Stars,Full Tilt and Absolute Charged by FBI!

I had a wee look at the NVG section of 2+2 a short while ago and I was stunned to see that the FBI have seized the domain names of Stars,Full Tilt and Absolute poker and filed the charges written about below.

Here's the link to the US Department of Justice press release.I've copied the first part below and highlighted the scary part for anyone with funds on those sites.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, and JANICE FEDARCYK, the
Assistant-Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), announced the unsealing
of an Indictment today charging eleven defendants, including the
founders of the three largest Internet poker companies doing
business in the United States - PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and
Absolute Poker (the "Poker Companies")- with bank fraud, money
laundering, and illegal gambling offenses. The United States
also filed a civil money laundering and in rem forfeiture
complaint (the "Civil Complaint") against the Poker Companies,
their assets, and the assets of several payment processors for
the Poker Companies. In addition, restraining orders were issued
against more than 75 bank accounts utilized by the Poker
Companies and their payment processors, and five Internet domain
names used by the Poker Companies to host their illegal poker
games were seized.

I've cashed out just under $1k from Stars and have no idea if it will go through without any problems or if I'm just being over cautious.Even if this somehow doesn't affect cashouts and the poker playing software client I don't see casual fishy players still being happy to deposit and play online poker as freely as before.Looks like it's a very bad day for online poker players and perhaps a good day to buy shares in Party Poker!


Late Edit:Looks like it's a very sad day for online poker,epecially if you live in the US.No doubt the online game will rise again in the longer term, but that won't help the folk making a living from it just now.

Apologies for not crediting them, but the 2+2 server hamster is working overtime on his wheel and I can't find the orignal quotes! ( nothing to do with having my first smoke of the week...)

Anyway here are some of the posts from the 2+2 thread that made me smile admidst the gloom...

Doyles Room is now 8 by 4.

Phil Galfond: "Anyone want to buy a slide"?

"I wonder if the standard of play will go up in the play money tournaments".

"Does this mean the durrrr challenge is gonna slow down from its current pace?"