Online poker is also illegal in the United States. Gambling, however, from throwing dice against a brick wall to cigar-smoke filled lounges in cloak-and-dagger locations that require passwords and who-do-you-know access, is illegal. From the well-known Sodom-and-Gomorrah-like meccas of Las Vegas and Atlantic City to the smaller Indian reservations, casinos are everywhere. The case was moved to federal court and ultimately dismissed.Ĭasino gambling is legal in most states across the country. In the complaint, filed in Los Angeles County, California, Kennedy essentially claims FTP came up with a baseless excuse to take $80,000 of her winnings and keep it for themselves.
In 2009, a former FTP poker player and well-known poker pro, Lary Kennedy, sued FTP and its officers alleging fraud, racketeering and other violations. This was a few weeks before the company (and several other online poker sites) was charged with fraud, money laundering and other violations. FTP has a number of affiliated entities and, interestingly, in March 2011, Raymond Bitar and Howard Lederer formed a company in Nevada called Purple Haze LLC. The bigger fraud happened when FTP told its customers “no, no, don’t worry, your money is used for the actual poker games, not for us” when really the money was, in fact, used for the execs of FTP (each of whom are poker pros themselves). But the bank transactions were only a component of the fraud (and, well, when banks get defrauded by gambling companies it is difficult to know who to root for). Do you think the players who saw these bank statements knew something was shady? Probably.
FULL TILT POKER SCAM FULL
To get around these laws, Full Tilt would show the bank transactions from legitimate companies (e.g., your bank statement says, “Duh, Winner! Corp.” and not “Lost My Home In ” or, in this case, ). Per the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, banks are not allowed to transfer money to online gaming sites, such as FTP. That is not to say Jesus and the Professor (as Ferguson and Lederer are known) did orchestrate a “global Ponzi scheme” (as alleged by the Department of Justice), but they did defraud their customers and used customer monies for their own personal gain. And, by breaking the code, the executives of Full Tilt Poker (FTP), Raymond Bitar, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, broke the trust of their community, not unlike Madoff. Hell, even organized crime families have a code. Well, the surprise is this: every industry has its own implicit “code” no matter whether you operate in technology, machinery, gambling or stocks (what’s the difference between these two, again?).
0 kommentar(er)
