More Poker Indictments and Domain Seizures

The US Attorney for the State of Maryland unsealed two formal indictments that were issued 26th April against a Canadian and Cyprus based companies accused of running an illegal online gambling in the US and money laundering.

In addition eleven bank accounts across the world and ten poker domains were seized by the authorities following a lengthy sting operation that had investigators set up a Baltimore company that handled $33 million in transactions in order to be able to infiltrate the online gambling businesses.

The company set up a fake website and promoted itself as an electronic payment processing firm and over time was able to get several online gambling companies offering online poker, sportsbook and casino games to US players.

Rod J. Rosenstein, the US Attorney for Maryland issued a statement yesterday saying "It is illegal for internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located… We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country."

The indicted are Canadian-based ThrillX Systems Ltd. and its owners David Parchomchuk and Darren Wright, and K23 Financial Services aka BMX Entertainment based in Cyprus but run by Ann Marie Puig of Costa Rica.

The domains that were seized included Funtimebingo.com, Truepoker.com, Bookmaker.com, 2Betsdi.com, Goldenarchcasino.com, Betmaker.com, Beted.com, Betgrandesports.com, Bethorse.com and Doylesroom.com.

However a quick visit this morning to any of these sites revealed that the authorities have yet to get around to actually seizing the domains and putting up banners announcing the seizures.

The news of the Maryland indictments and seizures comes as the US and world are still reeling from the events of Black Friday in April and the federal indictments brought forward against eleven founders and owners of online poker rooms accepting real money play from US players.