How Poker Players Found Outīut it was the moment of “finding out” that sticks with the poker community viscerally. The secret financial shell game at Full Tilt that eventually came to light would be likened to a Ponzi scheme. For one thing, offshore online sportsbooks - which are explicitly a black gambling market - continue to operate, even thrive, despite UIGEA.Īnd if those politicians who despised gambling - and they were on both the political left (Nancy Pelosi) and political right (Bill Frist) - thought they could stop the proliferation of online gaming through legislation, practical economics and the will of the people has exposed their folly.īut UIGEA did have a certain, important effect that would propel Bharara’s investigation and eventual Black Friday prosecutions.īy requiring financial institutions to tighten the screws on the movement of money between customers and gambling websites, UIGEA forced online poker operators and their payment processing partners to cross a bright line of bank fraud and wire fraud in order to keep the cash flowing.Īt Full Tilt, the financial stress created still another kind of violation - a betrayal of their customers’ trust - as that website mingled player accounts with operating funds. In many ways, UIGEA was a miserable failure, and certainly the efforts of the politicians who pushed for it have gone for naught. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had other ideas. Unfortunately for the poker universe, Preet Bharara, U.S. So, for the players, it really was business as usual.
Plus, there was high-profile lobbying going on in Washington to get poker out of the so-called “gray” legal area with federal legislation championed by Massachusetts U.S.
Poker was a mainstay on TV, especially featuring the Full Tilt lineup of celebrity players.
BLACK FRIDAY FULL TILT POKER SERIES
In the brick-and-mortar environment, the WSOP franchise was expanding domestically through its barnstorming Circuit Series (“12 rings in 12 days”) and even abroad. However, privately held companies such as PokerStars and Full Tilt filled the vacuum left by Party Poker and 888, and continued to deal to American players. Attendance at the World Series of Poker Main Event dropped off a bit because Harrah’s/Caesars Entertainment had to distance itself from direct online entries. RELATED: Part 1: Poker was flying high at 2006 WSOP few saw trouble aheadĪfter the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, which put online poker in a legal gray area, mostly the poker world kept spinning seemingly undisturbed.Ĭertainly, there were changes, especially among publicly traded online companies that had to remove themselves from the U.S.
John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, was celebrating his birthday on a golf course in Virginia, just making the turn after finishing the front nine.Īndrew Brokos, an accomplished online and live player, had just gotten a new pair of eyeglasses and was preparing to play online poker that night.įor them and the rest of poker, April 15, 2011, was a startling thunderclap.
BLACK FRIDAY FULL TILT POKER PRO
Nolan Dalla, poker public relations pro and author, was in Las Vegas driving to Caesars Palace.Īvi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University professor, was signing on to his computer to play poker in Israel. And they can recall it with crystal clarity. Regardless of where poker players were or what they were doing, for those who were active in the game 10 years ago, Black Friday is a shared painful experience. This three-part series chronicles the road to Black Friday and the aftermath. Department of Justice unexpectedly - and suddenly - shut down the major online poker websites. April 15 marks the 10-year anniversary of what is known in poker circles as Black Friday.
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