FBI shuts down online poker in the US...

[mean mr.mustard]

You sir, cannot bet led to water.

I bet led to water that casinos still employ individuals.

The jobs are there and there are many workers who would agree with me.

There's somebody making a lot of money at the top of any scheme... but there is always worker bees to put it there.

 

[confused]

I bet led to water that casinos still employ individuals.

The jobs are there and there are many workers who would agree with me.

There's somebody making a lot of money at the top of any scheme... but there is always worker bees to put it there.

You sir, cannot be led to water.

 

[NOKUY]

funny funny

 

[Hydrosun]

I bet led to water that casinos still employ individuals.

The jobs are there and there are many workers who would agree with me.

There's somebody making a lot of money at the top of any scheme... but there is always worker bees to put it there.

There are also jobs pumping gas or being elevator operators; however most of civilized society chooses not to employ full service gas stations or elevator operators.

Are you suggesting that we are not capable of playing cards on-line and must for safety sake drive to a game and pay a real life dealer?

 

[SpasticGramps]

The stock market is legalized gambling. Goldman Sach's and the other primary dealers are the house. The little guy always loses. It's the biggest rip off, rigged casino out there.

Going after these little fish is hypocrisy to me. If the cocksucker government really cared about people getting ripped off from gambling they would be arresting the CEO's of the big banks who run the big casino with privatized gains and socialized losses. Ben Bernanke would be getting hanged, drawn, and quartered.

More bread and circuses for the masses if you ask me.

 

[smokinweedgi]

well for one thing i am completely screwed!!!! Online poker was my only income and i have very little cash right now and multiple thousands online that i cant even touch! because of this whole situation i am jobless i have no cash! now im gonna have to resort back to "activities" which i put in the past thanks to poker but now the government has ruined me for the time being!!! thanks uncle sam you rock!!!

time to hit the live games if u can beat online then live games are redic easy

 

[Weed-Luver]

The stock market is legalized gambling. Goldman Sach's and the other primary dealers are the house. The little guy always loses. It's the biggest rip off, rigged casino out there.

Going after these little fish is hypocrisy to me. If the cocksucker government really cared about people getting ripped off from gambling they would be arresting the CEO's of the big banks who run the big casino with privatized gains and socialized losses. Ben Bernanke would be getting hanged, drawn, and quartered.

More bread and circuses for the masses if you ask me.

nice post..except this has been going on alot longer than Bernanke.. i blame Bush..it just sounds good...Thanks GW for the mess we're in..

 

[jrockondamic]

Prediction: lots of losers making less than 10 bucks an hour will now claim "yeah man, I was multi-tabling for 10k a day until The Man fucked my hustle. Now I'm pushing carts..."

 

[DrBudfinger]

I haven`t read the whole thread so I dont know if this has been suggested (apologies if so). VPN (virtual private network) services are great for bypassing geopolitical blocks. Foe example , so long as pokerstars or whoever are accepting you credit card you can buy a vpn account that makes it appear you live in UK, spain etc. All the US ISP sees is your connection to a European VPN server (it cannot see the page requests you make. Therefore anyone in USA can still play poker. Conversely I used to get Hulu, a USA only service by using this method, to appear to be an American user. Antway some food for thought. A good list of services only a few dollars/pounds a month http://myvpnreviews.com/ hmm just look on teh web and got this

Can I Just Connect Over VPN?

