Paradise Poker chairman arrested in US

[wmspringer]

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I try and stick by this country (US) as much as I possibly can but I find it so hard to believe there aren't more important issues out there for the government to be concerned about.

~ shakes head in disgust

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Silly! There IS nothing as important as firing up the base! Otherwise, they might *gasp* not get re-elected!

[solucky]

you dont live in a free country thats sure !!!!!

[wmspringer]

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Well since we can't catch Osama Bin Laden the govt. will just work on catching poker players instead. God the US is the worst funking country in the civilized world. Pathetic.


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It's not the country, just the current government.

[jrz1972]

Guys, this particular case has nothing to do with the federal government, Bush, the DOJ, Gonzales, or whatever. It's the state of Louisiana. Let's at least try to be sure we're criticizing the right batch of government officials.

[SweetPea]

I wouldn't assume the non-sportsbooking poker execs are safe. They are just further down the list and the gov will get to them when the easy targets have all been harvested.

"They are just outlawing assault rifles and submachine guns. They won't come for my handgun."

"They are just busting the big sharing sites. They aren't going to sue Joe Blow with 10 downloaded songs."

[DING-DONG YO]

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I believe that both BoS and SportingBet will accept sports-bets directly over the phone.
I'm not positive about that, but if so then perhaps THAT is the bigger reason why these guys were detained.


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Stars has no sportsbook
fulltilt has no sportsbook
party's sportsbook (moneybookers) does not take bets from US customers.
UB has no sportsbook

I think microbob's post should be stuck at the top of the forum.

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[Busted_Flat]

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Obviously I don't agree with arresting the guy - but this isn't using "war on terror intelligence." People were arrested in this fashion before 9/11 and there is no reason that would change.

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According to press reports after David Carruthers was arrested, U.S. authorities used an anti-terror agreement with the EU that provides airline manifests that can be screened for potential terrorists to identify Mr. Carruthers as a passenger on a U.S. bound flight. Apparently that is what happened here as well.

In previous news reports on the Carruthers case, U.S. authorities also indicated that a recent anti-terror extradition treaty with the UK could be used to charge gaming execs in abstentia and then demand their extradition to the U.S.

The prosecutor in the Carruthers case also said that she believed the large unregulated amount of cash flowing out of the U.S. to gaming sites was being used by terrorists to plan attacks on the U.S.

Very clearly the crackdown on internet gambling is considered by the U.S. government to be part of the War on Terror.

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Did you make this up or can you provide links? I don't care either way but don't be blowin smoke if there aint no fire.

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None of it is made up, but off the top of my head I do not have the links. Do a search of news articles on Google or Yahoo on David Carruthers or the prosecutor and you will find these items peppered throughout. I believe the speculation on extradition came from UK newspapers such as the Guardian.

Whether the US government actually considers this part of the War on Terror is speculation. The prosecutor in the case and members of Congress have alluded to the possibility of gaming sites being used to launder drug money and fund terrorism, but I don't think they have any evidence of this. The latest Bloomberg story also states that unnamed U.S. officials believe the websites to be selling drugs as well, but that sounds like a possible misquote to me.

The point here is that U.S. officials are either very ignorant of what on-line gaming is about (or I'm very naive) or they are making up a lot of crap to incite public opinion against it. My ultimate fear is that the U.S. will eventually use anti-terrorism laws against a wide range of activities it does not like.

[Tuco]

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ANY sportsbetting firm taking phone bets were/are rich


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Kinda sad that this is my first FYP.

Tuco.

[Ron Burgundy]

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ANY sportsbetting firm taking phone bets were/are rich


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Kinda sad that this is my first FYP.

Tuco.

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Yes, they're rich. But why risk so much future profit by voilating US law? It's not like people will stop sports betting if they can't do it over the phone.

[adi]

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party's sportsbook (moneybookers) does not take bets from US customers.


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moneybookers is a e-wallet, gamebookers is the betting company.