U.S. Government Seizes Online Poker Players' Money

Remember Nanny Frist's 2006 ban on internet gambling? Supposedly, it was necessary to save us from gambling's "ill effects on society." The Republican platform committee later added support for an online gambling ban to the 2008 GOP platform.

Now it's time to pay up:

In an apparent crackdown on Internet gambling, federal authorities in New York have frozen or seized bank accounts worth $34 million belonging to 27,000 online poker players, according to representatives for the players and account holders.

In an operation that began last week, the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York froze or issued seizure orders for bank accounts in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Arizona held at Wells Fargo, Citibank, Goldwater Bank and Alliance Bank of Arizona.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office had no comment.

The accounts are managed by Allied Systems Inc., and Account Services, which handle cash for popular online poker sites, including Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. Though the money belongs to the poker players, it is held for them in accounts managed by the two service companies.

Thanks, nanny-state Republican bastards! Guess who just introduced a bill to legalize (and tax) internet gambling? His name rhymes with Fawney Bwank.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 10:01 AM

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