In a recent interview on Fox Business, reporter Adam Shapiro demonstrated a lack of understanding of the facts related to the United State Department of Justice’s actions against online poker operators. Shapiro lumped online poker in with online gaming and states that online gaming “is essentially illegal in the United States because the Congress passed a law in 2006 which forbids banks to process online gaming transactions.” The law Shapiro referred to is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. This law is an enforcement act and while it dictates how existing laws are to be enforced it does not explicitly make online poker illegal.
Another jumbled fact presented by Shapiro revolved around the bank account seizures made by the DOJ. He indicated that there were 75 accounts seized in the US when in fact those accounts were distributed across 14 different countries. He also stated that the money frozen in those seizures included players’ accounts even though PokerStars, the biggest poker operator of those indicted has publicly stated that players’ funds are safe.
When a colleague in the studio asked if there was any chance that someone with money deposited with these online sites would ever get their money back, Shapiro replied emphatically, “No! They’re not going to get their money back.”
The segment is available online at youtube.
