Five years after their last big push against online gambling, which resulted in PartyGamings jump to German servers, the US Department of Justice is again making inroads – taking over the URLs for PokerStars, Full Tilt & Absolute Poker, and seeking US $3 billion in civil penalties from 11 defendants.
The three websites in question have been taken over on charges
with bank fraud, moneylaundering and illegal gambling offenses.
Attempting to access either PokerStars, Full Tilt or Absolute Poker redirects users to an FBI document describing the various crimes associated with illegal gambling and their respective penalties.
2006 saw the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) that makes it illegal for payment processors to handle online gambling transactions – so it’s curious that it’s been about five years since the DoJ has acted on it. That being said, in 2006 the US government didn’t have the massive budget deficits that they do right now – $3 billion counts for more when you need it.
An unexpected consequence has been a 30% jump in share prices for PartyGaming, the site that got booted out of America in 2006; other Europe-based gambling sites are seeing similiar growth, as users and investors in American gambling websites grow concerned.
