Have a look at the document. He filed the motion himself — “Verified Claim of Raymond Bitar, Pursuant to Rule G of the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty and Maritime Claims” — with an Irish notary public to make it official.

I certainly don’t know the nuances of Rule G of the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty and Maritime Claims, but it seems complex enough that an attorney might-should usually be filing this kinda thing. And the lack of legal counsel’s involvement in this civil matter raises plenty of questions about the financial status of Bitar … and maybe even the motivations of various comments by Full Tilt attorneys who may or may not be still be getting paid.

So either Ray Bitar is broke, wants to appear broke (hey, it apparently worked for Daniel Tzvetkoff) … or is running some sorta triple-range-legal-merge to extract maximum value from his dwindling stack of FTP dollars while conserving favors from friends who went to law school.

This pro se filing follows Jeff Ifrah’s removing himself as attorney or record on various civil matters and class-action lawsuits against Full Tilt companies and principals, and Full Tilt lawyers skipping out on the nearly week-long AGCC hearing that resulted in further suspension of FTP’s gaming licenses.

Ifrah emerged as the first lawyer willing to speak on Full Tilt’s behalf, when he let eGaming Review know that Bitar’s feelings were really hurt after Wicked Chops Poker reported the Ireland-based CEO had been ousted as captain of the Full Tilt ship.

(Ifrah was saying in July: “We can completely deny the reports that Ray Bitar is no longer CEO. In fact that [rumour] really ruined his day yesterday. It doesn’t help anyone for sites to be reporting news that’s not true.”)

We’ll have to save for later a rundown of what Full Tilt legal representatives had said over time … it’s an interesting progression suggestive of what game Full Tilt might really have been playing at various points along the way.

Meanwhile, Chad Elie and John Campos — a payment processor and the Utah banker — have filed motions in the court that Forbes magazine calls the “first direct assault” on the DOJ’s case … essentially arguing that if poker is indeed a game of skill, then the premise for virtually all of the government’s case against online poker falls apart.

1. American Midterms (Part I) - Top story last week & top 2 stories this week. As expected, the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives, Representative Boehner will be the next Speaker, and Senator Reid kept his seat and his job as Senate Majority Leader. (Aside: great article here on how Reid pulled it off.) What does it all mean? It’s too soon to say. I continue to think that the general trend towards legalization in the US will continue and that, if nothing passes during the lame duck session of Congress, there may be more going on in intra-state gaming in the coming year than in Congress. However, it may be that a new bill (sponsored by Senator Reid) could be passed during the lame duck and legalize poker. Keep watching. [Examiner; Poker News Daily]

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2. American Midterms (Part II) - During the midterms, there were many races and referenda addressing local gaming issues. There’s a great summary of many of them by Sarah Klaphake Cords at Casino Enterprise Management here.

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3. Tzvetkoff Squirrel Funds - This is a story that’s been followed by those in online poker for months. Daniel Tzvetkoff created a payment processor in Australia called Intabill. He is alleged to have defrauded several Internet poker operators and was arrested in Las Vegas earlier this year on money laundering charges, among others. Most seem to think that he’s co-operating with federal authorities. Now come allegations that funds from the payment processing business were squirreled away in a payday lending company in Las Vegas called Hugo Services. Apparently some $50 million are at stake. If true and if the federal government hasn’t already seized it, Daniel’s and Intabill’s creditors can be expected to make a move against it to try to recoup some of their losses. [Courier and Mail]

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4. Increase in Polish Internet Gambling - In case any more evidence were needed that banning Internet gambling doesn’t reduce its incidence, apparently Poles will have gambled away 20% more by the end of this year than they did in the year in which Internet gambling and advertising was outlawed in Poland. [Warsaw Business Journal]

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5. Zynga on the Go - These guys have been in the press a lot lately, and especially in the past week. First came news that Zynga Game Network’s estimated worth exceeded video gaming giant Electronic Arts’s market value. (Apparently, Zynga is worth $5.5 billion.) Now Zynga is being touted as a player in mobile gaming. It already has a Texas Hold’em game available on Facebook that supports 6 million users daily. More proof that the next wave of gaming is already underway and will involve social media and mobile gaming. Watch these guys and other players in this developing market. [Online-Casinos.com]

Attorney Stuart Hoegner regularly follows matters of international gaming law; you can follow him @GamingCounsel on Twitter.

