For you see, the poker world has woken up this morning to the news that the FBI have indicted the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker on a plethora of charges, including money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling. All the latest updates can be found here:
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2011/04/online-poker-big-three-indicted-10218.htm
Now, I'm no expert on gaming legislation, but I have been involved in the industry for almost a decade. From what I've read this morning, I can make the following observations:
- It seems that only the domain names of the information websites (PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, etc.) have been seized by the FBI and NOT the clients (i.e. the poker software). If you try to log onto these sites, you'll be greeted with a big WARNING banner. The .net and .org sites have not been affected.
- At this stage, there have been a few reports coming out on various forums that players in the US are unable to withdraw funds from the accounts, nor can they obtain software updates from the client.
- This does not affect players in Australia (at least, from what we've seen so far).

What you can expect to see when you try to log onto the Big Three's domain names. THIS IS NOT A HOAX (April Fool's Day was over two weeks ago).
I'm definitely going to look more into this next week, but for now, I strongly suggest keeping up-to-date via the link above for all the latest developments. But what I will say is this - given the stance taken by the Australian government in relation to online gaming (i.e. they are keen to take up similar legislation based on the US), now is the time for everyone in the poker industry to set aside their differences and come together to fight for their right to exist.
It's time for us as an industry to work together and come up with a solution that will greatly benefit everyone and give us as individuals the right to safely and securely engage in online poker, just as the UK, France and Italy have done.
***
On a brighter note, I'm about to head out to the Royal Derby Hotel in Fitzroy this afternoon for the 2011 Victorian Deaf Poker Championship. At this stage, it looks like we've got about 40-50 players lined up for the event, which is great news! Deaf Poker Australia is going from strength to strength, with plenty of big live events, Deaf Club games and home games popping up all around Australia.
The online poker games are also very popular, with an average of 40 players taking part every Sunday night in our regular DPA Online Series games. The Australian Deaf Poker Championship is also shaping up to be a huge event - the Deaf community are thrilled that this event will be held in Adelaide Casino and we're now expecting to make that magical 100-player mark, or at least break the record for the most players in a Deaf poker event in Australian history.
So if you're in the Fitzroy area tonight, drop in and check out the action! The $45 Main Event kicks off at 7.30pm (registration 5.30pm - open to all Deaf/HI/HOH players), with $10 satellites to the Australian Deaf Poker Championship running on demand.
I'm confident that tonight's tournament will be a smash hit and I wish everyone the very best of luck, but I apologise in advance for my Auslan skills - I've only completed the Level One course, so I'm still learning - please forgive me if I stuff up!
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