.S. gamblers,” he said, “and yet they’ve been mocking U.S. law. This shows them that the FBI and the Department of Justice mean business. This is going to send a message to other online gambling sites, and I am extremely excited to see this happen.”

While USA poker players have been shocked and dismayed at the online poker shutdown instigated by the US government, there may be a few bright spots appearing at the state level. One game today in Iowa, where a gambling bill passed in the Iowa Senate included funding for a study that would look into the effects of regulating online poker in the state. The study, which would be conducted by the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, was part of Senate File 526. The bill passed overwhelmingly by a 38-12 margin, and will move to the State House. According to a report in the Des Moines Register, gambling lobbyists believe the chances are good that the bill will pass there as well. It is believed that the study could lead to a vote on legalizing intrastate online poker in 2012.

There were several provisions in the law, and nearly all of them were at least somewhat controversial. Perhaps the most significant change to current Iowa law is the end to the referendums that counties currently must hold every eight years in order to see if citizens wish to continue allowing casinos to operate in their country. The change to the law would require approval only twice, after which voters would have to petition in order to force additional votes every eight years.

The bill also includes changes to how horseracing purses would be allocated, as well as permitting gamblers to make advance deposits at racetracks by phone or online.

A few parts of the proposed legislation were stripped out before the bill was able to pass. Early on in the creation of the bill, many legislators wanted to approve online poker in the state, but this was eventually reduced to a study on the topic instead. In addition, an attempt to add an amendment that would have ended greyhound racing in Iowa was withdrawn, as it did not have sufficient support to pass.

It was aboard a yacht docked in the Mediterranean that an American casino mogul first met an obscure Canadian to bat around the notion of joining forces. Together, they would push for more favourable U.S. gambling laws.

“Steve, in the American market we have so many customers,” said Isai Scheinberg, the 64-year-old founder of PokerStars.com. He said he wanted nothing more than to make online gambling legit. “It ought to be done right. And I don’t want to look over my shoulder at this point in my life.” That, at least, is how Steve Wynn, founder of Las Vegas’ most extravagant casinos, recounted the 2009 conversation to Forbes.com. The Globe and Mail could not reach Mr. Scheinberg, who closely guards his privacy.

You may not have heard of the Scheinberg family, but they are a Canadian success story – something like an Internet Age equivalent of the Bronfmans, the Montreal clan who famously parlayed U.S. Prohibition laws into a billion-dollar booze business.

Except this tale is shaping up to have a different sort of ending. Poker players now know April 15, 2011, as Black Friday. Prosecutors in New York last week charged 11 men affiliated with Internet gambling sites – including Mr. Scheinberg – with violating laws intended to starve the online gambling industry of U.S. greenbacks.

The charges were announced even as PokerStars’ current leadership – including Mr. Scheinberg’s son Mark – were growing more outspoken in their calls to reform U.S. laws. The site has issued a statement denying wrongdoing. Neither father or son has surfaced publicly since the charges were announced. The father could spend the rest of his life in prison if apprehended and convicted of the charges.

This isn’t the first time Washington has tried to rein in online gambling, but never before has it launched such an ambitious prosecution. The case against PokerStars and other sites is, essentially, a declaration of war – an intended kill shot against a global industry that often defies regulation.

Win or lose, PokerStars’ luck has already soured fast. Gone already are millions of paying American customers, a number of lucrative TV contracts and the nascent partnership with Wynn Resorts. Operations in other jurisdictions – including Europe, where it is partly licensed, and Canada, where it is not – should help PokerStars weather the U.S. shutdown, albeit in a diminished form.

“They were No. 1 by a long way,” said James Bennett, editor of the eGaming Review, an industry magazine. “Players were flabbergasted that it happened so quickly.” The Scheinberg family, he added, is “pretty mysterious,” even by the opaque standards of the industry.

