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Comment by llimllib | Hacker News Reader

The FBI press release[1] says that they've shut down all the sites' bank accounts too, so you're unlikely to be able to pull your money out.

I selfishly hope they go after everybody with money on any of those sites, because it might generate more outrage than just the domain name seizures.

[1]: http://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2011/manhattan-u.s...

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It's unlikely that these sites had major bank accounts in the US. And it's unlikely that the FBI got $TAXHAVEN to shut down their bank accounts. I wonder what is happening here.

Ouch, but that would be interesting as far as raising awareness went. TBH though, just stopping the millions of people who use those sites from getting their money should create suitable outrage. I mean PokerStars advertise on TV here in f'n New Zealand. They're huge and that is a lot of pissed off people who have suddenly been made aware about the issue.

> The FBI press release[1] says that they've shut down all the sites' bank accounts too, so you're unlikely to be able to pull your money out.

Sure, but we can at least take a screenshot of our accounts for the purposes of a class-action lawsuit later, either against the site or the government, itself.

Against the site? What venue will that take place in?

Cashing out is not working for me...

They process cashouts through intermediaries, essentially laundering the cashout money. This is one of the main crimes they are being charged with. In addition to the domain names, the FBI also seized all of the funds they could that were being used in handling cashouts.

Yep all these big poker players are going to go down for years for the money laundering. The last time I deposited for my brother I noticed they were using a florist as the merchant. There must have been so much credit card fraud that went unreported because they didn't want to attract attention to themselves.

I cashed out using other players as intermediaries and did it myself for other players as well. There was a well established exchange rate and cost in cashing out through other players, so in a way we were also part of the money laundering problem.

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