Online poker players to get their cash back

April 21st, 2011 - 6:51 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

New York, April 21 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Online poker players who have accounts with some of the frozen websites were given something to cheer about when the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced on Wednesday that they would have access to their funds.

The US government last week announced that it has taken control of three leading online poker websites in the country. The affected companies - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker – had their domain frozen. That meant millions of online players had their accounts suspended as well.

It is estimated that the combined amount that were being held by the three companies run into billions. To the relief of some of the players who had accounts with two of the companies, the US Attorney struck a deal with PokerStars and Full Tilt that could see the accounts of the players activated again.

However having the money out of the accounts may take weeks. Players who have accounts with Absolute Poker will have to wait further because no such deal has been reached between the company and federal prosecutors.

Playing poker online in itself is not illegal under the US federal laws. However how winnings are collected is where the problem is. Using banking transactions to operate online poker gambling is what is illegal under US laws.

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