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Poker Domain Seizures Part 4 “The strategy to shut down Full Tilt Poker stolen from Jack Abramoff’s playbook”

Jack Abramoff Photo Image

Jack Abramoff is the most famous lobbyist of all time. Why am I bringing his name up on a poker blog? Well, I’ve been doing a serious of articles exposing corruption at the highest levels of Washington DC and Las Vegas:

Domain Seizures Part 3
Domain Seizures Part 2
Domain Seizures Part 1 addendum
Domain Seizures Part 1

Unlike most people who are begging for regulation of online poker, I’m doing the opposite. I will not beg to government officials to do what I want in privacy of my own home (as long as I’m not hurting anyone).

The wool is being pulled over the whole online poker community by the NFL, Caesars/Wynn, Fair Play USA, and the PPA. These companies are using the masses of online poker players to beg congress to legalize something that is not illegal in the first place. Eric Holder himself could not say whether it was game of skill or not in front of a senate DOJ over site committee: He is quoted as saying “beyond my capabilities” and “Do you think Phil Ivey is just lucky, he is the world’s greatest poker player?” asked Democratic Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee. “I am not sure I know who Phil Ivey is, but I am sure there is some degree of skill that is involved, some degree, I am not a poker player myself,” Holder replied.

The reason I’m bringing up Jack Abramoff and Eric Holder is that they were both lobbyist for major DC firms. They both stifled competition to benefit their clients. In the case of Eric Holder, he went from making $2 million a year for Covington and Burling to $150,000 as Attorney General. And now all of his former clients are benefiting??? Jack went to jail for 3 and 1/2 years and Eric Holder is in one of the highest positions of the US Government. But one could argue that Frank Fahrenkopf (American Gaming Association lobbyist for Caesars) would be more comparable to Jack. Frank and Jack are/were both beloved Republicans with ties to the very top (Bush Family). Both are/were lobbyists that worked for the casino industry. both fought bills prohibiting online gambling and both used influence to stifle competition for their clients, and both funneled money to congress representatives to pass their initiatives.

Jack has reevaluated lobbying in his new book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist

He writes “it continues today, unabated by reform campaigns or public ire at the Congress.”

“Most of these legislators had taken thousands of dollars from my clients and firms, and now they were sitting as impartial judges against me. Washington hypocrisy at its best,”

“I know that, barring a torch and pitchfork uprising, no real changes will occur.”

“the lure of post-public service lobbying employment needs to be eliminated,”

“If you chose to serve in Congress or on a congressional staff, you should be barred for life from working for any company, organization, or association which lobbies the federal government. “

Jack spent 3 and 1/2 years in jail for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials. The only problem is that this sort of thing is going on as we speak. Jack had committed conspiracy to bribe public officials to shut down Indian Casinos. He later would bilk them out of millions to persuade congress to let them open up again. Jack and his partner Michael Scanlon attempted to bilk (Jack would most likely disagree with this term) the Native Americans out of 85 million dollars. He still claims to have done the Indians a favor because of the millions they reaped after his services.

The most incredible similarity I found between Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon’s scandal and the online poker seizures is that of Sun Cruz Casinos. This is almost identical to the attack on online poker and specifically Full Tilt Poker. You see, Sun Cruz was the “internet poker” of the time so to speak. It eluded the regulation of the brick and mortar cartel of casinos in the USA that is funded by Michael Milken. Something had to be done to keep the kleptocracy going, so using their influence in congress, Jack Abramoff used his friends at Americans for Tax Reform to funnel money to Rep. Bob Ney and others to apply pressure to shut down Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis and his SunCruz Casinos. This is not unlike Covington and Burling attaching bills in the middle of the night to port security bills or using their shill Eric Holder to confiscate online poker domains. In my opinion, American International Center LLC (a company that was set up by Abramoff and Michael Scanlon) is not unlike Fair Play USA. Fair Play USA is a fake grass roots organization or “Astro-turf” company financed by Caesars Entertainment. They act to influence lawmakers just as Ralph Reed did for Jack Abramoff’s benefit. They also ask poker players to call their congressman, write letters, etc etc. So if they were ever exposed as what they are they could say “you asked for regulation”. Here is one of Fair Play USA principles :
Provide tools to crack down on unlicensed foreign operators who do not comply with U.S. law; removing U.S. banks as the enforcers under UIGEA and empowering law enforcement to shut down illegal operators. This is simply Caesars paying ex Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Ex FBI Louis J. Freeh to use their buddies to wipe out (or lower the price of) Full Tilt Poker.

SunCruz Casinos forced into bankruptcy even though they were highly lucrative business

More similarities exist between SunCruz and Full Tilt Poker’s shut down…. Jack Abramoff was an attorney at Greenberg Traurig and was used to seek a buyer for the troubled SunCruz Casinos. Jeff Ifrah is Full Tilt Poker Attorney and was an attorney at Greenberg Traurig and is helping facilitate deal for buyer for Full Tilt Poker. Jeff is still a shareholder at Greenberg. Instead of keeping his fiduciary duties of getting his client out of trouble, Jack teamed up with a shady character named Adam Kidan. Adam Kidan would be the buyer for SunCruz Casinos if he had the cash. He didn’t have all the cash and committed fraud to produce a fake wire transfer of $23 million. One could compare Kidan to Bernard Tapie.

Bernard Tapie Photo
Bernard Tapie is the shady French character that is looked to as the savior for the Full Tilt Sale. Adam Kidan and Bernard Tapie both have shady past, both didn’t have the money on their own, and both are front men.

