I don't know why but this issue really irks me. The hypocrisy on this is off the charts. Gambling is legal in our country - the WTO has made that legal judgment (http://www.ibet.pro/2007/08/25/us-government-ignores-wto-rul...). Our actions are an attempt to preserve a protection racket for U.S. gambling operations and it's just wrong. Not only that but the strategy of seizing domain names, arresting execs, will never solve this problem. This shit pisses me off - I'm sorry.
FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
351–360 of 402 posts
Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> There are tables where you can play 250k in one hand. Not for me ever but I have a much much smaller balance. To my knowledge the highest stakes spread online are FT NL/PLO games of 500/1k (so buyin is $100k) and 2k/4k limit (you could theoretically buy in for what you like but the largest you could play in a pot would be 2 4 + 8 4 = 48k >>> They make more money by being trustworthy than not. >>> It has happened b…
People rebuy. There have been a number of pots over $250K. Not hundreds but you can find somewhat of a list here http://www.pokerlistings.com/market-pulse/biggest-pots What I meant is the poker rooms have more to lose by getting caught being dishonest than they have to gain by skimming some profits. There has been a few cases where employees were found to be using exploits to cheat. In these cases its usually players…
Of course, I didn't mean to suggest large pots did not occur. I linked above to a million dollar pot.
> What I meant is the poker rooms have more to lose by getting caught being dishonest than they have to gain by skimming some profits.
I wish it were that easy. A recent example is Microgaming. 20 skins of that network (a network still going today with sites like ladbrokes, 32bet are part of) went down, and took with it 5 million dollars of deposits. Players weren't refunded; microgaming did not honour those deposits.
>>> There has been a few cases where employees were found to be using exploits to cheat. In these cases its usually players finding unusual patterns in their play and calling them out on it that has lead to them being caught.
In the UltimateBet cheating scandal, it is assumed the vast majority of funds stolen from players was not returned. No one involved was caught. A man strongly connected with the cheating at UB was one of the 12 named by the DoJ as an owner of UB/AP.
Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#353I'm happy to see this featured so highly in hacker news. As a professional poker player, the biggest concern right now are players balances. I know players with 250k+ bankrolls that are extremely concerned about the status of their money online. Right now it's entirely unclear the relative size of the seizures. If anyone has any questions from someone in the midst of this, fire way. I'll be up all night.
It's been tough overnight getting the facts as they come out, many poker sites have been going down due to the strain, lots of news outlets are behind.
Along with a journalist friend we put up http://pokerfuse.com and will be updating it as news breaks. Hope it's okay to link here (my weekend project!).
Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#354It's worth noting that most gambling sites warn their employees against travelling to the US. The US has in the past arrested employees of foreign firms for actions which are entirely legal in their home country but illegal in the US. And it's not just gambling sites, in 2001 Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested on a similar basis.
To be quite frank, as a foreign national I'd be a lot more worried about visting the US than I would Cuba.
That's hardly a ringing endorsement for the land of the free, is it?
Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#355You know, these "asset forfeiture" laws will never change as long as it's the 'little people' who are getting reamed. The day the government grabs the assets of a few rich people, you can bet your ass these laws will change in a hurry.
It takes just one man to rile the public. What we need is widespread and incendiary oratory; governments operate only with the consent of the governed. Inaction, in this case, is effectively consent.
Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#356Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#357The entire attack on online poker, and poker in general, is funded, supported and encouraged by that completely immoral mix of human misery and animal cruelty known as the racing industry.
The sooner horse racing ends up where it belongs, alongside dogfighting and bear-baiting, the better.
Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#358Isn't their image with no alt tag ( http://pokerstars.com/banner7.jpg ) in violation with Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ? [1] Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 A Federal law requiring US government electronic and information technology (EIT) to meet accessibility requirements [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508_of_the_Rehabilitati...
You know, I almost wonder if it's intentional. Using an image-based seizure page with a very generic image name prevents search engines from having any content to spider (and thereby prevents people from searching for seized sites).
Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#359Re: FBI seized PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com,... domain names
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right. Where's the bit about determining the constitutionality of laws? It's not spelled out
Just read Marbury v. Madison. I have no more time for a 5th grade civics lesson.
You should have revisited the situation after fifth grade. Fifth grade teachers like to simplify things. Marbury introduced judicial review. It's not in the constitution.