Any deal still needs to be approved by 2/3 of Full Tilt ownership, expected to be a formality.

More perspective can be found at Wicked Chops Poker.

The warrant directs the .com registrar (VeriSign) to direct the name servers to the addresses specified in the warrant or such other name servers or IP addresses as directed by the FBI.

These domains have been locked by the registry (and by the registrar in the case of www.ultimatebet.com – this domain remains with GoDaddy pending a final disposition of the domain seizure case in Kentucky) and now cannot be moved without a court order or the consent of the Department of Justice. I understand that the rest of the domains (save and except for www.ultimatebet.com) are registered with foreign registrars.

(The February event, and others from the fledgling North American Poker Tour, are currently airing on ESPN-2 and TSN, the leading sports television channel in Canada.)

But it wasn’t the field size, TV cameras, or $4.1 million prize pool that made the NAPT-Venetian special … it was that the Las Vegas tournament was “presented by PokerStars”. Dot net.

Perhaps surprisingly, because we see so much PokerStars on TV … this was the first time since the UIGEA that a licensed Nevada casino partnered with PokerStars (or any site like it) for a major open tournament.

Its success didn’t go unnoticed. And that may prove to be the problem for PokerStars and the North American Poker Tour, as the inaugural NAPT-Venetian will probably — almost certainly — be the last.

Hosting the event was a bold move by PokerStars, particularly considering how much scrutiny the world’s largest online poker site would come under as the June 1 UIGEA enforcement deadline nears … and structures for fully legal, regulated American online poker begin to take shape.

Few are speaking publicly about heated communications between Nevada casinos, the state Gaming Control Board, attorneys, and the Department of Justice and other federal agencies. But chatter from Las Vegas to London, and decisions in Carson City, reveal a story with multibillion-dollar implications that could’ve changed the face of poker as we know it — with PokerStars setting up shop on American soil to directly challenge the supremacy of the WSOP.

There were even discussions about a possible series of NAPT events scheduled to start in just a couple weeks. However, investigations sparked by NAPT-Venetian have intensified, and now threaten the viability of the expansion tour itself.

Even with an announcement about the NAPT’s next stop expected within days, decisions in Nevada will likely change PokerStars’ future in America … while providing a glimpse of what’s really at stake (and how ferocious the battles are becoming) as corporate US casinos take on off-shore online poker rooms.

With the bona fide arrival of the North American Poker Tour in February, the US got a taste of tournaments by the masterminds behind the EPT, duly credited with transforming the European pokerscape.

Getting approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board wasn’t as difficult as some might have thought. All they had to do — they being the Venetian, the licensed entity under the Board’s authority — was ask.

“There’s been a passive acceptance of dot-net advertising with Nevada casinos,” says Randall Sayre, a member of the Gaming Control Board who has become the state’s primary regulatory authority on online poker issues, particularly as they relate to live events and the difference between dot-coms and dot-nets.

The WSOP and parent company Harrah’s compliance team first noted this distinction in 2006, before the UIGEA, but by 2007 decided they needed to go further and end all formal relationships with any foreign online poker companies still serving American customers. Though one company’s internal decisions by no means dictate state-authored policy, other Nevada casinos hosting live events followed suit.

Sayre explains why dot-nets used to be fine:

“Past indications from the Justice Department [and other federal agencies] are that if dot-nets were a company or a site that merely put entertainment play out there, not gambling play, and did not advertise their gambling site, and did not have direct access to a gambling site in what they called a 3-click rule, then no enforcement on the federal level would be taken.”

Nevada authorities thus determined they too could allow such relationships, Sayre says, “that are limited to the advertising, where you’ve got guys with dot-nets on their hats or dot-nets on the felts.”

With that in mind, the UK-based NAPT (presented by PokerStars.net) brought to Vegas not just big buy-in, real-money action, but also the economic stimulus that comes with attracting a couple thousand people to a specific casino … while encouraging further activity by promoting said venue on ESPN … and don’t forget the related media jobs and production-crew wages!

The Gaming Control Board can indeed consider such factors when one of its licensees wants to associate with foreign interests, as they did upon sending a letter giving the Venetian express permission to host the NAPT.

But approval for the Venetian to work with PokerStars apparently didn’t sit well with others who have been sitting on the sidelines in the online gaming marketplace for nearly four years.

Shortly after the announcement of the NAPT, Sayre’s office began receiving both informal and formal requests from specific casino companies, industry representatives, as well as federal and state authorities to reconsider that position … and at a minimum, clarify the state’s stance.

