Black Friday Online Poker Wiki
A day job is nothing like poker. While a day job has the benefits of a fixed income and a decent level of financial security, poker belongs in the category of unorthodox ways of sustaining a livelihood, and a pretty comfortable way too if fortune works in your favor. However, the scales tilted on 'Black Friday' -April 15, 2011- a historic day in the gambling world when the tide of fancy profits from playing poker online was stemmed. Indictments were served on the three largest poker sites: Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and PokerStars, thereby signaling an end to legal online poker in the United States of America, an industry worth billions of dollars. These fancy and profitable sites were raided, shut down and bank accounts were frozen. Never mind the companies themselves, much sympathy went to families that had depended on the profits of playing online poker tournaments, families whose lives were destroyed. Years on from that fateful day the scattered pieces of this puzzling turnaround of events are still being pieced together to find a way of making sense of what happened to one of the biggest booms of the early 21st century.
In Elite Cash Game Mastery, cash game expert Andres 'educa-poker' Artinano walks you through the strategy he has used to reach the top of the 6-max poker world. In Elite Cash Game Mastery, cash game expert Andres 'educa-poker' Artinano walks you through the strategy he has used to reach the top of the 6-max poker world. Black Friday was just a beginning of many problems to come for everyone involved with Full Tilt Poker. In this article at pokerhistory.eu we will draw a timeline of what happened with Full Tilt Poker after Black Friday on April 15th 2011 and up to now (May 2012). Black Friday (2011), an event in which several online poker sites were seized as a result of United States v. Scheinberg Scheinberg Black Friday (2015), a string of.
Online Poker Wikipedia
Chris Moneymaker: Patient Zero
The epic 'Black Friday' will be incomplete without mention of Chris Moneymaker, the man who won the first World Series of Poker in 2003. Had it not been for his pioneering achievement poker may not have scaled to the heights of publicity that would later attract the attention of the government. Before, poker was played online by the few techno savvy nerds who would rather play from the garage at home, far from the glitz and glamor of popular gambling spots, and Chris Money Maker was one of them.
The United States Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) sent off the wrong vide. Many were of the erroneous opinion that this act imposed a blanket ban on ALL online gambling activities. The aforementioned Act only had the effect of a so-called 'payment processing ban'. It had emerged that several online casinos were involved in money laundering with drug cartels from various countries that were now using online poker wagering platforms as a means of effecting payment for interstate drug transactions. The Department of Justice hence saw this as the only way to deal with money laundering and bank fraud. It was rather unfortunate that innocent gamblers were caught in the mix and misled into believing that they were the target.
Running From The Law: The Safe Havens
The murky waters of online poker have forced people to retreat into the shadows. 'Poker Refugees' is a term that has been coined for people who have relocated to countries where playing poker online with real cash is still legal. Costa Rica and Malta are popular safe havens for gamblers who have had to turn their lives upside down in order to save their marriages, rescue deteriorating finances, whatever it is that was previously financed by playing poker online for real money. Following the Federal criminalization of online gambling, a number of U.S states --including Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware- have gone against the grain and offer legalized state gambling, much to the chagrin of U.S legislators who are against a trade them deem addictive and ruinous to families.
In the wake of Black Friday a lot of websites turned to ingenious ways to steer clear from the long arms of the law. Most of these attempted to go around the payment methods prohibited by the Act as a way to maintain their hold on clients who were now scared of being found in violation of federal law, because, in essence, it was the suspect payment methods that were under the eye of scrutiny, not the gambling itself. This has worked but too no sustainable end.
The Way Forward
It wasn't so much the UIGEA that caused much damage but the ensuing clampdown on three of the largest online poker sites. The events of the 15th of April led to greater petitioning for the legalization of online gambling by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA). Up to this very day they are actively involved in lobbying for the repealing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in its entirety. Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, the liberal California and Texas are states that have made tremendous inroads into making internet gambling legal.
The fallout from Black Friday has been dealt with progressively and there appears to be a more mature approach to dealing with the occupational hazards associated with gambling than ever before. An umbrella ban is not a solution, and letting gambling continue because the profits of playing poker online help sustain families is not the best way to make a case for it either. Rather, the only way to ensure that the catastrophe of 15 April does not repeat itself is to pay attention to the licensing and regulation side of online poker. Gambling websites can also be taxed and become a source of revenue for the federal government.
