Poker Account Freezing Continues, Details Kept Obfuscated

Gambling News - July 10th, 2009 - Written by Bonnie

Not even a month ago, over $30 million dollars in disbursal accounts had been frozen. These funds were to be processed and sent to online poker players that had fairly won the money. According to reports uncovered by Gambling911.com, another set of accounts has been frozen. Exact details as to how much money has been locked have not been released, causing some uproar amongst the poker community. Costigan Media, the parent company of Gambling911, has gone as far as to put forth a Motion to Intervene in order to have the warrants unsealed, citing the constitution's Bill of Rights as the precedent.

Further inspection of the matter has indeed shown that specific records of the fund freezing are not readily available. The bank in question is Union Bank in California, and the payments that were being processed were from Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars - two of the largest names in the industry.The Poker Player's Alliance as well as many individuals have been up in arms about the violation of civil rights. Steps have been taken to stop this sort of thing going on, but the funds from the first account freezings have yet to be released.

Precedent has been cited under the Wire Act of of 1961 and the Illegal Gambling Business Act, which have been misconstrued in this case to serve the Department of Justice's agenda. These two laws were put into effect in 1961 and 1970 respectively, both put out decades before the Internet was even available outside of the Defense Department. These seizures also could tie in to the UIGEA, which does not require adherence until December of 2009.Further reasoning behind these decisions was to prevent money laundering, but the justification remains loose and up to interpretation.Assuming the Interest Groups manage to uncover and make known the actual documents pertaining to this heinous lock up of public money, the courts will have to prove their reasoning behind this seizure, with precedent, or evidence, or both.