'Black Friday' and associated fallout megathread

[xdeucesx]

Lol @ anyone trying to say one politician is better than another. They're all a joke.

thats pretty much what i was saying...all on corporate agendas so its not like it really matters...

 

[xdeucesx]

What he said^^^^^^

What further proof do you need other than the lame boilerplate answers to our emails. Protect the children my ass. Rather have my 15 year old play poker than visit porn sites or make dates on Craig's list with perverts.

lol exactly

 

[the Styb]

Yeah I don't know. I don't think black friday was politically motivated. The 15 month blackout from the reid bill was there to give US companies a chance to catch up. But now, they'll be facing MUCH less competition when a bill gets passed, so I doubt such a long blackout will be necessary or even desired by them. As for how long our new status quo lasts, who knows, we obviously need legislation, but its hard to see how that happens until after 2012 when Kyl will be gone from the senate, unless he runs out of political capital before he is done.

Actually, what I was getting at is what if they're using this whole thing as a way of keeping the competition out for those 15 to 18 months. Make it so the Big Three had no choice but to break the law, let them do it for a while for evidence, indict them for breaking the law, (as opposed to just shutting them down to create our own monopoly of sites,) then once US companies are up and running, eventually let them back in. By that time their reputations would be damaged enough with the casual players that they could not easily return to pre-BF memberships, and face it, the casuals are the cash cows for poker sites!

 

[the Styb]

Any US citizens or former US residents currently located outside the US suddenly unable to play real money games on FTP today?!

I never changed anything and was still able to get into the $150 freerolls. As of yesterday's update that has now stopped.

didn't we already know that the DOJ was allowing the sites to give us our money...?

I'm guessing FT and Stars moved too quickly in accepting the agreement and the PPA had to take some time to figure out how to claim credit, lol.

 

[Logan2]

same here Logan, but what about your Neteller withdrawal? 5 days and still waiting for me................

Fulltilt just send me my cashout to neteller, probably you will get it soon (if not get it already).

Now time to move to a NON US site and leave all this crap behind.

 

[dj11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22

I was thinking that we might start calling this whole fiasco Catch-23, with the only difference being that this is a DoJ specified catch.

 

[alaskabill]

Leatherass (Dusty Schmidt) just posted his reaction to Black Friday. Pretty good reading.

http://dustyschmidt.net/2011/04/keep-going/#respond

 

[Lofwyr]

Most of us agree that the U.S. government is increasingly lost and almost entirely irrational. I used to think of the government as being populated by the best of us; now it seems we are going to have to act more maturely than those who govern us. It has come to this: online poker players are going to have to be the grown ups. For once we are going to have to do something more than type a rant on the interwebz.

Love this paragraph. So true.

 

[juice561]

GOOD NEWS FROM TILT

i got some news this morning......what about u?......what a effin joke

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

what the american government thinks all online poker players are - degenerate addicts gambling houses away at the click of a mouse and driving themselves and/or others to suicide

what 95%+ of online poker players actually are - people just having some fun at $5NL or suchlike

 

[absoluthamm]

i got some news this morning......what about u?......what a effin joke

Why not just copy/paste that?

 

[Debi]

Yea - can anyone read that? lol

 

[Maid Marian]

This is what I received by e-mail today from Fulltilt:

Dear nstalkerMMNS,

We regret to inform you that due to recent actions by the U.S. government, full tilt poker is still unable to facilitate 'real money' play, deposits, or withdrawals by players based in the United States, including the processing of any pending rakeback payments.

Rest assured that our technical and legal teams are working towards a solution that would allow us to return these funds and account balances to you as soon as possible. As always, your player account remains safe and secure, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused by these actions.

We will keep you updated with any information as it becomes available. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Full Tilt Poker Affiliate Team


Just when I'm finally making money in poker, this happens! I really wonder when we'll really receive these refunds.

 

[WVHillbilly]

They're all laughing at me!!!

Hi xxxxxx ,

As you have not met the minimum requirements for retaining your Black Card membership, you no longer have Black Card status.

Regain your status at any time, by earning a minimum rolling 100-day average of 500 Full Tilt Points to meet our requirements, and you'll once again receive all the benefits of Black Card membership.

