The news about Full Tilt, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet and Poker Stars being shutdown was quite a shocker for most poker players from United States. The U.S. government is seeking to recover $3 billion allege to be have been stolen by these sites. They have accused eleven people including the founders of these sites, bank CEOs and their payment processors CEOs

      with the crimes of money laundering, fraud and the practice of illegal gambling acts. In the light of these events, the FBI have shutdown all the aforementioned online poker sites and restraining orders issues against more than 75 bank accounts which were used by these sites.

Any players from the United States who recently tried to access their websites would be welcomed by an FBI logo and a statement saying "This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant," these have left many USA players perplexed and worried, as thousands of them earn their living on the sites according to the players advocacy group, an estimate of 10 million American’s participated in online poker for real money.  The players are left with a lot of questions unanswered, as to what happens next? What happens to the money in their online account? can they cash their money? The status of what happens to their money or account is still yet undecided.

The chances that these poker sites will be back to run for US players are quite slim, however there are still other sites that accept US players and can’t wait to take the players from Full Tilt, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet and Poker Stars, you can view the complete list of safe and secure poker rooms which allow deposits from USA players on this website. All of the poker rooms has been tested and allowed deposits from the USA after the domain seizure by FBI.

The US government charged these sites with conspiracy to violate Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), violation of UIGEA, operation of illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy and they were also alleged to have used fraudulent methods such a dummy accounts to trick financial institutions into giving and receiving payments. Normally this type of charges attracts up to 30 years of jail time and/or $1 million fine.

They also listed the names of the five founders of these poker companies Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of PokerStars, Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick of Full Tilt Poker and Scott Tom and Brent Beckley of Absolute Poker and according to Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director-in-charge at the FBI, “These defendants, knowing full well that their business with U.S. customers and U.S. banks was illegal, tried to stack the deck.”

After the enactment of the 2006 law that made it a federal crime for businesses to collect payments for unlawful online gambling and definition of what is unlawful to others  was also given but instead these sites moved their operations outside US in other to evade these law and the eyes of the US authorites. According to Janice, “The defendants bet the house that they could continue their scheme, and they lost.”

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