UltimateBet, also known as UB, was one of the largest US poker sites before April 15, 2011. The story of this site had previously gone a bit cold after April 15th, the date now referred to as Black Friday by the American online poker playing community.

While it was well known that they had not been paying U.S. customers and were barely paying their small amount of remaining funds to international customers, not much has been heard from or about the company in quite some time. However, that all changed on January 19, 2012 when a new lawsuit against the parent company of UltimateBet came to light.

A group of 8 poker players filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in California against 6356095 Canada Inc., which used to be known as Excapsa Software Inc. The group are alleging that Excapsa, as well as up to 10 Jane or John Does, violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

On top of that, Excapsa is being accused of defrauding players and exhibiting negligence which enabled over $20 million to be stolen from the many players who frequented high stakes cash games during UltimateBet’s most popular period.

The… READ MORE

The Department of Justice targeted a number of people on Black Friday, and two of them have chosen to take an interesting stance in their defense. In an attempt to have their charges dismissed, Chad Elie and John Campos will be arguing that poker is a skill game.

The charges against the men are very serious and include money laundering for both. In total, Elie is facing nine charges while Campos is facing six. The accused men are seeking to have some of their charges thrown out based on the view that online poker isn’t really gambling. In order for things to go their way, they will need to convince a federal judge of this view. Neither man was able to evade authorities after Black Friday as both of them were arrested on April 19th earlier this year.

Campos is based in Utah and was the Vice Chairman of SunFirst Bank. His trouble stems from the fact that he was facilitating payment processing for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. If you were a poker player living in the United States, you probably played on Full Tilt or PokerStars as a William Hill Poker download wasn’t available… READ MORE

Since Black Friday many indiscretions have been made by a multitude of poker players as the online poker best have been forced to make many changes. Turmoil and drama have been rampant, and some people have been driven to do some extremely unethical things. The story of Jose “Girah” Macedo is an example of all of the above.

Macedo seemingly came out of nowhere with a true rags to riches story. Known as the Portuguese Poker Prodigy, he allegedly grinded up his €30 deposit until he was able to play $100/$200 No Limit Hold’em online. Two respected players, Daniel “jungleman” Cates and Haseeb “DogIsHead” Qureshi, had only good things to say about him and his game.

Macedo refused to divulge his screen names in online poker rooms due to instruction from his lawyers. People didn’t really question this, however, because several pros were willing to wager 6-figures against anyone who didn’t believe Macedo’s story.

Not long afterward, Macedo was made a Lock Poker Pro. This is where things begin to get ugly, though. He had won a competition on Lock Poker, but then he was disqualified for multi-accounting. He claimed that his backer had used his account and… READ MORE

The U.S. Department of Justice does not make idle threats, as Black Friday target Ira Rubin has just found out. This previously unknown businessman is connected to the dubious bank transfers orchestrated by Full Tilt, the PokerStars Download, and Absolute Poker. He was one of 11 men charged by the federal government as part of an online poker raid.

Accused of running fraudulent payment processors, Rubin had been living in Central American for a number of years. In December 2006, a warrant for his arrest was issues, due to contempt of court in a telemarketing fraud case. He immediately left the country and has been living in Costa Rica ever since.

With new charges of bank and wire fraud looming, the U.S. government were finally able to catch up with him in Guatemala, where they claim he was attempting to charter a plane to Thailand.

U.S. prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown reported to a New York judge on the allegations made against Mr. Rubin. At the hearing, Ira was accused of operating a gold shop and electronics companies as fronts for funnelling online poker funds. If found guilty of these charges, he could face up to 30 years… READ MORE

Phil Ivey is without question the biggest name in poker. For the past five years, you won’t have seen the 8-time bracelet winner at a tournament without a Full Tilt Poker Download sponsorship patch somewhere on his person. Yesterday that cordial relationship came to an abrupt end, with the release of a pair of shocking statements from both player and company.

Ivey began the furore by announcing his plan to leave Full Tilt in order to preserve his standing. “My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others,” read the press release. His main bone of contention is Full Tilt’s continued failure to re-open U.S. withdrawals. The online poker site were one of four companies indicted by the Department of Justice, with PokerStars the only site to restart American cashouts since that date.

The tenor of Phil’s statement indicates his disappointment with the way Full Tilt have treated the players. “I wholeheartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment of players funds and I am angered that people who have supported me throughout my career have been treated so poorly.” As an act of protest, Phil has refused… READ MORE