Full Tilt and Stars

[Moon_Child]

if online poker in the USA is banned. how are these sites able to allow US players to play on them? i don't get it... altho this has nothing to do with me cuz i live in canada, but i kind of want to understand how it works.

[Jernej Zorec]

u can play poker thats not banned as far as i know
only thing that is not allowed is for companys to transfer money to and off gambling sites

or something along those lines

[Kalbelgarion]

Because of the law pushed through last year, it's illegal for banks to transfer funds to and from gambling sites, and the Department of Justice has also cracked down on laundering sites like Neteller that allow players to transfer from their bank account to online poker sites.

While the DoJ probably does consider playing online poker itself to be a crime, they haven't arrested anybody for doing so. Many online poker sites, such as Party Poker and Doyle's Room, have chickened out and stopped servicing US customers, afraid that the DoJ will start arresting their players or come after the off-shore companies themselves. Others, like PokerStars and FullTilt, are defiant to the DoJ, saying that neither themselves or anyone playing on their sites are doing anything illegal.

[LeafsFan1122]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't PokerStars and FullTilt both based on some international island somewhere?

[xDiamond_CutteRx]

1. Poker is not banned. The UIGEA targets financial institutions, not players or Poker sites.
2. No online Poker site is run out of the US.

[lwestatbus]

There are many mechanisms through which countries can enforce their laws internationally. They range from "extraordinary rendition" (kidnapping someone in a second country and transporting them into the offended country's jurisdiction for trial), to arrest if the offending individual has the bad judgment to travel through the offended courty, to extradition, to asset seizure (if the offending party has the bad judgment to place assets in the offended country's jurisdiction), to enforcement in the offending party's home country if that country has the appropriate treaties with the offended country. This last approach can result in a citizen of Country A being found liable in Country A for violating the laws of Country B even if the activity is perfectly legal in Country A.

I don't know the where's and who's of all of the sites that quit servicing the US market but I bet (or would bet if it weren't illegal) that we'd find that the sites that bounced the US players were in countries with enough treaty relationships with the US to cause the operators to see themselves at serious risk.

Poker Stars is in Costa Rica and I'd be willing to bet that that site brings in so much money to the local economy and government (whether distributed officially or under the table) that the operators don't see a practical threat to either their finances or liberty. (Unless, that is, they have the bad judgment to travel through the US. Does anyone know if Lee Jones is an American? Is he now a Man Without a Country?)