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I’m well into writing Part 2 of my views of the The Department of Justice, the FBI, and their seizure of Poker Domains but felt the need to push out this addendum before publishing part 2.

I see many states across the nation doing studies on online poker like this one in Iowa.

Representative Stewart Iverson, a Republican from Clarion, says requiring the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission to conduct a study of online betting is a good first step. “I think it behooves all of us in the state to really find out how big internet gambling is in the state of Iowa,” Iverson says.

In my opinion all of these studies the states are doing are wasting tax payers money. They could drag a third rate affiliate off any forum and that affiliate would be able to tell them that the state would not be able to get the conversions needed to have profitable poker eco system. You need thousands of players all day long to get games going. This leads me to the conclusion that the government went after Full Tilt Poker, UB, and Pokerstars to wipe out future competition for Caesars Entertainment Group. Once they have a bill in place for regulation of online poker, they will grant Caesars Entertainment Group a sweetheart license to run online poker sites in the USA. The state’s study will conclude that they can’t do it on their own, and that they will have to buy “skins” from Caesars Entertainment group. A skin is essentially a re-branded poker room that is running on the same network. So, let’s say the Rivers Casino Poker Room wants to do a online poker room after it passes Pennsylvania state law requirements. They will contact Caesars Entertainment group and purchase the rights to re-brand the software with their own logos. Users in Pittsburgh would log into Rivers Online Poker Room and would see graphics from Rivers Casino. In reality, they would be playing with people from all over the country and the world. Rivers Casino would get 40% of the revenue generated from only their players that are tracked to them, Caesars would get 50% and the state + US government would get the remaining 10%. This is why Harry Reid wanted a black out period…. He wanted to have Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker cease their LEGAL operations in the US so that he could get all his ducks in a row for the passage of a bill that will clarify to banks that it’s actually legal to make deposits to online poker rooms.

The American Gaming Association is the biggest lobbyist for brick and mortar casinos. They had the most to gain by passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 in it’s current form. What had happened to the Indian Casinos across the United States is happening to online poker rooms. Lobbyist with ties to conservatives, pay those conservatives to pass legislation to shut down casinos. At a later date, the same lobbyist use other lobbyist firms to ease up on a law or bill so that a corporation they are working for can take over the market.

Firms hired by American Gaming Association:
Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock $400,000
MGN Inc $200,000
Laxalt Corp $160,000
Paul Laxalt Group $160,000
Potomac Counsel $155,000
Hogan & Hartson $120,000
Duberstein Group $80,000
Holland & Hart $60,000

Top recipients of money from Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock in 2005-2006 (when Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed):
Jon L Kyl (R-AZ)Michael Steele (R-MD)Tom Reynolds (R-NY)George Allen (R-VA)Ralph Reed (R-GA)Lindsey Graham (R-SC)Mark Kennedy (R-MN)Bob Corker (R-TN)James M Talent (R-MO)Rick Santorum (R-PA)Created with Raphaël

~ Bill Frist, former majority leader of the Senate, and Jon Kyl are both credited with expediting the UIGEA’s passage through the Senate. Though the SAFE Port Act’s provisions related to Internet gambling were drawn exclusively from H.R. 4411, significant portions were removed, including text relating to the Federal Wire Act. ~ Source Wikipedia

It is my opinion that since 1999, there has corruption at the highest levels in the United States Government regarding internet gambling. I believe the goal of the corporations which control United States Government via lobbyist, is not to ban online poker, but instead to monopolize it like every other industry. The UIGEA was tailor made for the American Gaming Association and Caesars Entertainment Group and is essential for securing their future profits.

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Who is behind the Depart of Justice and FBI and their indictments of the online poker sites? PART 1

We all know the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was attached to Port Security Bill in the middle of the night. The question is why? The next morning a private equity fund called Texas Pacific Group (now TPG Capital) and Apollo Management private equity fund had $28 billion dollars ready the next morning to buy Harrah’s Entertainment (now Caesars Entertainment Corporation). FWI – Private equity securities are not publicly traded securities. Apollo Management was created by major player of Drexel Burnman Lambert after the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert in February 1990. Drexel Burnham Lambert was once a top Wall Street banking firm that was forced into bankruptcy by their involvement in junk bond trading which was led by their employee Michael Milken. Why am I bringing all this old stuff up? Well I’m taking a look at who has the most to gain by this because it certainly wasn’t done for the American people. It was done for and by people who have the most to gain by this.

Lets take a look at Texas Pacific Group. TPG Capital is totally in bed with Goldman Sachs, all you have to do is Google “TPG Capital Goldman Sachs” and you can see how many deals they have been involved in with each other the past. In 2010 a case was sent to the Department of Justice by the SEC regarding securities deals.

