Yet another reason why I personally would not play online poker at Full Tilt are rumors surfacing that the U.S. facing online poker room is being investigated by the FBI. Now, Online Casino Suite cannot confirm if this is indeed true, but considering the details now surfacing, the word on the street is that there is some merit to the rumors.

The investigation is apparently going down in the State of Washington, which is one of few U.S. State’s where online poker is specifically deemed illegal. According to anonymous poker players residing in Washington, FBI agents have been doing the rounds and making literal house calls without warning to interview and gather information about these player’s real money transactions with Full Tilt.

I don’t know about you, but when the FBI starts asking questions, you can bet that something big is about to happen. And we all know that Full Tilt is indeed taking money from U.S. players. In other words, there’s no denying that Full Tilt is taking money from U.S. players. The bigger question, at least in terms of a making federal indictment, is whether or not the FBI can prove Full Tilt is allowing Washington State residents to make real money deposits.

Speculation is that the FBI is mounting a case to prove Full Tilt is breaking the law in the State of Washington, for it is essentially, an easy target with clear-cut laws that would enable authorities to conjure testimony from players that could be used in a court of law. Unlike other cases in which settlements were agreed upon, a federal indictment against Full Tilt would be a major blow to the U.S. online poker movement.

Now, as much as I have to recognize Full Tilt for their recent attempts to boost credibility via an eCOGRA certification, the fact of the matter is that Full Tilt was at the epicenter for some of the largest cheating scandals in the history of online poker. I’m sorry, but when “60 Minutes” does a critical piece on your poker room, the phrase “no publicity is bad publicity” does not hold up. This is probably what brought Full Tilt to the attention of authorities in the first place.

And as I bring attention to Full Tilt with my little blog post, I would hope that any U.S. poker players reading this – even those residing outside of Washington State, will consider the possibility that Full Tilt’s days are numbered. While that does not necessarily mean U.S. online poker players will get in trouble (in fact, it’s very improbable), it does not mean that any deposited funds risk being frozen and taken by good’ol Uncle Sam. Think carefully before you go depositing at Full Tilt.

And so as to keep this from being a totally “doomsday” post for U.S. online poker players, you might want to consider opening an account at Poker Stars or Doyle’s Room via Doyle’s online casino.

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Tags: online gambling regulation, online poker, online poker rooms, us online gambling

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 11:55 pm and is filed under News, Regulation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.