So lets get a little refresher course:

Bob Ney = Jon Kyl
Adam Kidan = Bernard Tapie
Caesars/Wynn/Milken = The Money
Fair Play = Ralph Reed
SunCruz / Indian Casinos = Full Tilt Poker
Jeff Ifrah = Huge billing like Jack had at Greenberg
Ray Bitar = Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis
AGA Frank J. Fahrenkopf = Jack Abramoff
Harry Mason Reid = Tom Delay

Adam Kidan Photo

Adam Kidan would end up getting stabbed multiple times by Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis when he tried to push Gus out of the business. Konstantinos Boulis would later be murdered after the attack and subsequent sale falling into disarray. Three members of the Gambino crime family were arrested for the professional hit on Boulis. $250,000 was traced by investigators from Kidan to the mobsters. Kidan claimed the money was for catering and security and investigators believed him.

Anthony Moscatiello and fellow hitmen

Konstantinos Boulis the owner of SunCruz Casinos and founder of Miami Subs

Full Tilt Poker is like a resource rich Indian Reservation with casinos or a profitable International Cruise Line casino multiplied by 10. All of the issues it has with money is a result of the UIGEA which was attached by a lobbyist for the NFL. The NFL has future gambling initiatives and is really influenced by the Rooney family which owns the Steelers and Casinos up and down the east coast. The UIGEA was tailored to the Rooneys for their Horse tracks and Poker Rooms. When Full Tilt Poker aligned with stations casinos, it was a threat to the Caesars/Wynn/NFL cartel on future online gambling. The members of TWO PLUS TWO are going to have to come to realize that they are being used by lobbyist to pressure legislators on bills that will restrict their freedoms and cost them money down the road.

I’m saying it now: Two Plus Two is being used just like Focus on Family was to email congress and make phone calls. This will only benefit a future Caesars/Wynn/Milken online gambling monopoly. I believe the whole strategy to shut down Full Tilt Poker was taken directly from Jack Abramoff’s lobbyist playbook. I believe he is more relevant than ever. He even admits in his sixty minutes interview that lobbying (in it’s current form) is bribery and nothing less:

60 Minutes Interview
Abramoff: I think people are under the impression that the corruption only involves somebody handing over a check and getting a favor. And that’s not the case. The corruption, the bribery, call it, because ultimately that’s what it is. That’s what the whole system is.

Stahl: The whole system’s bribery?

Abramoff: In my view. I’m talking about giving a gift to somebody who makes a decision on behalf of the public. At the end of the day, that’s really what bribery is. But it is done everyday and it is still being done. The truth is there were very few members who I could even name or could think of who didn’t at some level participate in that.

So is Jack Abramoff truly for more regulations against lobbyist? Has jail given him time to think? Or, is he simply working some new angle for a return to politics or main stream media? I really don’t know but I would like to think he changed while he was in prison and is exposing corruption for the good of the American people. I’m going to give him the benefit of doubt unless he proves me wrong.

Two Plus Two thread on Jack Abramoff

writer and poker player John Smith

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Many of you recently watched episode 2 of the online poker series The Micros. At the end, you may have heard Tommy refer to poker blog post from Tommy Angelo. If so, many of you went, who? For those of you that may not be familiar with Mr. Angelo, read on to learn more about him.

Tommy Angelo didn’t start out as a poker pro. In fact, he started out as a musician, where he spent most of the 80’s playing country and rock and roll. It wasn’t until around 1990 that Angelo became a poker professional. Years later, Angelo started to write articles for Poker Digest Magazine, Bluff, and Pokerpages.com.

This ultimately led to him writing his first book on poker titled Elements of Poker. The book was released in 2007 after he spent a bit over a year writing it. Angelo states on his blog that when he got his first check for writing about poker in 1999, he felt that it wasn’t fair because he is making money for doing something he enjoys so much.

In addition to his writing, Angelo also is a renowned poker coach. Some of his students have included Jay Rosenkrantz, David Benefield, and Phil Galfond screen name OMGClayAiken. At present, Angelo is working on his next book entitled “Painless Poker.”

Angelo focuses primarily on cash games, and does not have much of a history in tournaments. If you check out the archives at sites such as PokerPages.com, you will find archives to many of his blogs. Some of the information may seem dated, but many of the concepts still apply to the modern game.

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I just got an email from an anonymous moderator with links to screen shots of a Mason Malmuth post in the mod forum on Two Plus Two. The post states basically that the content of Two Plus Two forum that Two Plus Two publishing owns is hurting their book sales, and urges mods to delete stickies. He is encouraging the moderators to make strategy discussion harder to find and harder to come by. His fear is that the posters on the forum know more than his authors and write better than his authors therefore the strategy discussion on the site could hurt his book sales.

Mason Malmuth Post in Moderator forum to limit and delete strategy articles to help ailing book sales.

“Having links to top quality posts may be serving as substitute for book purchases.”

Here is Ed Miller’s response to the alleged pressure he received from Mason Malmuth:

Ed Miller apparently cornered into this new policy at TWO PLUS TWO by ultimatum given to him by Mason Malmuth to either delete and limit free content or close down the NPA Forums.

This is email from moderator exactly how it was received:
The following was posted today on two plus two but obvuiously it was quickly deleted.

Before it was deleted it was confirmed by other moderators as well as external evidence.

Apparently, Mason Malmuth made a post in the mod forum encouraging the moderators to make strategy discussion harder to find and harder to come by. His fear is that the posters on the forum know more than his authors and write better than his authors therefore the strategy discussion on the site could hurt his book sales.

Additionally, he apparently intimidated and coerced Ed Miller into taking free strategy content off of his own websiet because he believes that it would hurt book sales.

Mason Malmuth — actively going out of his way to sabatoge the quality of his own forum. Does that reall surprise anyone?

Links to a screen shot of Mason’s post as well as Ed Miller’s post in response.

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