A gambling commission in Britain has shut down popular gambling site Full Tilt Poker in response to a crackdown by the U.S. Justice Department.
During the crackdown, the government shut down three popular gambling sites and arrested their owners and filed a $3 billion civil suit against Full Tilt Poker and other gambling sites.
The U.S. government alleged that the sites tried to circumvent U.S. laws prohibiting banks and credit card issuers from processing gambling payments by disguising payments from U.S. gamblers as payments to nonexistent online merchants. The U.S. also alleged that the sites sidestepped gambling laws in several states.
Though CEO Raymond Bitar claimed innocence and said he looked forward to his exoneration, Full Tilt Poker shut down its “real money” play in the U.S.
Unlike other sites in the same situation, Full Tilt Poker has not paid back the users w ho had money in their accounts, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Now the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, which supplied the company’s gambling license, has suspended the site’s operations until a hearing on July 26. The commission said in a statement that it was reacting to the crackdown that the U.S. Attorney General’s office began in April.
“The nature of the findings necessitated the taking of immediate action in the public interest,” the commission wrote in a statement.
Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Todd Klassy
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