Prosecutors in the U.S. state of Washington have filed a motion to seize $553,000 from a Canadian-based payment processor due to its link to online poker. Last month, federal prosecutors in Seattle filed a civil complaint against Secure Money, Inc., asking a U.S. District Court to order the payment processor to transfer the balance of six bank accounts to the government.

The state of Washington has a ban on online gambling, specifically including online poker (which some contend is not gambling). According to the prosecutors, Secure Money sent payments to online poker players in Washington for using online gambling sites in violation of state law.

Seven Washington residents are named as having received their online poker winnings from online gambling sites via payments from Secure Money, Inc. In addition, in January of 2009, an agent with the state’s Gambling Commission began playing poker at the Ultimate Bet online poker website. In July, he requested to be paid $200 in winnings and he later received a check from Secure Money, Inc. The check listed the payment as being for “payroll.”

Secure Money, Inc. is a Canadian company but also does business in Las Vegas, Nevada and Tampa, Florida. They are in a lot more trouble than with Washington’s Gambling Commission, though. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney stated, “Processing checks that represent the funds derived from illegal gambling…constitutes a violation of the money laundering provisions” in federal law.

That means that because Secure Money processed payments for a type of transaction that is illegal in Washington and was used as a go-between for the gambling websites to make the payments look like “payroll” transactions, they are guilty of the federal crime of money laundering. In addition, the payment processor does not have the required licenses to operate a money transfer business in Florida or Nevada.

Though a seizure warrant has been issued for the funds in question, no criminal charges have yet been filed against Secure Money or any online gambling website. In addition, there is no word of the Washington residents being charged.

Tags: gambling crime, gambling laws, Washington online gambling

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