He says these requests have intensified since early March — making in-depth study of the relationships between licensed brick-and-mortar casinos with off-shore online gambling sites a top priority for the Board. “To be clear, We’re talking about poker specifically,” Sayre says. “That’s what’s being debated. A new policy is developing as we speak.”

One key component they are looking at, of course, is the connection between dot-coms and dot-nets, where Sayre believes co-mingling of funds may put licensees in a compromising position. “There’s a renewed emphasis on commercial relationships with companies doing business in America that are not in compliance with what DOJ has determined is an illegal activity. [The casinos] have to decide whether or not they want to accept the risk of diciplanary action because of an unsuitable association.”

Sayre won’t give specifics about who’s been complaining the loudest, nor confirm identities on any privileged correspondence between the Board, its licensees, their attorneys, and/or state and federal authorities. But it’s not hard to deduce who might have had the most pressing interest in what the Venetian may or may not have had taking shape long-term with the NAPT. Any party hosting live WSOP or WPT events — without the competitive advantage of seating online qualifiers — come to mind.

NAPT-Venetian was never intended to be just an experimental one-off undertaking. The tour headed next across the country to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where the thumbs-up comes from the Mohegan Gaming Authority … and from there, the NAPT looked poised to secure casino hosts in several different states, one gaming jurisdiction after another, allowing them to replicate the EPT model across North America. Sure, there would be obstacles along the way, but Global Poker Tours, Ltd., the Isle of Man-based provider of PokerStars’ live tournaments worldwide, had faced a far more complex legal landscape throughout Europe and Asia to successfully pull off events in more than a dozen countries.

Meanwhile, PokerStars has not acknowledged that they’ve actually been booted out of Nevada tournament operations by anyone, nor that they were preparing to challenge the World Series head-on in Las Vegas with another NAPT. Venetian Poker room management are not commenting on the matter either, other than to say they are looking forward to an exciting summer Deep Stacks … with poker-room spillover extending to 119 tables.

As regulatory paperwork continues to shuffle with increasing veracity, and the belief that a true alternative to the World Series was still a possibility, it’s probably no coincidence that PokerStars.com wasn’t offering any online WSOP satellites until less than a month prior to the 2010 start date, much later than in prior years.

And there are of course no satellites whatsoever for the WSOP on PokerStars.net.

Dude … it’s gettin’ hot here in the US … specifically in Las Vegas.

Yesterday federal authorities arrested Daniel Tzvetkoff, a 27-year-old Australian national “on charges that he assisted illegal internet gambling companies by processing approximately $500 million in transactions between U.S. gamblers and internet gambling websites and disguising the transactions to the banks so that they would appear unrelated to gambling,” according to a statement from the DOJ’s Southern District of New York.

Illegal internet gambling companies? Yikes …

Tzvetkoff, as founder of Intabill and ACH System, faces up to 75 years in prison for bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to operate and finance an illegal gambling business, and … get this … for processing fund transfers in violation of the UIGEA.

I’m pretty sure that’s the first ever indictment to bring up UIGEA charges.

About a year ago the Australia Courier-Mail reported that Tzvetkoff owed Full Tilt, PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, and Absolute Poker more than $30 million as the overextended, ostentatious Gen-Y tycoon’s personal empire was crumbling. Then, Full Tilt (through Kolyma Corporation) sued Tzvetkoff in Australian Court, saying his company Intabill owed them $52 million.

Before his arrest, he was saying Full Tilt tricked him into a bad deal and his lawyer doublecrossed him. He blamed the economy for a multi-multi-millionaire having to declare bankruptcy earlier this year. More on the pre-arrest rise and fall of an online poker payment processor here.

I mean for chrissakes, he drove a Lamborghini with the license plate “BALLER”! And when a bank repossessed a competitive race car of his, they got everything except its $100k engine, which had been stripped out and hidden.

Click below for the official word from the DOJ:

United States Attorney Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 16, 2010

AUSTRALIAN MAN CHARGED IN MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT
WITH LAUNDERING HALF BILLION DOLLARS
IN INTERNET GAMBLING PROCEEDS

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, JOSEPH DEMAREST, JR., the
Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and JAMES T. HAYES, JR.,
the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Department of Homeland
Security’s United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(“ICE”), announced that Australian national DANIEL TZVETKOFF was
arrested in Las Vegas this morning on charges that he assisted
illegal internet gambling companies by processing approximately
$500 million in transactions between U.S. gamblers and internet
gambling websites and disguising the transactions to the banks so
that they would appear unrelated to gambling.