Isai Scheinberg is variously described as Canadian or Israeli Canadian. Property records show that he bought a modest house in Richmond Hill, a Toronto suburb, in 1988 and holds onto that $660,000 property today. No one answered when The Globe stopped by twice this week. The Scheinbergs did not return messages left with their international businesses and Washington lobbyists.

In the 1990s, Mr. Scheinberg worked at IBM Canada, where he helped develop a standard known as Unicode. This tool allows computers in, say, Asia to recognize script from Europe and vice versa.

Mr. Scheinberg is remembered as a driven industry insider who pushed companies to agree to the common standard. “He probably had a huge international phone bill,” said Edwin Hart, a Maryland programmer involved in the project. “He was very much a political person. He knew who his allies were. He knew who the people were who disagreed with him.”

Such qualities probably served Mr. Scheinberg well as he calibrated the risks and rewards of turning his poker pastime into a global business. Records show he placed 25th at a Texas Hold’em tournament at the 1996 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. This was just a few years before he brought the game to the Internet masses.

In 2000, he founded PYR, a software company still located in Richmond Hill. The next year he started Rational Entertainment Enterprises, the PokerStars parent now located in the Isle of Man tax haven.

A host of rivals have since launched, but none rake it in like PokerStars. By 2006, it was widely reported to be eyeing an initial public offering in the $2-billion range. The speculation cooled the same year, when the U.S. government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act – which made it illegal for U.S. financial institutions to process online gambling payments.

As competitors fled the U.S. market, PokerStars seemed to view the law as a bluff. It continued to take money from U.S. players, steering them away from conventional U.S. banks and toward third-party payment processors. Now the American government is raising criminal allegations of money laundering, seeking to seize more than $3-billion in assets from more than 75 bank accounts around the world.

The Globe and Mail spoke to the Canadian owner of one such account, a man who asked not to be named as he said he had been fooled into processing online poker payments. “They didn’t disclose to me it was a gaming site. They told me, ‘It’s a marketing agency, and we’re giving refunds on [Internet] widgets,’ ” he said. He added that he stopped processing payments when poker players started inexplicably calling him to ask for their winnings.

It’s not clear how much PokerStars was involved in any of this. What’s beyond dispute is that its principals were growing impatient with the status quo.

Just last month, in fact, Mr. Wynn and Mark Scheinberg issued statements announcing the formation of “PokerStarsWynn.com” – an alliance designed to lobby for regulating, not outlawing, online poker. “We must recognize that this activity is occurring and that law enforcement does not have the tools to stop it,” Mr. Wynn said in the statement.

Two weeks later, after the U.S. Justice Department announced the charges, Wynn Resorts said it was “terminating” the PokerStars p

In 2006 when the government of the USA banned online gambling within it’s borders it shredded the market for many legally registered operators. Antigua and Barbuda the small island nation in the Caribbean went to the World Trade Organization and complained that the American action was unfair and illegal.

The legal argument was won by the tiny nation and the World Trade Organization ordered the USA to pay compensation to Antigua and Barbuda in restitution for the lost revenues that Antigua suffered as a result. The USA has never paid the fines to the small and economically stressed nation which hosts many internet wagering firms that US players used frequently. The country gained significant revenues from taxation, employment and licensing of regulated online betting.

Now as was recently reported by the Reuters news agency the nation of Antigua and Barbuda is considering another complaint to the WTO as a result of the Department of Justice’s latest crackdown on three of the biggest online poker operators in the world, Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker.
It has been suggested by more that one informed analyst that the move in the USA is designed to bring down all the competition that has been facing land based casinos in the states.

Harold Lovell, The Finance Minister of Antigua, has said he thinks these actions by the DoJ are illegal and violate international laws regarding e commerce within the World Trade Organization’s trade agreements signed by members. Government officials in Antigua and Barbuda will be talking about whether or not a renewed effort to bring the Americans to court one again should be undertaken.
The history of America’s compliance with WTO rules is not good, so the decision to take them task by Antigua and Barbuda may be a difficult one to make.

