$30M Worth of Poker Payments to Online American Players are Delayed

American government battle against online gambling escalates, as the US Attorney instructs the freezing of online poker proceeds of American players. These proceeds are said to amount to more than $30M, owed to more than 20,000 players by leading online poker rooms PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com and other, smaller poker websites.

The freezing of payments was executed after District Court of Southern New York ordered the seizure of bank accounts owned by payments processors, who transfer payments from poker websites to poker players. Frozen bank accounts were placed in Citibank, Wells Fargo and the Alliance Bank of Arizona.

The Poker Players alliance (PPA) protested this drastic measure through a statement issued soon after the Justice Department anti-poker steps have been revealed. In its statement the PPA claimed that the frozen funds don’t belong to the poker websites, but to the poker players themselves. It added that these payments must be immediately released, to ensure that all players receive their money, without further delay. It also promised that it will take the necessary legal course to ensure that the issue is resolved to the full satisfaction of American poker players.

The American government has been fighting online gambling for some time now. As online gambling corporations are based overseas it has focused its enforcement efforts on American Based representatives of these corporation, or just like in this instance the payment processors, who serve as an intimidator between the gambling corporation and the American players.