Apparently, the sky just fell...

[Kurn]

Any non US players interested in a small 'Stars -> Cake swap?

[Talking Poker]

I got a call from Stars this morning.

I talked to one of their VIP Managers for a good 10 minutes, and he was very friendly and sympathetic, but also a but uncomfortable - at least that was my read.

He did his best to answer all of my questions, but there are obviously a lot of unknowns. According to him though:

-Money is safe
-Stars will continue to operate outside the USA
-No timelines
-He suspects VPPs/FPPs will be prorated based on their value
-He noted my concerns aout money transfers to/from staked players
-I can't just fly to Canada for the weekend and play from a non-USA IP address... I need to establish residency with an ID (I think) and definitely a utility bill of some sort

Pretty much everything I expected, but I was still glad they called.

[stormswa]

kinda knew this was coming, maybe not to this degree but something like this.

A friend of mine put on a good chunk of money a while back, like a couple months ago. He ended up going on a bad run and lost his deposit, he went and checked his bank account like a month later and noticed that they did not take the money out of his account. He emailed them and they said they were having issues and would take it out, needless to say 2 months later they still had not taken the money. After 3 months he closed the account and opened a new one because he didnt want to forget the money was there and accidently spend it then have them take it out and overdraw his account.

Their processors have been pulling away from them for months it seems.

[Reel Deal]

Can't even get the FT client to launch... says there's a software update and then a pop-up says can't download update try again later. Fuck.

[Wes]

you have to go to to download a new update. can't play obviously but you can look at all those ftp points you got now!

[Talking Poker]

I actually haven't closed my client since all this happened and can actually still register for tourneys.

I may be playing a Sunday schedule with FTOPS today...

[Kurn]

Duh, I should've thought of that. They have to do a software update to block US players, but when updates are done, you're not forced to install the update until the next time you open the client.

Good job!!

[Kurn]

Interesting difference between the sites.

On 'Tilt, I can play a FTP freeroll with real money prizes. On 'Stars, I can't. So much for GOYL.

[stormswa]

then you come home and the dog is so excited to see you that it accidently runs over your powercord to your computer and knocks it out.....damn dog.

[redbank09]

I have money on Cake but is it worth even playing there right now with the possibility of them being shut down next and funds being frozen there? I am not sure how long all this will last or cashouts being stopped some I am just curious on how this is going to work. I have good bit on Cake too, I may just try to cash it out right now and see how long it takes to get. Its crazy how quick all this happened and why now of all things?? Well good luck to everyone getting their funds off who has some tied uip in these sites. TP, I truely feel for you after you busted your butts the last 4 months on your Supernove Elite quest, maybe something will get worked out for you!

[Kurn]

How did it go? I railed you for a while early on. Didn't think you had that much gamble in you - the AK triple-up hand.

[Gordogg]

If you know and trust someone with a non USA account maybe you could transfer funds to their account and have them cash it for you?

[sjay2k]

No offence, but this isn't really a reasonable request right now, given the likelihood that Stars cashouts get frozen and/or international transfers get reversed.

[sjay2k]

My concern is the following:

1. The allegations against the sites are immense. The allegation of fraud and bribery appear to be substantiated. Defending the claim will be extremely expensive, if not impossible. The DoJ are going after the sites for billions of dollars, and I don't see how they get out of this cheaply.

2. You have to wonder how much money the sites have lying around on top of player balances to fund the lawsuit. The sites have been aware of the prospect of being pursued by the US Government for years (some of them borderline paranoid), and no doubt they have been salting away all the profits and scheming of ways to protect their assets from the inevitable.

3. See the stock price of BWIN/Party Poker (who pulled out of the market years ago) . It crashed by 30 - 40% following the news. If Party crashed by 30%, how much did Full Tilt's value decline by?

[sjay2k]

Amazing: "To begin with, the defendants employed“fraudulent credit card processing,” in two specific ways.

The first method was by creating phony companies (flower shops, pet stores, etc.) that would initiate the credit card charges. (The indictment specifies that Full Tilt and Absolute employed this method). Becuse the credit card companies usually caught on after a while, the defendants relied on a supply of stand-by phone merchants (twenty or more).

The second method (by each company) was to use pre-paid cards (including phone cards). They would load those cards with funds from the gamblers, without using the necessary code. They even created fake web sites and reviews of the cards, to make it appear that the cards had other legit purposes."

[Reel Deal]

SJ,

Thanks for the link. Very interesting read.

And, if anyone is interested, here's a link to a copy of the complaint as filed in the U.S. District Court (Southern District of New York):

[Wes]

After April 15th, party/bwin stock went from 130 to a high of 180 (closing at 170). The stock would have been more interesting to see if the news broke before the London stock exchange closed on Friday.

[sjay2k]

[stormswa]

Just look on the bright side.....

[Talking Poker]

It went ok... I cashed 4 of 9 tourneys or something, but I didn't get deep into anything. I basically converted like $900 of tourney tickets to like $600 of cash money. Who know if they will be values the same or not when it comes time to closing accounts and (hopefully) distributing finds. Now I'm extra glad that I had previously spent some of my FTP points on two ipod touches, a Canon camera, a Sony LCD TV, and my Herman Miller Aeron chair, rather than saving them up for potentially nothing.

Unfortunately, a little popup appeared yesterday forcing me to update/restart and I haven't been able to log in since. I can't even get the update to run.

Transfers were frozen almost immediately.

[Reel Deal]

Some potentially good news:

[Kurn]

Tweet from Norman Chad yesterday:

Quite a sight: Mexicans crossing border illegally with entire families, Americans crossing border illegally with hand histories.

[Kurn]

From the Forbes yesterday

[sjay2k]

LOL so it turns out that the likely narc is a guy from my city of Brisbane -- see and . I vaguely remember him being sued here in Australia by Pokerstars (), but I can't find the court documents.

My Brisbane poker friends predicted that he would eventually go to jail.

This should definitely be a movie

[Reel Deal]

So the U.S. government is saying that they never froze any funds and that the sites are free to "refund" money back to U.S. players yet FT won't let me withdraw funds... hmmm.