Two of the online poker companies whose owners have been indicted on charges of illegal gambling have reached agreements with the US Department of Justice that will allow them to return money to players blocked by the brewing scandal.
Solution: Domain-Name Use Agreements

Under the agreement, which was announced by an attorney for the Southern District of New York, the department will return to PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker the dot-com domain names which it seized from them last Friday.

The move will allow the companies to "facilitate the withdrawal of US players' funds held in accounts with the companies," the statement said, adding that a third site in hot water over the indictments, Canada-based Absolute Poker could also strike a deal if it so wished.

However, while American-based players will be permitted to withdraw funds from their poker accounts, they will still be prohibited from playing real-money poker on those sites.
Charges Remain

The founders of the three poker rooms are among 11 people in total who stand accused of accused of alleged bank fraud, illegal gambling offences and money laundering, in contravention of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

All three are based abroad and according to US prosecutors are the three leading online poker sites doing business with American customers.

America’s multibillion-dollar run at the online poker tables has been interrupted by what could be a killer hand: federal prosecutions of the three biggest websites.

The government has blocked U.S. gamblers from logging on to the offshore sites, which are accused of tricking and bribing banks into processing billions of dollars in illegal profits. Now gamblers who dreamed of enormous prizes in Las Vegas, or even used online poker to make a living, can’t access online bankrolls that in some cases reach six figures.

Some predict the American online poker industry, estimated to be worth up to $6 billion, may fold under the weight of the investigations as it threatens amateur and professional players, televised tournaments and the marketing machine that helped Texas Hold ’em emerge from smoky casinos to become a dominant form of gambling on the Internet.

“It just cut the head off of everything,” said Robert Fellner, a 27-year-old Las Vegas poker pro whose roughly $250,000 bankroll on PokerStars was frozen after the indictments. “It’s scary. It’s much more scary.”

Pay-to-play poker sites have been on shaky legal ground for years in the U.S., but the government hadn’t prevented gamblers from playing on the three biggest sites — PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker — before the indictments of 11 executives and bank officials.

More than 75 company bank accounts in 14 countries were frozen, and authorities are seeking $3 billion in fines and restitution.

Poker players, meanwhile, now see an FBI notice where the websites once were. Some of them had treated their poker accounts like savings accounts, leaving significant portions of their net worth online and ready to wager anytime. It appears that they will get that money back, though it’s not clear when. The government said Wednesday it had reached agreements with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker to restore the companies’ domain names so they can return money to U.S. players. PokerStars said on its website that it expected cashouts to be available to U.S. residents within several weeks

Full Tilt said in a statement that the agreement was a good first step but that it won’t be able to give players refunds until the government gives up control of those funds. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York, however, said in a statement that “no individual player accounts were ever frozen or restrained.”

Fellner, who won more than $57,000 at a small World Series of Poker tournament in 2007, is more concerned about how he would make a living without online poker. He said cards have been his only source of income since he was 19, when he matched his annual salary working at a dry cleaner by playing online poker for three months.

Since then, he said he’s made more money each year and now plays for stakes that require $5,000 to $15,000 just to comfortably buy in and compete. He wouldn’t specify how much he has earned so far this year.

Fellner relies on online poker because the Omaha game he prefers isn’t normally offered at his stakes in the vast majority of Sin City casinos. He said he could support himself with savings while he waits for things to play out, but doesn’t know what he’ll do if he can’t replace his income.

“I have friends on Wall Street — they could always get me an interview,” he said.

Federal authorities consider the poker sites illegal and follow a 2006 law that made it a crime to process financial transactions related to illegal online gambling. But last week’s indictments are the government’s first attempt to hold poker-site operators to that law.

Players and companies have long argued that the 2006 law didn’t properly define illegal gambling or outlaw online poker, which many consider a game that involves more skill than luck.

For the addicted, there's nothing like a good game of online poker - just ask Andra Verstraete.

