Ever since the UIGEA was unjustly signed into effect by President George W. Bush, there has been a huge debate sparked over whether or not Internet poker is truly legal. Of course since this is such a gray area that many people continue to play online poker without incident. However, there has been a major incident recently that has people wondering all over again if it’s safe to play online poker.
The Poker Players Alliance recently let it be known that the state of New York issued four banks to freeze accounts that use online payment processors. The accounts that were frozen belong to 27,000 players who’ve been using online poker websites that operate offshore.
The reason given by authorities for the freezing of these 27,000 accounts is that they contain $30 million in money that has been involved in illegal money laundering and gambling offenses. So basically, even if these players really need the money in their accounts, they’ll have to wait until the state of New York has cleared these banks to release the money.
I think this whole mess is really unfortunate because we have been hearing for so long that the UIGEA will be lifted soon, and how other countries are leaning on the US to relinquish their online gambling restrictions. Instead, what we see here is another blow dealt to the freedom of poker players everywhere.
I understand that the government still thinks they’re right in this situation, but it seems like events such as this are coming from out of nowhere. There was no warning that this would happen which leads me to wonder if other states are going to follow suit. All I can say is that I’m definitely worried about my poker money now.
It almost seems like this came out of the blue.
I might consider taking out the money and holding it as cash until this blows over…