My View on The Department of Justice and the FBI and the Poker Domains

My View on The Department of Justice, the FBI, and their seizure of Poker Domains Part 1

April 23rd, 2011

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?