Sale price estimates range from $182 million to $228 million (in real money). Supposedly, Google will officially announce the acquisition tomorrow.

This follows last week’s quiet confirmation from Google CEO Eric Schmidt about their partnership with Zynga – clarifying speculative reports in July that Google had “secretly” invested $150 million or so in the enormous play-money poker site.

With a current user base of 28 million budding poker degens at the ready, Zynga is primed for real-money poker with their popular Facebook app Texas HoldEm Poker. You can read more about Zynga’s interest in HR 2267 from Business Insider: JACKPOT FOR ZYNGA: Congress Wants To Legalize Online Gambling.

Conveniently, Zynga uses PayPal for a method of payment (and happens to be PayPal’s biggest client).  This method of payment — turned off years ago for anything related to gambling — could be ideal for a would-be internet gambling licensee under HR 2267 with Barney Frank’s Manager’s Amendment, which prohibits credit card transactions for gambling should his bill become law.

Nothing to do with poker specifically at first glance … but if you believe the Feds don’t operate in a vacuum, there seems to be a message here that might-should have a few Poker After Dark regulars shitting bricks taking note …

I learned about the arrest from J. Todd, whom I find myself paying closer attention to than before as the June 1 D-Day approaches. However, point of order, dude, I think you got it wrong saying Lyons was the first ever UIGEA arrest. I’m 99.99 percent sure he was the second. You gotta read your Pokerati, man, where you’ll see that the first was Daniel Tzvetkoff. It’s right there, charge #4, in the criminal complaint from the DOJ! Reason magazine saw the same thing, too.

With that out of the way (we understand typos here), let’s look a little closer at this case and how it may or may not be different from payment processor arrests related to online poker …

First off, this indictment does not come out of the Southern District of New York, which we know is where the biggest poker heat has been coming from. However, is it just a coincidence that the first UIGEA arrest happened in Las Vegas (capital of the poker world) and the second was in Massachusetts (home to the biggest Congressional opponent of the UIGEA). The message someone could read here is “Barney Frank can’t save you!”

Also, the three arrested payment processors with direct connections to American-facing online poker sites — Rennick, Schuett, and Tzvetkoff — all were foreign nationals. Though I haven’t yet seen the legal docs on Lyons, it seems he’s an American. OK, so part two of the message: we’re not just going after foreigners, we’ll arrest Americans, too!

And in case anyone’s not getting it, Carmen Ortiz, the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, gave a statement to telegraph the DOJ’s intent clarify:

“The conduct alleged in this case reveals a blatant effort to circumvent gaming and tax laws. The notion that the type of activity alleged here is legal because it is conducted over the Internet from offshore is pure fiction.’’

Yikes, so you’re saying the DOJ is going after people in America who operate businesses they believe to be illegal, even if the central computer action takes place in another country? But that would be bad for some people we know … Are you sure about that? Have you talked to Barack Obama?

Actually, it turns out she has. While most of the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are Bush-era holdovers, Ortiz was a relatively recent Obama appointee, sworn in in January 2010 by current Attorney General Eric Holder.

Wow. Let me soak this in here … Are you trying to say the whole US government — even the current administration — could be in on this, not just a few robes in Manhattan pretending to be Mob-busters?

It’s possible. And though not unrealistic that US Attorneys in New York might compare notes with US Attorneys in Boston, especially when they work under the same boss, it could all be coincidence.

Ortiz comes originally from New York, after all … and years ago, she worked closely with the NFL.

