Company is Cooperating in Federal Investigation

[Skallagrim]

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1. They don't need sports betting to go after them.


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I guess they could go after anyone, but sports betting has been the common thread with all DOJ action to date.

Outside of sports betting, you head into very murky waters. Some U.S. companies (including publicly traded companies) are handling poker transactions very openly right now.

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QFT - I personally think the DOJ is being very careful to avoid bringing cases that don't involve sportsbetting. I think they are doing this specifically because they believe they will suffer major court and political setbacks if they go after poker directly. So far thay are content to advance their agenda by disrupting the poker market through prosecution of the money-transfer services that failed to realize the important legal distinctions between poker, other casino style gambling, and sportsbetting and by intimidating the other money transfer sevices who also dont understand the difference.

[JPFisher55]

Skall, I agree except I don't think that they are worried about the politics. The DOJ does not want to risk losing a case about any online gambling in court. Then, they could not claim that all online gambling violates federal law. In addition, any loss causes the DOJ to lose most of its intimidation against the industry.

[Skallagrim]

You are right JP except that if something pretty outrageous happened to the wrong people, the publicity could backfire: for example, they know they would make a huge public impact if they actually arrested Doyle or Daniel - but they are worried the impact would backfire against them.

Or if something happened to, or could happen to, too many people, like actually arresting online players somewhere, or actually trying to seize players assets as opposed to just tying them up for a long time.

Of course, as you and I have discussed, they would also likely lose cases like that in Court and that is a bigger factor, but bad publicity is also a factor the DOJ commonly takes into account when deciding how to proceed.

[JPFisher55]

Skall, you're right if they arrested a well known pro like Mr. Brunson. That might make some political impression, but less than we would hope.
The DOJ would not bother any common online poker player. I assumed that a likely target would be Epassporte owner (Epassporte seems to only serve online poker or casino sites, but not sports betting sites).

[yahboohoo]

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Skall, you're right if they arrested a well known pro like Mr. Brunson. That might make some political impression, but less than we would hope.

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We can only dream that the DOJ would be stupid enough to arrest an old man with a cane, the granddaddy of poker, the living legend, just to "make their point."