"I play Texas hold 'em and it's really a game of skill," said Verstraete, who lives in Sherman Oaks and works in Glendale.

In the world of online poker, Verstraete goes by the handle "Audigirl." She's been playing online for five years.

"It's deeply psychological and it doesn't matter what you're holding in your hand," she said. "It's about outsmarting your opponent - that's what I like about it because I'm really competitive."

Others have described the game as "a rush." And it's a rush lawmakers and industry officials hope to regulate - and cash in on.

Casinos throughout California, including the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino in Highland, hope to gain a strong foothold in the lucrative online poker industry in the event that online play for money is legalized and regulated.

The multibillion-dollar industry made headlines last week when federal authorities busted the three largest online poker websites in the U.S. with charges of bank fraud and illegal gambling against 11 people.

They were accused of manipulating banks to process billions of dollars in illegal revenue.

The companies, all based overseas, were identified as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. The indictment sought $3 billion in money laundering penalties and forfeiture from the defendants.

"This really underscores the need for state legislation and player protection," said Ryan Hightower, a spokesman for COPA, the California Online Poker Association.

The shutdown of the three offshore Internet poker operations caught scores of players off guard, many of whom have winnings cached online. But the government has taken swift action to ensure they will be able to get their money back.

On Wednesday the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that the U.S. government has entered into domain-name use agreements with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

The agreement, they said, "will facilitate the return of money so that players can register their refund requests directly with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker."

"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," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharra said in a statement.

COPA, a coalition of 29 Indian tribes and 14 card clubs, is dedicated to establishing a safe and secure environment for online poker in California.

There is an urgency," Hightower said. "Right now, as these indictments show, there's not a whole lot of regulation of these sites ... it provides an opportunity for fraud and ID theft."

Lawmakers and casinos generally support the idea of regulated online poker as both a safe form of home entertainment and a source of revenue and jobs.

And the economic potential is significant.

A study released by COPA says the installation of an online poker system would generate as much as $1 billion in California state revenues over the next 10 years, also creating 1,100 new jobs.

That's a pretty powerful incentive for a state facing a $26 billion budget deficit. And it's certainly gotten the attention of state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, author of Senate Bill 40, a measure that's supported by COPA.

Also known as the California First: The State Funding, Job Creation and Online Gaming Accountability Act, the measure would establish a framework to authorize Internet poker in California.

Revenue would be generated through assessed operator fees, registration fees and through a license fee equal to 10 percent of the money collected by the online poker website from players.

The bill would initially allow the California Department of Justice to issue up to three licenses to own and operate Internet poker websites. Depending on the success of those, the state Legislature could authorize the department to license up to two more operators.

"There are no silver bullets, but Senate Bill 40 is a great opportunity to immediately generate more revenue and put Californians back to work," Correa said. "More importantly, it keeps California revenue and jobs here instead of going out-of-state or offshore."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has circulated a similar bill on Capitol Hill that aims to legalize online poker.

So how popular is online poker? One need only look at the stats.

Hightower said about 2 million Californians play online poker each week, wagering an estimated $13 billion a year.

Jacob Coin, a tribal government representative from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which owns and operates the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino in Highland, said the casino supports S.B. 40.

"That's why we're involved with COPA, to create a regulated environment for the playing of intra-state online poker," he said.

Verstraete, who has participated in online poker tournaments that sometime run for 12 hours, said the most she's won playing online was about $1,500. Her biggest loss? About $600.

"I typically play low-stakes games where my ratio of winning is much larger than what I invest," she explained. "But in some of these tournaments you might be up against 1,000 other people."

We've neglected news coming out of the World Series of Poker* Circuit stop at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas so here's a quick rundown of who won what and how much they got out of it. Think of it as a "lightning round" of information so you can get back to playing online poker and preparing for a circuit stop near you.

Terry Rowe was declared the champion of Event #3, the $300+50 Omaha High-Low Split tournament, after the remaining six players reached a deal after three hours of play at the final table. This is Rowe's 19th major cash and he earned $9,766.

