Now known as “Black Friday”, April 15, 2011 is the day the three leading online poker sites - Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker – were indicted by department of Justice and shutdown for United States players. These companies are based outside of United States, but clearly not beyond the arm of U.S. law enforcement, with at least 75 bank accounts in 14 countries frozen.
Pregame.com’s RJ Bell and Johnny Detroit talked with three professional poker players (with 2 WSOP bracelets and over $2 million in earnings among them) in an effort to place a human face on the aftermath.
The next day, Pregame.com talked with leading poker journalist Kristin Bikhr, writer for Poker Stars and winner of a Lady PCA Event, for an insider’s perspective on how “Black Friday” will affect the online poker ecosystem.
Online Poker news from the interviews:
The government action is simply clearing the playing field for regulation. For example, Caesars CEO Gary Loveman says in Fortune that nothing will change millions of Americans wanting to play online poker.
There is great deal of speculation that snitch Daniel Tzvetkoff is the only reason the big three poker sites were able to be indicted – and that those who did not do business with him have nothing to fear.
Online sportsbook and poker site Bodog continuing to encourage U.S. players is a good sign for low-level casual players, but will likely not fill the void for professionals.
Poker Legend Doyle Brunson tweeted: "Now maybe we will see if these online "superstars" can play real poker. Ante up suckers!" and surprisingly our pros felt like Doyle was right in feeling the online professionals will have trouble live – most notably, the patience required to play only one table at a time is expected to be a problem for many.
Online pros will have extremely depleted bankrolls until their account balances are returned. So even if they want to play live, they may not be able to. Because typically professionals want to play as high stakes as possible online, they kept a huge percentage of their net worth in their online accounts.
Some professionals are seriously considering moving out of the United States to play online legally.
Over 50 fulltime poker writers are expected to lose their jobs.
Howard “The Professor” Lederer, rumored by many to be an owner of Full Tilt Poker, may be exposed to severe legal consequences.
More Online Poker news:
On Good Morning America, legal analyst Dan Abrams said legalizing online gambling "in the long term, it's almost inevitable"
Comment on YouTube about “Black Friday”r: "well, my life is over...that's the only thing I had going for me...thank US Govt..."
Listen to the interviews!
Poker Stars Journalist Recaps The Fallout
3 Professional Poker Players React to Crackdown
Related content:
Online poker fallout discussed by Marco D’Angelo [Pregame.tv]
Comments . . .
What do you consider to be the most surprising news from these interviews?