TheBowlBoy;264498 wrote It appears that most of the legal professionals offering their 2 cents in the legislation forums on 2p2 are of the opinion that the sites may actually have a solid defense against the indictments. The UIGEA does not explicitly define online poker as unlawful gambling. Many believe that the DOJ is going to have a difficult time proving that it is/ever was illegal beyond a shadow of a doubt. We all know that poker is a game of skill, and that this can be proven in any court given the chance to do so by competent counsel. Fortunately for Stars and Tilt, they have not offered any Casino games on their sites such as BlackJack. UB/AP on the other hand has and will likely suffer the consequences.
It's really not much more than an educated guess at this point but again, I'm being optimistic.
You are being far too optimistic. The issue is not whether or not poker is a skill game or not. Or whether or not it is illegal gambling. Those DOJ warrants are federal Interpol warrants for money laundering, bribery of US banking officials, etc. The owners named are as good as cooked. Now whether or not the Stars and Tilt player pool survives as entities in some form is another question and if money is returned is also in question. My opinion is the US players money may be confiscated, however if a deal is worked out they still may get lucky. For us here in Canada we will more than likely be re-imbursed but it will be a long wait. My gut feel is that all three sites will be down completely by mid week. The long arm of Interpol is pretty powerfull..
Copied from the DOJ statement:
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Arrest warrants have been issued with Interpol and international law enforcement. Bank fraud is extraditable, which makes up over half of the indictment.
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