When all is said and done there is no logical and reasonable justification for the existence of a law that violates a person's freedom of trade, unless of course there are compelling reasons advanced for such, for instance, the fact that online poker has been targeted by drug cartels who use online wager agreements to carry out their payments. Perhaps the Act will be re-assessed to find a way to make the gambling law specific to its purpose.
A year ago, hundreds of thousands of online poker players in the United States woke up on what was later dubbed Black Friday to the Department of Justice cracking down on the alleged crimes of the major offshore operators.
While the case (U.S. v. Scheinberg et al) is still playing out in federal court, many in the community are still coming to grips with not only the games disappearing, but their funds falling into the abyss of cyberspace.
PokerStars paid its U.S. players in full, but Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker have stiffed their former customers. The combined debt of the two companies is in the hundreds of millions.
Months after the indictment was unsealed, the government piled on the accusation that Full Tilt Poker was running a “global Ponzi scheme” by defrauding players to line the pockets of its shareholders. As the community holds out hope for a French firm acquiring the company and reopening its doors, the lingering pain of Black Friday rests with Full Tilt Poker.
Absolute Poker was already viewed as a big gamble by some, thanks to past cheating scandals within the company, but Full Tilt Poker had the illusion of stability and contained a much larger sum of player money ($300 million is owed to former FTP customers, compared to $60 million for Absolute Poker/UB).
After the insolvency of Full Tilt Poker and its atrocities with player funds, American poker players of the future will have the security of playing on sites run by publicly traded casino companies, with strict rules on accounting practices.
The Las Vegas Strip Shines Bright
With the largest offshore poker sites out of the way and stagnant efforts for a federal piece of legislation, Nevada brick-and-mortar giants are poised to tap into a demand for online gaming. Other gaming options still remain, including free online slots at Slotsadviser.com.
Despite lobbying efforts behind closed doors and public statements about the need for a federal bill, lawmakers on Capitol Hill haven’t made any significant progress on the issue.
Nevada, with its storied gaming history, has the attention of state governments around the country, Gov. Brian Sandoval said recently. The Silver State is in many ways the guinea pig for an American online poker industry.
Jim Murren, CEO of MGM Resorts International, said last month, during a meeting of the resurrected gaming policy committee, that his company will be “punished” if it stumbles out of the gate. Also on the panel was Reno businessman Paul Matthews, who said that Nevada only has “one shot at this and if we miss it it’s going to be a shame.”
Full Tilt Poker Black Friday
Well before Nevada passed legislation that required the adoption of regulations for online poker, PokerStars was looking to set up shop in the Mojave Desert.
The largest site in the world hired a former Nevada lawmaker to lobby on the company’s behalf, before eventually agreeing to a joint venture with casino mogul Steve Wynn. The deal dissolved when PokerStars fell in hot water with the federal government.
PokerStars was once poised to dominate Nevada-based online poker thanks to a bill the company was backing, but instead it was left out in the cold.
While indicted companies flaunted their businesses in the face of U.S. law for many years, the precursor to bwin.party digital entertainment left the American market when the legal waters became muddied from the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. The company is now eying a huge return via a partnership to run games with MGM.
Long-term Outlook in the U.S.
With a population of just 2.7 million and a monthly visitor volume of about 4 million, online poker only existing in Nevada isn’t going to satisfy the demand in the country.
Online Poker Black Friday Wikipedia
Thanks to a Department of Justice legal opinion in December 2011 — a move that was ironically both shocking and expected — states that legalize online gaming will likely have the freedom to form partnerships. For online poker, having a healthy player pool is the name of the game.
California and New Jersey currently have proposals working through their respective legislatures, while Delaware is prepared to introduce a bill.
Despite Black Friday and the DOJ letter, some states are still having a hard time with the online gaming issue. Bills have failed this year in both Hawaii and Mississippi, while Utah has preemptively banned and criminalized web poker.
The quicker resolution would be a federal law authorizing the activity. However, many in the industry are extremely pessimistic about anything coming out of Congress. A state-by-state patchwork might also not be too dissimilar from how it would look under a federal regime that allows opting in or out.