The amount Rennick admitted was involved in the illegal “gambling conspiracy” he was part of totaled $583 million. But as part of his plea agreement — reducing his threatened sentence from 30 years to 6-to-12 months — the amount he actually signed over (thereby contributing to national debt reduction, obv) was about $17 million. I think that was just about everything he had on him. The Feds are still seeking that extra half-billion, and expect Rennick to help them find it before he gets officially sentenced in September.

Check it out … here’s the actual forfeiture order
.
The crime the Canadian payment processor pled to (one count) was a Wire Act violation. Generally we poker people have thought of the Wire Act as being more about sports betting. But in Rennick’s case, court documents made it clear — specifically in an sworn affidavit from an FBI agent — that this money came from Full Tilt and/or PokerStars.

By law, the Feds have 30 days to post the details of his seized accounts at www.forfeiture.gov. Then, you’ll have 60 days to file a claim if you think any of that money might belong to you. Any takers?

Big ups to @GamingCounsel for helping me understand the difference between “forfeiture allegation” and “subject property” in 140 characters or less. [thx!]

Online Poker War Heats Up
The Department of Justice bags a Canadian payment processor in its fight against online poker. Are the big online firms next?

Interesting … these biz-media guys may not really get poker, but they do listen to The Poker Beat presumably understand a thing or two about multi-national finance and how putting rich white guys behind bars can be good for traffic circulation.

Generally, the poker world has always celebrated when the big online companies always got some mainstream media attention. But who knew there could even be a story without a press release from Full Tilt or PokerStars?

Sentencing for Rennick is scheduled for sentencing on September 15th, with a prison term of six to twelve months expected.

As the first ever accused UIGEA criminal, Tzvetkoff faces up to 75 years in prison on multiple fraud and money laundering charges related to his dealings with American online poker players, American banks, and American-friendly online poker sites, including Full Tilt, PokerStars, Absolute, and Ultimate Bet.

Though I don’t fully understand all the jurisdictional details, supposedly the district court in New York trumps any ruling from the federal magistrate in North Las Vegas, who granted bail on the surety of his father’s $1.2 million house in Brisbane and the condition that the elder Tzvetkoff would drive his son to New York where he will be tried.

(They haven’t even gotten to a lingering detention order from the Department of Homeland Security, which theoretically coulda had him sent to Guantanamo not that long ago to be waterboarded for all the information he knows about the identity of Isildur1 online poker.)

Personally, I was wondering why they were gonna let Tzvetkoff’s dad drive him from Vegas to NYC. I mean shit, this is the Southern District … they think in terms of mobsters, and it seems like the Vegas judge was just begging to have the broke former multimillionaire kid run off the road somewhere near the Grand Canyon.

The Deputy Marshal says that depending on the New York judge’s decision — no date on when it’s expected — Tzvetkoff will either have his bail re-granted (at which point they will deal with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement issue) or denied and likely flown to New York, where he will be transfered to a federal detention facility there as he awaits trial.

The arrest of Daniel Tzvetkoff had something to do with that.

Also BJ and Gary look at actual numbers in comparing/contrasting the WPT to the EPT. All while assessing whether or not PokerStars is taking over the world. Plus Liv Boeree kicking arse as Huff celebrates the glorious life of Gang Starr.

The Poker Beat
4/22/10

Getting Away With Poker
How is helping people play a card game like murder?

I find this article particularly interesting because of how it pairs politically with the recent story in The Hill about legalized online gambling creating jobs, according to a new study. Though jobs are appealing on both sides of the aisle, it’s clearly an issue the Dems are looking to own in coming months.

Meanwhile, Reason, a Libertarian magazine, speaks more to the Tea Party set. So regardless of what happens to Tzvetkoff, you gotta like the plausibly bipartisan sales pitch taking shape in the Beltway for whatever online poker bills may or may not come to fruition later this year.

I haven’t quite figured out why the poker world hasn’t jumped on the significance of the first-ever UIGEA criminal indictment. Pussies! Oh well, so be it … if you pretend it isn’t there, maybe it will go away, right?

But for those who care about accuracy and relevance, just an fyi, I found these landmark more-than-just-regular-ole-money-laundering accusations in the Department of Justice’s publicly available criminal complaint:

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.

