Baltimore has one of the worst crime rates in all of the United States. Out of more than 10,000 cities in America, Baltimore ranks number five in murders, behind only New Orleans, Richmond, St. Louis and Detroit. Trying to get that cesspool in order, authorities cracked down hard last night on the scourge of…wait for it… online gambling.

Monday night, 11 bank accounts located in five countries were seized and 10 Internet domains were seized. The most famous seized domain was DoylesRoom.com, the online poker room sponsored by Doyle Brunson. Doyle recently announced that he was terminating his relationship with the company out of fear that something like this would happen.

On Monday, a federal grand jury agreed to indict two gambling business that owned the domains, ThrillX Systems and K23 Group Financial Services. The indictments were part of a two-year federal investigation. During that time period, almost 500 people were murdered in Baltimore, but more importantly to the feds, a lot of people played Texas hold’em online.

During a two-year sting operation by the Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), which is a division of ICE, the feds set up a fake payment processing business called Linwood Payment Solutions. Using that fake organizations, they processed $33 million in transactions between the indicted companies and residents in Maryland.

Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein defended the operating by saying that “it is illegal for Internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located.” The sting operation was just part of an effort to make sure people don’t spend their money playing poker when instead they should be going to a Ravens game or something.

HSI investigates a wide range of crime, most of it involving immigration and trafficking. They primarily deal with human smuggling, drug smuggling, gun running and human rights violations, but they also deal with cybercrime, which is what the online gambling businesses fall under. HSI’s mission is to investigate immigrations and customs crimes that threaten America’s national security, but I guess they were able to make an exception for gambling operators. Or maybe they see poker as being as much of a threat to America as the MS-13 gang from Guatemala.

Here are the 10 Internet gambling domains that were seized in the case:

Bookmaker.com

2Betsdi.com

Funtimebingo.com

Goldenarchcasino.com

Trupoker.com

Betmaker.com

Betgrandesports.com

Doylesroom.com

Betehorse.com

Beted.com

Speaking with a gambling industry group, defense lawyer Fred Heather said that the Black Friday indictments are not an attack on online gambling itself. Heather is a top lawyer known for dealing with corporate crimes and complex financial crimes. Today he told a group of casino executives, regulators and others at the iGaming north American conference in Vegas that the feds aren’t after online gambling.

The heart of the case, he says, is bank fraud and money laundering and not online gambling. “One of the indications of that is the fact that the government isn’t resisting the return of money to the players through their deposits.”

He makes a good point, but there are two counterarguments that he seems to be ignoring. It’s true that most of the indictments have to do with bank fraud or money laundering. However, some of the defendants are also charged with running an illegal gambling business. That seems to indicate that the Justice Department considers online poker to be illegal (something that they have incorrectly affirmed in the past).

Another problem with Heather’s point is that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder seems to disagree. Speaking at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Holder said that the indictments were appropriate and that “we have to enforce the law as it exists and there are laws on the books with regard to Internet gambling that we have to enforce.” That seems to indicate – again, incorrectly – that Holder thinks there is a federal law banning online gambling. There is not. However, if the Justice Department thinks there is and if the defendants are charged with gambling crimes, that means that although gambling may not be the primary concern of the trial, it is a part of it.

In a rare bit of good news since Black Friday, PokerStars has started giving money back to their American customers. When the domain was seized by the U.S. Department of Justice, Americans found themselves without the ability to play on the site or get their money back, but last week the online poker room reached an agreement with the DOJ to allow the refunding of money to the players.

Today PokerStars announced that they have made arrangements with a bank to facilitate the return of that money. Any American customer with a PokerStars account is advised to request a refund as soon as possible. The Justice Department will be closely monitoring all of the transactions.

This is good news for American customers of PokerStars. Of course, if you read the AP story, you also get a nice piece of misinformation and/or propaganda along with that good news. The Associated Press reports that the company is paying the refunds “as its executives face allegations of bank fraud and money laundering to conceal illegal Internet gambling.”

Catch that? It was subtle, right? Just like most of the biased news that comes from the AP, if you don’t already know a lot about the issue at hand, you didn’t even notice that they skewed the report. If you didn’t catch it, here’s the answer: Everything in that quote was factual except the word “illegal.”

The AP seems to be implying that online poker is illegal in the United States. Hey AP, assuming you still employ fact-checkers (which seems more and more unlikely), would you please have them tell me which law bans online poker? You see, something is only illegal if there is a statute banning it. That’s kind of how America works.

So is there a federal law banning online poker? No, there is not. Is there a more general federal law banning all online gambling? No, there is not. Are there any federal laws outlawing anything relating to online gambling? Yes, there are, and this is where people, thanks to the incorrect reporting of the media, get confused.

UIGEA makes it illegal for banks to process transactions for online gambling that are made illegal by other laws. That would include federal, state, city or county laws. The other federal law, which is the only other one the DOJ can point to in this case, is the Wire Act. That law only bans electronic sports betting, as confirmed by the court system.

So where did the AP get the idea that PokerStars was engaging in “illegal Internet gambling?” Probably from the DOJ indictment, which charged them with running an illegal gambling business along with fraud and money laundering. I assume the Justice Department plans to make the case that PokerStars violated either UIGEA or the Wire Act with their online poker business. They would be wrong. In any case, if that’s where the AP got that idea, that’s where you use that “alleged” word. It’s really pretty important, AP! Try calling it “alleged illegal internet gambling.” If you do that, your article is actually factual and people will actually have a better understanding of the issues! If that’s your goal (of which I’m not certain), then surely you will appreciate my advice. In that case, you’re welcome.

In a rare bit of good news regarding the Black Friday indictments and online poker domain seizures, a deal has been reached that will allow the websites to return at a limited capacity. That will make it easier for U.S. citizens to get their money back and will allow citizens of other countries to continue playing.