For more information, please visit your personal Black Card page in the My Promotions section of the game Cashier. In addition, use our Black Card Status Widget to track your progress directly in the game lobby.

Best regards,

Team Full Tilt

and

Dear xxxxxx,

Just a friendly reminder that you only need 191.63 more Full Tilt Points to receive a complimentary month of access to CardRunners next month. So far you've earned 3 week(s) of free CardRunners for May.

Both in my inbox today.

 

[Charade You Are]

One of the funnier posts on the DOJ facebook page:

“This all makes me wonder how many DOJ employees had a heads up and were able the get their funds off the sites but left all of us screwed and seized all of our money?”

 

[alaskabill]

Pretty good article from the NY Times.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytime...ck-friday-american-poker-faces-cloudy-future/

 

[juice561]

what to do?

should i give up now and go to the casino and play there.......this is 2 much for me to handle...grrrarty: :thrasher: :thrasher: :thrasher:

 

[absoluthamm]

They're all laughing at me!!!



and



Both in my inbox today.

I got the latter as well...

 

[beantownmaniac]

love you too sweetykins <3

e: Absolute Poker/UB are now completely screwed seeing as I'd guess 3/4 of their playerbase was american. So there is likely to be another good thing coming out of this situation.

I think that number is a little high, but 50% might be a close estimate

 

[beantownmaniac]

Yeah, as I say I agree with it except for the time assigned to the UIGEA. You might want to check out the previous measure which passed the House but failed, or rather was ignored by, the Senate, HR 4411: Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act. It's basically a rewrite of the '61 Wire Act as you mentioned, but I don't know if the Senate had problems with the prohibition part of it or the ten-million dollar/year price tag for 2007, 08, 09 and 10.

I'm still trying to work my head around this paragraph:



Sounds like, if you're a reporter, you're good to gamble by wire as long as you're working on a story and betting is legal in your area?

I love the government CYA doublespeak where they use words or letter combinations to double or repeat the same idea or message so that citizens or people have to read or examine everything twice or again in order to comprehend or understand what they're talking or speaking about.

What would eventually become UIGEA, HR 4954, the SAFE Port Act is at the very bottom of the page. (Scroll all the way down.) The sections not outlined can be seen in Chapter 53 of the Title 31 Code.


The UIGEA Board by M Styborski, on Flickr

(1) Bet or wager.— The term “bet or wager”— (A) means the staking or risking by any person of something of value upon the outcome of a contest of others, a sporting event, or a game subject to chance, upon an agreement or understanding that the person or another person will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome;

I believe the highlighted is the term that's argued for the legality of poker where our argument is that poker is a game of skill, not chance. Thanks for the links everyone. I've used them to get to know the law that's causing all this mess.

 

[Dunninger]

Are some people able to play from the US from what I'm reading, or is that wrong.,.. because I can't join any games or tournaments.. which makes me wonder if the "money is safe" line of attack isn't happening..

 

[Dunninger]

Except this is all Republican driven. Yes, Barry is the one with his ass on the purple cushions in the Oval Office, but he's not the one pushing this. (Though I agree he's the one ignoring it, but he's getting awfully good at ignoring things these days!)

HR 4411, the original standalone gambling bill introduced by James Leach R-IA2, saw 76 of the 93 no votes come from Democrats. Once past the House, the Bill sat around gathering dust as the Senate largely ignored it until it was automatically cleared from the books by the ending of the senate session.
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This paves the way for Obama, Reid and his cronies to implement this as a tax.. they aren't mad that US players are playing.. they are made that they aren't getting a piece of the pie.. this is all a play to get more tax revenue in a time when the coffers are empty and obama is fighting 3 unfunded wars.. and not well i might add... expect to see harrahs take place of the guys bumped out.. complete and utter theft..

 

[slimez]

Yea the government has no way of taxing this money since it isnt U.S based and they want part of the pie. This is why they cracked down on it, to clear the path for legal taxable online poker in the US.

 

[gtrippp]

Yea the government has no way of taxing this money since it isnt U.S based and they want part of the pie. This is why they cracked down on it, to clear the path for legal taxable online poker in the US.

I really do hope so!!!

 

[cAPSLOCK]

and face it, the casuals are the cash cows for poker sites!

No, the casuals are cash cows for the regs. It is the REGS who are cash cows for the poker sites.

By far.