This is the same document, of course, where the DOJ reveals how they see the people Tzvetkoff did business with as “illegal internet gambling companies” … and says that investigations are ongoing.

Prosecutors protested his release, claiming he was a flight risk as a foreign national who is believed to have a $100 million hidden stash at his disposal.

But the judge accepted the assurance of his father, Kim Tzvetkoff, who was willing to put up his own $1.2 million home in Brisbane, Australia, up as collateral should Daniel fail to appear in New York’s Southern District federal court. The potential release was a surprise even to his family — and presumably a relief to any online poker big-wigs who fear they might face a similar challenge somewhere down the line.

Click here for a video interview with his father.

However, Tzvetkoff will likely spend at least a few more days in the North Las Vegas Detention Center as his lawyers fight a separate detention order from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security.

Should he clear immigration, his father has agreed under court order to drive him across the country to New York, where he will be met by his pregnant fiance and 3-year-old son to live under house arrest while awaiting trial.

Tzvetkoff was in Las Vegas, btw, for a conference (still trying to figure out which one), and was staying at the Encore. Police arrested him there after someone — supposedly one of his creditors — tipped off the FBI about his presence.

Kinda funny in a Vegas way … he had to share a bench during the bail hearing with a woman charged with prostitution.

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]

The basics:

Preface
You might wonder why there is this page. Well, I also have the services of Michael Schuett, alias adopted USAG24 Inc. and has been cheated a lot of money. Meanwhile, there are quite a lot of people who feel the same way.

The people who have resisted and have published their case as the Internet, were then put massive pressure from Michael Schuett and most have agreed to the cancellation of their websites. This of course happened after agreeing a settlement, for example, was paid some money from Michael Schuett so that the matter is created from the world. Most of these people have only received a fraction of the lost money again and had to return the sites to take from the net.

Thus Michael Schuett is still continuing its Betrügerein. I will not comment on such a comparison and the money had already been written off as dearly as I will have to deal with this person any more. However, I would keep everyone else from dealing with that person and any company business.

Your USAG24-dupe

Now for all we know this is just one disgruntled ex-colleague. But he’s had a twitter feed set up for the past three months just to track the whereabouts of this one person. @usag24betrug has three followers.

And here’s a half-hour lifestyle documentary on Michael Schuett, apparently chronicling his move to Florida:

Very strange. Might online poker sites be a victim of a fraud here? Or just tangled up with the wrong guy? I’m still not sure what to make of it all, but I do get the sense now that this situation may turn out to be about more than online poker …

Here’s the story from the Naples News:

Feds investigate Naples man in money laundering probe tied to online gambling

It may or may not be coincidental that the the Feds have arrested Michael Olaf Schuett’s for money transfers directly related (allegedly) to online poker just as the state is taking a closer-than-ever look at the game with eyes on its revenue potential. It’s also not clear if Schuett’s been charged with anything yet, or is just being held because he is a foreign national flight risk with felony charges pending.

Here are some plausibly relevant names, and highlights that jump out at yours truly:

• Michael Olaf Schuett, or Schütt, is the guy they’re after. He’s a 29-year-old German whose visa expire in April. A federal judge has ordered him held in Lee County jail without bond.
• He lives in a pretty sick oceanfront condo.
• He’s been married only a month to a 28-year-old woman he’s known for only nine months. Her name is Jennifer Sherman.
• Feds allege that since opening accounts in 2007, Schuett has transferred about $70 million to 23,000 people, mostly Americans and supposedly online poker winnings.
• The giveaway was dozens of checks being received daily via Fed Ex.
• People cashing checks sent to them from Schuett claim they are online poker winnings.
• Secret Service is the law enforcement agency involved.
• Agents are seeking to execute search warrants and seize allegedly ill-gotten property, such as fancy cars and watches.
• The complaint lays out a web of money transfers between businesses and banks and players.
• Lots of American and Canadian banks in play. Key company serving as go-between: Bluetool Ltd. out of Germany.
• Supposedly no direct allegations in the complaint against any online poker sites, but the Naples News reporter was able to connect them to transactions from Full Tilt, PokerStars, and Absolute.
• Three specific players — Corey Drury, Darren Elias, and Derek Dubois — get named as receiving money through Schuett’s legally questionable operation. All three have public profiles on BluffMagazine, PocketFives, CardPlayer, and PokerPages.
• As banks became hip to the set-up, Schuett tried to create a new accounts to hold the money, claiming to be a real estate investor — a story the banks didn’t buy.

