I’m surprised everyone is missing a very important fact in this case:
And John Campos, the vice chairman of the board and part owner of SunFirst Bank, was charged for his role in the process.
An American bank (located in Utah, where they don’t allow gambling) was laundering money, that’s the first reason the DOJ is on this, it’s another serious banking issue. Plus, with Harry Reid, Steve Wynn and Gary Loveman all talking about US federally regulated online poker also in the news this month, not a big surprise to see the enemies of Vegas getting busted.
The US Government likes to send messages. This message is that unlicensed poker is over and i suspect that congress will be creating a regulated poker regime and most states will opt-in over time.
I personally wondered how these places could manage to process US deposits and payouts, what bank was taking the risk. I had assumed some big banks were using the “skill game” argument to get regulators to back off. But it was old fashion, mis-classifying the charge, with the banks cooperation.