PokerNews Eesti | Must reede: kes on süüdi?

[ranka]

Re: PokerNews Eesti | Must reede: kes on süüdi?

No eks PokerStars/FullTilt on ikka korralikult tööd ka teinud oma software kallal. Loomulikult on rake liiga kõrge, aga seda igalpool mitte ainult nendes kahes tubades ja näiteks heads-upi rake cap on Starsis ja FTP-s 2x väiksem, Microgaminguga võrreldes isegi 3x väiksem. Kui nad suudavad selliste pakkumistega olla MASSIIVSED turuliidrid, siis why the f*ck nad peaksid paremaid boonuseid pakkuma?

Sama keiss umbes, et kas tangid Statoilis või Eurooilis kus kütus on sendi võrra odavam. Mulle meeldib ikkagi Statd noil :)

See ongi nüüd proovikivi FTP ja Starsi turupoliitikale - kas nad suudavad sama poliitikaga eurotsooni tingimustes samu häid tulemusi näidata. Eks see selgub mõne kuu jooksul. Stars võib-olla küll, FTP on kaheldav.

Muideks kütuse firmadega võrdlus suht mõttetu, sest nende hinnad tõusevad/langevad alati ühtemoodi ning vahe on minimaalne - kütus sama, hind pm. sama.

OT: MG-s rake 3x kõrgem? Arvasin, et neil cap $1, FTP/Stars $0.5.

[Codecci]

Re: PokerNews Eesti | Must reede: kes on süüdi?

See ongi nüüd proovikivi FTP ja Starsi turupoliitikale - kas nad suudavad sama poliitikaga eurotsooni tingimustes samu häid tulemusi näidata. Eks see selgub mõne kuu jooksul. Stars võib-olla küll, FTP on kaheldav.

Muideks kütuse firmadega võrdlus suht mõttetu, sest nende hinnad tõusevad/langevad alati ühtemoodi ning vahe on minimaalne - kütus sama, hind pm. sama.

OT: MG-s rake 3x kõrgem? Arvasin, et neil cap $1, FTP/Stars $0.5.

Seal eurod ju ehk siis €1 ehk $1.46.

Btw, Statoilis stabiilselt kõrgemad hinnad kui "urkabensukates".

[ranka]

Re: PokerNews Eesti | Must reede: kes on süüdi?

Seal eurod ju ehk siis €1 ehk $1.46.

Btw, Statoilis stabiilselt kõrgemad hinnad kui "urkabensukates".

Dunno. Urkabensukates ei käi ja neid võiks võrrelda miski everleafiga. Ikka pidasin silmas euroturul suuremaid tegijaid. Aga jah, selle peale ei mäelnudki, et €1 raket, lol. Päris maru.

[raudtee(EST)]

Re: PokerNews Eesti | Must reede: kes on süüdi?

Nii palju kui mina asja kohta materjale olen lugenud, siis põhi probleem on pangapettuses:

If EFTs are starting to sound familiar to American online poker players, its because The Big Three were using eChecks as deposit options, and instant bank transfers as cashout options. These were EFT transfers that required a description code. Party Poker did this before UIGEA, but no other sites have attempted to use these transfers since UIGEA. Obviously there are major advantages for a poker site using EFTs. They are very cheap, they are relatively fast, they are easy, and all a customer needs to use them is a bank account and a routing number.

Instead of asking their customers to mail in checks, sign up for an e-wallet, try a debit card that probably won't work (thanks to the customer's financial institution), or do a western union to a random person in Indonesia, they could simply supply basic banking info, and be playing poker minutes later. So for the Big Three, there was serious upside to being able to offer EFT payments to US customers. As a poker site, the more money your players can get online, the more games you have and the more rake you collect. The upside is amplified when you can tap the world's biggest online poker market with a huge advertising budget, profit tremendously by offering easy payments, and then use the profit to dominate the international market.

However there's a couple problems. UIGEA prohibits "unlawful online gambling" transactions, and EFTs have to be coded. So what's the answer since you can't code an EFT "online poker?" Secondly, EFTs only work domestically, they have to processed inside the US for US customers. Clearly these are tough issues to circumvent for an offshore poker site; first the EFT needs to be disguised, and then there has to be company inside the US willing to intentionally disguise them.

So, to get around these obstacles, and this is what the DOJ alleges that they did, The Big Three apparently bought shares in a bank in Utah called SunFirst. In exchange for the liquidity that this bank probably needed after the financial crisis, and along with a cash bonus for the CEO, the bank agreed to handle the EFTs for American players AND agreed to intentionally mis-code the transactions as other items completely unrelated to online gambling, things like golf equipment and other random items that had nothing to do with online poker. That's where the money laundering conspiracy and bank fraud charges come from. The scheme to buy part of this bank and pay the CEO to do this is the conspiracy, and the mis-coding of the transactions is bank fraud. These are serious crimes no matter if you are a poker site or a charity for homeless animals. The experts who've weighed in on this tend to agree that the DOJ is not going to indict a company for money laundering and bank fraud if they don't have a very solid case, so these charges are likely bad news for these sites.

This is why these seizures are different from past seizures. This time the actual poker sites were the ones doing the processing because they owned shares of the bank that was processing and mis-coding the EFT payments. That makes all the difference in the world. Because they were disguising the intent of the EFT transactions and miscoding the transactions, they got hit with bank fraud and money laundering indictments. On top of that, the DOJ has an argument about UIGEA violations, and lastly, the illegal gambling charges were probably thrown for good measure.