This week J Todd keeps us abreast of California and New Jersey’ desires to get in on the online gambling game from a state-size perspective, updates us on the online gambling fund-transfer cat-and-mouse game with MasterCard and Visa getting more serious (just three months before they are legally required to do exactly what they are trying to do), fingers the Eldorado Casino as a potentially shady site to avoid, and tease me with some affiliate business stuff that I don’t really care about but am interested to watch because of the hidden-camera + foreign-accent nature of the upcoming interview.

Here are a few other semi-related newsy links about how things are going elsewhere in the poker world:

The Mayor of Baltimore is pushing for poker+table games despite the governor of Maryland having less of an interest in making expanded gambling a priority.

Michael Barnier, the newly appointed EU Internal Markets Commissioner, promises to straighten out inconsistencies in European online gambling laws.

Police in suburban Alabama are cracking down on / raiding the real-money tournament scene there.

Not sure how deep any in our industry have dug into the possibilities in China yet, but hey, that “Bodies” exhibit could probably use some new prisoners to pose playing poker.

More on the China crackdown, where you may notice vague similarities to what’s gone down in the US of A:

Online gambling “has caused large cash outflows from the country and seriously disturbed social and economic order,” said a statement posted on the public security ministry’s Web site Monday.

The campaign aims to “bust a number of syndicates from home and abroad that collude to organise gambling activities on the Internet and severely punish the illegal rings,” it said.

Authorities will also clamp down on underground banks and third party payment platforms that provide cash transfer services for gambling sites, as well as Internet operators that provide Web access services, it said.

“(We) will clean up gambling information and Web sites across the board,” the statement said.

Apparently someone’s ripping off someone, and flaming fingers are starting to point all willy-nilly in a world of folks trying to play as legit as they can providing a service that the US government would prefer they not.

I first learned about PICClub about a year ago … heard about it from one of my old cronies in the Dallas underground, and TJ Cloutier was apparently involved. Though I had decided it was not quite my thing, I wanted a second opinion, so I sought the counsel of a trusted friend and colleague semi-involved in the poker bidness:

On Dec 3, 2008, at 9:22 AM, [name removed] wrote:

[Name removed] told me about it. But I’ve decided it’s in my best interest to steer clear of shady, 4-year-late concepts that are audibly mistaken for porn sites.

LOL, right, exactly …

I didn’t think much about PICClub again until I saw them with six teams at Dream Team Poker – Caesar’s … you know, the one won by Jamie Gold and Team Aced, before they ran into some sorta contractual schism.

But surprise (to me), PICClub is still around … their concept did, apparently, address a market need; and as a result at least millions of dollars, if not more, have been passing through it.

So with that, I’m not sure who’s screwing whom in this, if weak means strong or strong means weak, but regardless … here’s the latest from PICClub CEO Chuck Kidd, trying to assuage his customers that they are the good guys in this matter:

From: “PiCClub.com”
Date: November 13, 2009 3:56:24 PM PST
Subject: A word from the PIC CEO

Dear PICClub Member,
As many of you know we at PICClub have been embroiled with Merge Gaming Network in a dispute over their failure to pay their debt. I want to take this time to help you understand why I felt it was necessary to escalate this issue with Gambling 911. I did not want to take this into a public arena but was forced to when they issued a press release that was an outright lie.

I wasn’t happy to lose the Merge network of rooms as I know many of you played there and I tried to avoid that happening. However when a poker room fails to pay its debt and decides to not pay players it is my responsibility to take the steps necessary to protect our players and to collect the funds rightfully owed.

