In the wake of what we are all referring to as Black Friday, we have seen shares in European online poker companies actually rise. If you are not familiar with Black Friday yet – no there was not another slaughter of innocents by Tamil rebels: Poker Stars, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet and Full Tilt Poker had their domains confiscated by the US Department of Justice. In response to this action, share prices at William Hill, Ladbrokes, Bwin.Party,888.com and Wynn all went up.
We said we weren’t sure how long this would last and we see today that PokerStars is up and active again. However, both Poker Stars and Full Tilt have been allowed access to their sites in order to offer members the opportunity to get their funds out. This in itself is strange considering the terms of the indictments, but despite the fact that Federal Prosecutors filed restraining orders against 76 bank accounts, we believe members are able to withdraw their funds. Apparently players are not allowed to deposit any funds and an independent monitor is verifying compliance.
When I visited Poker Stars a moment ago it looked to me like it was business as usual, there were 98 795 players online and 2305 tournaments in progress. There seems to be no message up at the site to members and it is almost impossible to say from the look of the site that anything was ever wrong. I also don’t know what is happening at Full Tilt, but it also looks like business as usual. The other websites still have the seizure notices posted and charges splurged all over the internet – these sites were offered the option to enter the same agreement.
Poker Stars has made it a top priority to return funds to their members and fortunately licensing laws in the Isle of Man where the company is based, requires funds for members to be segregated from the company assets, so the feds can’t touch this money. Now isn’t that nice? The site absolutely denies the charges of money laundering and other fraudulent activities brought about in the indictments and are taking all the steps necessary to defend themselves “robustly”. This is going to be so interesting. Full Tilt Poker has declined to comment as yet.
Harold Lovell, the Minister for Finance and Economy of Antigua has said his two cents worth regarding the seizure of the sites and subsequent indictments. He knows only too well what a furore like this can mean. When leading US-facing online poker sites bearing Antigua licensing were closed following the promulgation of UIGEA, the financial impact to his country was lamentable. Despite a World Trade Organisation ruling for compensation for Antigua in 2007 on this matter, the US has still not coughed up the money it supposedly owes this government. Lovell called the Black Friday seizure a “violation of international law”.
While the recent indictments of US Poker sites may offer European operators a brief life-line, there is no doubt that these poker giants will find a way to stay open and even if players from the US migrate to European facing sites, they are certainly going to keep playing.