Goldman Sachs also bought a few casinos in Vegas on their own a few years back when TPG and Apollo were buying Harrah’s. Goldman Sachs bought Stratosphere and three other southern Nevada casinos off of Carl Icahn. Carl Icahn is famous for his involvement in the junk bond trading scandal with Michael Milken. Carl Icahn was later involved in buying more casinos in 2010 and being partners with Andy Beal (of The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King fame) in the Trump Casino deal. Kirk Kerkorian is also a major player in Las Vegas and member of the Bilderberg Group. Kirk Kerkorian may also be a person of interest. Kirk Kerkorian was one of the people who shaped Las Vegas. Kirk had large share in MGM and attends private meetings with politicians all over the world. The Bilderberg meetings are where all the top politicians and top billionaires come together and form economic policy. In 2009, The NFL was opposed to online poker but later withdrew that opposition when amendments were made. The Rooney family who owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, own casinos and race tracks in Florida. Daniel Rooney has close ties to Obama and is ambassador to Ireland where Full Tilt Poker is located. All of these major Players have brick and mortar Casino interests in the United States.

It is my belief and has been since 2006, that the major players in land based casinos are responsible for having shills in Congress who got the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act attached to a port security bill in the middle of the night. I have no doubt that major banking corporations and major casinos saw the profits being made by the online poker companies and wanted in on the action. Since Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker were way ahead of the competition and it would cost to much to go into competition with them, they simply sent their dogs (DOJ) after them. The DOJ has effectively frozen all the bank accounts holding USA players money. Can you guess when they will release them? Right when they have a online poker site ready and licensed by the corrupt government ready to take their place!!!

Perhaps they will look to Zynga, the social games giant? Peter Thiel, one of the main investors of Zynga was co-founder of Paypal, investor in Facebook, and member of the Bilderberg Goup. On Zynga Poker, it’s legal to buy play money chips with real money and lose $20 real money all day long, but it’s illegal for Americans to buy real money chips and have a chance to win thousands or millions on Full Tilt Poker. It would be unfortunate for Zynga to accept real money play and be regulated because Zynga has no idea how to create a poker site. Look for Paypal to be the payment processor for these online poker deposits for American players.

It is disconcerting to me that the United States Government warns the American citizens of terrorists every day on the news, yet the Department of Justice is being used like a mob enforcer to eliminate competition from online casinos, so their masters can reap profits. Preet Bharara, the agent who has led the investigation was also involved in bringing Madoff to justice. Why not use this man-power to bring down the bankers and other criminals like Madoff? Not one banker was arrested with all the fraud taking place during the housing bust.

It really hasn’t been touched upon, but what about the 1000’s of poker affiliates and writers who are affected by this? Only a small percent of poker players are making a living playing poker, but there is a whole industry that relies on online poker to make a living. These affiliates made their decision to work in this industry because of agreements that the United States had signed in the World Trade Organization. The UIEGA clearly violated the WTO and Antigua sued them for $3.1 billion, won the case, but settled for a measly $21 million. Does that $3 billion sound familiar? Well that’s the amount the USA claims it wants from Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars.

Prohibition simply does not work! The players are already looking for ways to bypass the IP block from the poker sites. Poker pros will use VPN services to pretend their IP address is coming from Europe, and they will use an address of a friend in another country. Sites like Carbon Poker and Bodog are trying to capitalize on this by still accepting US players. This will lead to even more money frozen and more indictments.

So why let Americans buy useless seeds on Zynga’s Farmville (Zynga makes $900,000 a month selling just one type of virtual seed) for real money but not let them play poker for real money where they might actually win something? Why claim there are terrorists trying to blow up the world, yet spend that time trying to prosecute companies conducting legal business practices? If poker is so dangerous, why let states legalize and regulate it? Why has Washington DC made it legal?

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The United States is once again facing the world court. By shutting down internet gaming sites based in Antigua, in addition to other countries’, and following that up with prosecution of their owners, the United States has further violated their agreement with the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda intends to take this issue up with the world court through the WTO.
Antigua and Barbuda, a government that licenses internet gambling and gaming companies, has fought a long and fierce battle in the WTO regarding the United States’ efforts to keep American citizens from patronizing non-American based betting sites. The shut down that came on Friday, April 15, 2011 of the 3 major online poker rooms has the island nation ready to fight yet another round.
The stance taken to the World Trade Organization holds that the US attack on the foreign betting sites is an illegal and protectionist decision. Supporting this stance is the fact that the United States allows live casino gaming and poker rooms as well as online, state regulated horse racing betting. This creates the atmosphere of protectionism from the world of online gaming.
Since the events a week ago, the United States prosecutors in the state of New York have allowed 2 of the 5 domains to be released and utilized by their owners. The website owners are facing up to $3 billion dollars in money laundering and fraud fines and charges. According to the allegations being made by the US Federal prosecutors, the three internationally based poker room companies deceived American banks and payment processors into exchanging illegal online gaming proceeds to and from United States customers.
The third company involved, Absolute Poker, is based in Antigua. They remain unable to process transactions and unable to use their domains because, unlike the other two companies, they will not agree not to accept US customers. The country’s finance minster called the action an illegal endeavor to stop competition.
To date, the small country’s secondary revenue base is online gaming. The only thing surpassing this industry for their economy is tourism. As such, Antigua and Barbuda approached the WTO on two separate occasions regarding the issue and both times the World Trade Organization agreed with the Caribbean nation. Sanctions to date include the suspension of 21 million dollars of intellectual property rights maintained by any US company. This sanction has impacted many major businesses operating in the United States unrelated to the online gaming industry.
The island nation will be holding talks next week regarding the issue. They are considering further time before the World Trade Organization and possible retaliation options to offset the impact on their economy.

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