Since early July I have been trying to get the Merge Network to pay not only the arrears on fees that were owed to PICClub but also the money to fund the Players cash out account. During this time I made many concessions to Merge in an attempt to get them to pay. At every promise they made to pay the arrears and acknowledging that the money was indeed owed they kept stalling and sending me the Checks in the Mail story over and over. One excuse even involved their CFO being caught in a Typhoon in Japan.

It soon became evident that they had no intention of paying their debt and worse they were going to stiff the players.

I sought council with many people I respect in this industry and to a person they agreed that I needed to make this issue known. Not only as a possible means to collect our funds but also to expose that Merge was either financially in trouble or was operating unethically. Either way we weren’t getting funds from them so I decided that Gambling 911 would be the venue that I would supply the documentation to that backed up the facts of the issue.

I knew that PICClub would possibly take a black eye over this and I certainly weighed that against the need for this story to be made public. It wasn’t an easy decision to make and cost me many restless nights of sleep. BUT it had to be told.. Maybe just maybe, Merge would at the very least send the money to pay the players.

Well they finally sent enough money to cover the players cash outs. It is unfortunate that it took shaming them in a Public Arena for them to do what was right by the players and the attacks on PICClub and I personally are still going on. Merge has not presented 1 piece of evidence to refute the story, they have instead decided a campaign of slander, lies and innuendo waged by a group of affiliates and forum owners would be their answer to the issue presented.

Well my job however is not done. They still owe PICClub 107 thousand dollars and I intend to collect it. Every penny they take from PICClub, they also take from you the members. It is coming up on Christmas time and that means the funds in your CSA account will be available to you plus the interest earned and a % of PICClub profits. For those of you who have been with us for 2 years or more you will recall that we paid 14.25% in our first year and 10.5% in our second. I am not sure where we will be this year as the books haven’t been settled for the CSA yet but I don’t want a 107 thousand dollar loss to be an issue. I INTEND TO COLLECT EVERY PENNY THEY OWE.

I ask that you continue your support of the PICClub and please play at the poker rooms that are operating honestly with us. They too deserve your support. When you see PICClub being slammed in a forum do not hesitate to speak up. There are those out there who’s only agenda is to do harm to PICClub no matter how many lies it takes.

We will be adding more rooms for you to play at and I know that you will enjoy them. So stay tuned for exciting news.

I will speak with you again soon about the CSA payout and I hope to be able to give you great news at that time.

Kindest Regards.

Chuck Kidd
CEO
Players Investment Company

Not only have they finally figured out how to condense everything from the shady passage of the UIGEA to undesirable results of unregulated online poker and payment processor issues to a few sentences followed by some well thought out mainstream-friendly paragrafs, but also, at the end, they give a little hint at what might come next, which could involve Full Tilt fighting the matter in courts:

Even if the UIGEA is enacted, it’s unlikely online gambling would disappear completely. There are ways for American players to circumvent bank regulations, including setting up a foreign bank account. “We’re all holding our breath and hoping the petition will be accepted,” Lederer says, but that isn’t the industry’s only option. Online poker could be legalized through the courts on the argument that the Wire Act doesn’t apply to poker. The industry is waiting to see what happens Dec. 1 before taking any action, he says. But if they do head to court, Lederer likes the odds.

This is interesting, because time and time again poker has shown it can win in the judicial system, while the game-of-skill argument tends to carry no weight in legislative circles … where it’s still just gambling, and maybe a matter of personal freedoms at stake.

(I also gotta agree with Lederer … knowing FTP’s growing familiarity with the American court system, the money they’ve got to spend on lawyers, and “our issue’s” generally falling on the right side of the law … we all know where we’re eventually gonna get … it’s just a matter of how we get there.)

And as always, you can find more intelligent commentary from a jingle-brained sap over at Hardboiled Poker.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) have submitted their petition asking Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to ignore requests seeking to delay enforcement of the UIGEA.

[DC] Bachus Kyl Letter (11/03/09)