On Friday, along with unsealing the indictments of 11 individuals and seizing various bank accounts, the U.S. Department of Justice shut down and seized the domain names of PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, AbsolutePoker.com, UltimateBet.com and UB.com. Now the DOJ has reached a domain-name use agreement that will allow two of those domains, Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, to get back up and running.

The agreement allows the websites to resume offering services to people who are not citizens of the United States. For any members who are American citizens, the companies are allowed to use the website to facilitate the professing of refunds. Basically, the government wants the companies to grant refunds to all American members, giving them whatever money is left in their account. Americans are not allowed to either deposit money or play with existing money at the poker websites. To ensure that all of this is done in accordance with the agreements reached between the Justice Department and the two companies, the government will appoint an “independent monitor” to oversee the process.

This is a small piece of good news for online poker players. Non-Americans can go back to playing on the sites if they choose. American citizens will have an easier time getting their money back, instead of it being inaccessible and possibly lost forever.

Just days after the Black Friday indictments and seizures, shockwaves continue to ripple throughout the online gambling community. On Friday, the U.S. federal government unsealed its indictment of 11 defendants related to online poker operations, including the owners of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. They also seized the domains for those websites, shutting them down, and froze various bank accounts. Players who had money deposited with any of those companies probably won’t get it back.

Soon thereafter, Steve Wynn announced that he was ending Wynn Resorts’ partnership with PokerStars, less than one month after the partnership was announced. Now Nevada lawmakers are taking heat for accepting campaign contributions from a political action committee started by PokerStars. The government is looking into whether any law was broken in regards to the contributions and in the meantime, many legislators are giving the money back and distancing themselves from the online poker company.

And now the latest news comes from respected online gambling software designer Rival Gaming. According to sources, the company has announced that they have closed their door to new U.S. players. Any online casinos using Rival’s software will no longer accept new members from the United States, though they will continue to allow existing American customers to play there. How long that will last is anyone’s guess. Some players will undoubtedly withdraw their money to be on the safe side.

Though Rival Gaming did not say why they are no longer accepting new U.S. customers, the reason seems clear. They don’t want to be targeted by the Justice Department and have their assets seized. By blocking new customers, they are making an outward sign of caution and compliance. There has been no explanation of whether this new policy will be temporary or long term.

Today people got a shock when trying to play at their favorite poker sites. Instead of getting the homepage for the poker room, players were greeted with an FBI warning, telling them that the domain had been seized pursuant to an arrest warrant obtained by the United States Attorney’s Office.

The warning from the FBI laughingly points out that being involved in an “illegal gambling business” is a federal crime. That’s true, but being involved in any type of illegal business is a crime. Online poker, however, is not a crime in and of itself.

Initially, some thought that the so-called seizures were a hoax by some hacker, but soon thereafter, the Department of Justice issued a press release concerning a recently unsealed indictment. The press release states that eleven people have been indicted, including the founders of the three largest online poker sites doing business in the U.S., Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker.

In addition to the indictments, the United States filed a “civil money laundering and in rem forfeiture complaint against the poker companies, their assets, and the assets of several payment processors.” In other words, the government wants to seize the assets of the poker companies and anyone who processed payments for them. The Justice Department also issued restraining orders against more than 75 bank accounts that were used by the poker rooms and the payment processors. They also confiscated five domain names.

There are nine charges that the defendants are facing, including conspiracy to violate UIGEA, operation of an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.

In short, the government is saying that the poker website operators and payment processors conspired to trick banks into processing payments for online gambling. They allegedly tricked the banks by laundering the money through fake Internet businesses. In other cases, the allegedly bribed the banks in order to gain their cooperation.

All of this comes shortly after Australian entrepreneur/slimeball Daniel Tzvetkoff was released from jail on bail after a secret meeting with prosecutors. Tzvetkoff founded Intabill, an online payment processor that worked closely with the very poker websites currently under indictment. After he supposedly ripped them off, the companies sued him. Unable to recoup their money, they alerted the FBI to his presence in the United States, which resulted in him being arrested and charged with various money laundering and fraud crimes.

As a man with inside knowledge into the payment processes of these poker sites, he had a lot of leverage. With him now released on bail, having previously been denied bail due to being a flight risk, and these eleven people being indicted, it seems that Tzvetkoff cooperated and turned over these “bigger fish” to the authorities.

When you think of big government abusing its power and taking over private industry, the state of Kentucky usually isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But such is the problem in America that the progressive movement has so infected both major parties that even a traditionally conservative state like Kentucky has fallen victim.

Last year, Governor Steve Beshear and the state of Kentucky attempted to seize the domain names of 141 online gambling sites. The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) and the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) immediately filed a petition to block the seizure of those domains. Under current state statutes, online gambling isn’t even illegal in the state of Kentucky, though of course laws can be interpreted a variety of ways, which is why lawyers exist.

Yesterday, the state Supreme Court ruled against the 141 gambling sites. In the ruling, the court stated that the domain names themselves cannot serve as an entity and court and they must be owned by a person or entity. With no owners in court, iMEGA therefore did not supply a member of the domain names. In other words, the court threw out the petition because iMEGA’s clients did not appear in court.

As a result of this ruling, the state of Kentucky can once again attempt to seize the online gambling domain names. If they do, however, it’s likely that iMEGA would file another petition. It is the belief of iMEGA that the Supreme Court’s ruling is not final and that if they can produce an owner of one or more of the domain names, the Court would be willing to hear their case.

Joe Brennan, Chairman of iMEGA, stated that “the Court clearly indicates they agree with our arguments and are inviting us to re-file so that the technicality of the standing issue can be resolved.” iMega plans to re-file and when the Supreme Court reaches a decision, we’ll let you know.