According to an Indictment unsealed this morning in
Manhattan federal court:

In early 2008, TZVETKOFF began processing gambling
transactions in the United States through the Automated Clearing
House system (“ACH system”) which allows money to be
electronically transferred from a gambler’s U.S. checking account
to an internet gambling company simply by the gambler going to
the internet gambling company’s website and entering his bank
account information. TZVETKOFF and his co-conspirators processed
more than $543 million in ACH transactions between February 2008
and March 2009, the overwhelming majority of which were on behalf
of internet gambling companies. TZVETKOFF then arranged for the
funds received from gamblers to be wired offshore for the benefit
of the gambling companies. TZVETKOFF also invested approximately
$27 million from these ACH transactions into an online “payday
loan” company that offered consumers high-interest, short term
loans that typically carried an annualized interest rate of more
than 500 percent.

TZVETKOFF and his co-conspirators induced U.S. banks to
provide ACH services to internet gambling companies by disguising
the transactions so that they would not appear to be gambling
related. To accomplish this, TZVETKOFF and his co-conspirators
created dozens of shell companies with names unrelated to
gambling — complete with phony web sites that made the companies
seem legitimate — and represented to banks that the ACH
transactions were on behalf of these companies. On May 3, 2008,
one of TZVETKOFF’s co-conspirators in an email told TZVETKOFF
that he had hired programmers to develop “unique” websites for
the shell companies so that if someone was “checking the
companies out there is absolutely no way to tie the companies
together.” TZVETKOFF responded: “This is all perfect!”

In March 2009, TZVETKOFF stopped processing internet
gambling transactions after leading internet gambling websites
accused him of stealing approximately $100 million from them.

The Indictment charges TZVETKOFF with four counts,
including bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to operate
and finance an illegal gambling business and to process
electronic funds transfers in violation of the Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. If convicted of all counts,
TZVETKOFF faces a maximum sentence of 75 years in prison.
TZVETKOFF, 27, was arrested this morning in Las Vegas
and is expected to be presented in Las Vegas federal court later
today. This case has been assigned to United States District
Judge LEWIS A. KAPLAN.

Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the FBI
and ICE for their assistance in the investigation. Mr. BHARARA
said that the investigation is continuing.

Assistant United States Attorneys ARLO DEVLIN-BROWN,
JONATHAN NEW, and MICHAEL LOCKARD are in charge of the
prosecution. This case is being handled by the Office’s
Organized Crime Unit.

The charges contained in the Indictment are merely
accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and
until proven guilty.

10-130
###
-2

[via justice.gov]

iMEGA has a copy of the documents up on their site.

Internet Gambling Payment Processor Charged With Bank Fraud, Money Laundering and Illegal Gambling Offenses

NEW YORK, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Lev L. Dassin, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced today the filing of an indictment charging Douglas Rennick with bank fraud and other offenses stemming from his role in processing more than $350 million for Internet gambling companies. According to the indictment filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court:

Since at least 2007 through June 2009, Rennick opened a number of bank accounts in the United States under various corporate names, such as KJB Financial Corporation, Account Services Corporation and Check Payment Financial Co. In opening the accounts, he and his co-conspirators falsely represented that the accounts would be used for such purposes as issuing rebate checks, refund checks, sponsorship checks, affiliate checks and minor payroll processing. In fact, Rennick and his co-conspirators used the
accounts to receive funds from offshore Internet gambling companies that offered, variously, poker, blackjack, slots and other casino games. Rennick and his co-conspirators then disbursed those funds via checks to U.S. residents seeking to cash out their gambling winnings. Rennick and his co-conspirators provided false and misleading information to U.S. banks about the purpose of the accounts because the banks would not have processed the transactions had they known they were gambling-related. In
total, Rennick and his co-conspirators processed more than $350 million transferred from a Cyprus bank account to various U.S. bank accounts for this purpose.

Rennick is charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to engage in money laundering and conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business. If found guilty, Rennick faces a maximum term of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on the bank fraud charge, 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine on the money laundering charge, and five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the gambling charge. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of at least approximately
$565,908,288, which represents the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of the illegal gambling and bank fraud conspiracies. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein.

Rennick, 34, currently resides in Canada. Mr. Dassin praised the investigative work of the FBI and thanked the
Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service for their assistance in the investigation. Mr. Dassin added that the investigation is continuing.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Arlo Devlin-Brown and Jonathan New are in charge of the prosecution, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Alberts is in charge of the forfeiture in this case.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.