DoJ Declares War On Poker Players

The executive director of the 1 million-members Poker Alliance players (PPA), John Pappas said that Friday’s federal actions against internet poker sites and its owners is basically a ‘declaration of war’ on poker players and the rights of poker players.

In a statement issued on Saturday his comments read as follow and he did not hold any punches back:

“All over the United States millions of Americans are fuming as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) scathing attack on online poker sites. While the government’s focus may be on the internet casinos operating these sites, it’s clear as daylight that it’s a declaration of war on poker players and their freedom.”

“In the U.S at present there are more than 10 million online poker players without any decent poker sites to wager since many derive their livelihood from poker. Some have concerns whether they’ll receive their funds deposited from these poker sites. Not a single player’s money should be jeopardized by this prosecution, said the PPA.”

“For the record, internet poker is by no means against the law and honest poker players across America are against the U.S government’s current ban on internet poker. On behalf of over a million members, the PPA is trying its level best to safeguard the rights of its players and is committed to U.S. citizens’ right to play internet poker.”

Absolute Poker and UB’s management have been rather mum concerning the latest developments, while some players were notified by poker room staff that ‘business continues as normal’, even though there could be some hassles whilst financial arrangements are ironed out. However, there are unsubstantiated claims that new U.S players are no not accepted anymore and that UB is now operating as UBPoker.eu, while AbsolutePoker trades as AbsolutePoker.eu.

These are most probably arrangements made since the DoJ’s seizure of the domains of the indicted internet casinos last Friday.