This will be the first of 3 blog posts I will write over the next day or two. I will try and answer some of the questions US players are asking right now in regards to the “Black Friday” ban of US poker players. “Can I just connect over VPN?”, “Shall I Move Home Then?”, and “So I’ll go play on Merge?”. Please keep in mind these will just be my opinions, I am not an authority on these subjects, however I do have some personal experience and there’s a fair amount of misunderstanding in posts on 2+2 and elsewhere.
So, VPNs. This subject is now popping up and being discussed in public (2+2 thread), so I wanted to cover this in detail. The tldr version: It’s technically possible, but probably a lot harder than you think, and you run a high risk. I will explain what VPN is, and why I strongly recommend that you don’t try it. But for those who still want to try, I will give a few pointers below.
A quick explanation to those who don’t know: A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, allows you to securely route your internet connection through a server. There are many possible benefits to doing this. Corporate VPNs may allow you to access intranet data or email; they offer increased security when using insecure public hotspots; allow you to get around web access filtering from your country or ISP; give you increased anonymity whilst browsing; and – what is most relevant to US poker players right now – if you tunnel through a computer in another country you will appear to any service or website you access that you reside in another country.
However this is really only one part of the equation. To do this playing poker, you need to demonstrate that you actually reside in your destination country. This means showing proof of address. And it means that you have an online wallet or bank account that matches that country. And to open a Moneybookers account, this needs to be connected with a real-world bank account in the same country. And it’s not easy to open a bank account. Usually it requires proof of residency or citizenship.
And of course, you will be running a very high risk with your online account. Pokerstars and Full Tilt decided to comply with the DOJ and stop offering online real money poker play to US residents. Therefore if you try and get around this block through a VPN, you will be in direct violation of the terms of service and risk forfeiting your online bankroll if discovered.
If you use a public VPN service – say BetSecure.net (note: there is no reason to choose specifically a service that is targeting the gambling community) – PokerStars could block all betsecure.net IP addresses and ban those who connect through it. Or perhaps you forget one time to connect through VPN and fire up the PokerStars lobby. Of course they may not choose to do anything, and instead turn a blind eye. Only time will tell to see how they react; but it’s a high-risk gamble.
So as you can see, I don’t recommend you try a VPN to get around the US block. There are, however, many legitimate uses of VPNs. I have used a VPN service to improve security whilst using public hotspots. As a UK citizen but resident of Spain, it’s also had a few other advantages: I connect through the UK when using online banking, as connecting through a Spanish IP address may raise security flags. It also allows me to access BBC iPlayer.
So for those still interested in VPN, I will give a few recommendations from my personal experience. I strongly recommend you use a service that uses OpenVPN. OpenVPN is an independent, open source application for PC, Mac, linux and other platforms, that offers secure SSL connection. It means that you are protected against your traffic data being snooped – which is a serious consideration when using a public VPN service. Without this you would need to have complete trust on the VPN service – but as OpenVPN is open source and independent, it removes that requirement. I repeat, do not use any VPN service that does not offer connection through OpenVPN.
A second very important consideration is reliability, especially if you plan to play poker through VPN. There is now an additional failure point. No public VPN will offer the same uptime that you get through connecting directly, and you will see a reduction in connectivity speed as all your data is encrypted and routed through some other point in the world. However a reliable and fast provider is essential.
I used StrongVPN.com and the times I’ve used it (not much) reliability has been good and speed has been acceptable. However I did have one major problem: I couldn’t connect to Full Tilt. My guess is that the IP address I connected to had been banned by FTP; perhaps some scammer or bot user had used StrongVPN in the past and used the same server; or perhaps FT blocks everything through StrongVPN anyway (although there are legitimate reasons to use VPN, a service that offers anonymity and security will certainly attract a higher incidence of those trying to cheat or scam).
I could have changed the StrongVPN to another server (they offer dozens in the UK, US, and countries throughout Europe), however I was concerned in general that I didn’t want to associate my account with an IP address that potentially had been used for illegal activity. So for now, I have stopped using the service when playing poker.
And this underlines the major problem that I highlighted above: using VPNs is inherently risky. Risky in the connection, risky for using a public service, risky for sharing IP addresses with others that may be using the service for more nefarious activities.
So if you are still interested in playing poker over VPN, my advice is: understand the risks, then run your own VPN server. Get VPS hosting in your destination country with root access, and read up on setting up an OpenVPN host on tha server. Or find a geek to do it for you.

 

[SpasticGramps]

nice post..except this has been going on alot longer than Bernanke.. i blame Bush..it just sounds good...Thanks GW for the mess we're in..

This a more than a failure of one man. This is a multi-decade systemic failure IMO. One man didn't bring down Rome. It was systemic rot.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

There are also jobs pumping gas or being elevator operators; however most of civilized society chooses not to employ full service gas stations or elevator operators.

Are you suggesting that we are not capable of playing cards on-line and must for safety sake drive to a game and pay a real life dealer?

I was suggesting finding real life tables to actually appreciate the nuances of the game.

I wasn't saying that you can't play cards online.

Off topic, but I would add that if we had more elevator operators there wouldn't be so many unemployed people.

I'm that weird guy that doesn't go to the self checkout because I want to see people keep their jobs.

 

[Bowlsworth]

online poker

online poker

just heard on the news that the online poker sites want to be regulated and taxed. they said it would help the economy...sound familiar? though i feel if the federal govt was involved in the cannabis industry they would screw that up too.

 

[Harry Gypsna]

The isle of Man is a UK Tax haven. Chances are those listed at the isle of man are just mainland brits who setup in IOM for tax purposes.
and no, The Isle on Man is not in the hebrides lol.. Its in the Irish sea of the western coast of England, or the eastern coast of Ireland-about halfway between the two.
Its basically the uk equivalent of putting ur money in the cayman islands, except not as cool LOL

 

[PondeLftHndSide]

There are still some sites taking US players, but none of them like to take credit card deposits from the US, just Western Union transfers and shady e-wallet services, $250 minimum deposits with a week long hold, shit like that. One site I found had a daily 5000 seat freeroll that fit my schedule, and after a few tries I made the final table and got almost $20. A drop in the bucket, sure. But despite the tiny amount, any deposit-free starting bankroll is a sweet, sweet thing.

 

[confused]

There are still some sites taking US players, but none of them like to take credit card deposits from the US, just Western Union transfers and shady e-wallet services, $250 minimum deposits with a week long hold, shit like that. One site I found had a daily 5000 seat freeroll that fit my schedule, and after a few tries I made the final table and got almost $20. A drop in the bucket, sure. But despite the tiny amount, any deposit-free starting bankroll is a sweet, sweet thing.

Shit has changed since the days of Party Poker