US Govt illegally seizes Online Poker Accounts

Last week online poker players noticed that their funds were becoming unavailable and checks made out to thousands of players were bouncing. That was in direct relation to the funds of several processing companies whose funds where frozen by the US Government.

The head of the Poker Players Alliance, an organization that represents online poker players in the US, said that the actions taken by the Department of Justice to freeze bank accounts that held winnings of US players wasn’t justified by any statute. Executive Director of the PPA, John Pappas says that those seizure orders will not hold up in court and were done without due process.

"The government is on shaky legal ground in terms of being able to justify doing this under any act that has to do with gambling,” Pappas told Poker News Daily. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York claims the Wire Act and the Illegal Gambling Business Act warrant the freezings, but legal precedents indicate otherwise.

“The highest court to rule has concluded that the Wire Act applies to Internet sports betting," Pappas revealed. "Not to mention, in the state of New York, statutes say it’s not unlawful for players to place a wager."

Attorneys representing the transaction processors and others within the online gambling industry feel that this move was made to create headlines for federal authorities used as a scare tactic to prevent further funding of accounts on poker websites. This happening in the midst of the largest annual poker tournament, the World Series of Poker.

Bank accounts affected are located at at least four different banks, including Wells Fargo, Citibank, the Alliance Bank of Arizona, and Goldwater Bank. Among the future issues to be addressed is the freezing of accounts by these banks without warrant or court order, acting only on response from request by US officials.

News Added: 15 June, 2009

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