Nhu "Taylor" Nguyen won the $300+50 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, classified as Event #4 in the WSOPC schedule. The 28 year old businesswoman owns and operates a wholesale importing company dealing in mattresses and furniture in Houston, TX. This win came at the head of a huge field that bloated the prize pool to $144,000, meaning that she earned $30,962 along with her circuit ring.

Army vet Jessie Bryant won Event #5, the $300+50 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. The total prize pool amounted to $35,424 with the 15 finishers collecting prize money. He earned $9,919 for his finish.

Poker pro Mark Whalen came out the champion in Event #6, the $500+60 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'Em tournament and earned $34,517 in his 28th career cash and fifth total victory. This was Whalen's first WSOP-related victory and he was rewarded with a gold ring. Before that, his highest in-the-money finish was at the 2009 WSOP Main Event where he finished 105th and got $40,288.

Some day I will get to the wsop....

The designated authorities in gambling jurisdictions play a crucial, but often unseen, role in online gambling. They are the ones that issue licenses to the operators of online casinos and poker rooms after due diligence and therefore are the primary agencies that can assure that the players' interests are protected. All three indicted online poker rooms have been licensed from different jurisdictions. Now all three jurisdictional authorities have responded to the indictments in the US and online casino players would be interested in what they have said.

Absolute Poker has been licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC). The KGC is the licensing authority in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, which is a sovereign jurisdiction located just outside Montreal in Canada. The KGC was established in 1996. The statement issued by the KGC states that its principal concern at the moment is to ensure that players are not adversely affected by the actions taken by US authorities. The KGC is discussing this matter with Absolute Poker and upon completion of its review it will determine what steps may be required. The KGC has indicated that it will issue a further statement once the review is complete.

PokerStars is licensed by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission. The statement issued by the Commission first makes note of the events, confirms that it is discussing the issue with its licensee on an ongoing basis and is tracking the developments. The most important part of the statement is the confirmation that the licensing status in the Isle of Man of PokerStars remains unchanged. The statement also adds that the Commission is endeavoring to ensure that any player who wishes to withdraw money from their account can do so.

Full Tilt Poker is licensed by the Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC). The statement from the AGCC is the most comprehensive. AGCC has stated that it will review the documentation affecting its licensee and will "undertake its own investigation into these allegations". AGCC stated that it would not make any ongoing statements till its own enquiries are completed. The most significant part of the AGGC statement is the acknowledgement that Full Tilt Poker has denied all of the allegations. The statement further reveals that upon the grant of its license Full Tilt Poker had obtained specific legal advice relating to its proposed activities. AGCC has also expressed concern that the seizure of Full Tilt Poker's American domain name is hampering and potentially adversely affecting its lawful operation elsewhere in the world. The statement affirms, "AGCC remains committed to providing a well regulated lawful environment for worldwide eGambling based in Alderney."

It's an event that's not talked about very often, but maybe it should be since it is the second longest running poker tournament in the world. It's the Irish Poker Open and this year, the €3,500 buy-in no-limit holdem tournament was one by Niall Smyth, a native to the emerald isle who triumphed over a field of 615 players to collect over €550,000 ($804,217) for hist first place finish.

The Burlington Hotel in Dublin was the hub of the festivities and among the European players on hand were names like Roberto Romanello, Sam Trickett, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Padraig Parkinson, Jake Cody, Andy Black and Alan Smurfit. However, by the time that the final table had been set, the most notable name left was Surinder Sunar, who's got over $3,000,000 in tournament winnings to his name. In the end, though, Niall's chip lead (he had over 8.8 million in chips when heads-up action against Sunar began) prevailed even with Sunar doubling up at one point.

Surinder Sunar picked-up €290,000 for his runner-up finish, while Niall Smyth collected the top prize and a €100,000 bonus for being the last online poker qualifier still standing.