The four sites affected are PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet (UB) and Absolute Poker all of whom had their .com domains taken away from them.
The founders of these sites have been charged with violation of the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) and operating illegal gambling, along with money laundering and bank fraud charges. Don't forget, despite all of the casinos on Indian Reservations and gambling meccas such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City, gambling in general in the US is illegal.
It does appear as though US players will be able to get their funds out from the sites, and control of the domains for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker have now been returned to their respective companies in order to enable US players to log in and withdraw. Both PokerStars and Full Tilt have announced the suspension of US players from their games.
The fallout from the seizures has been wide reaching including a number of properties, both poker and casino, quickly restricting play from the US for both new and existing players. According to Poker Scout, week on week traffic at Full Tilt is down a whopping 48% whilst PokerStars saw a 25% drop.
EU poker rooms such as Bet365, who stopped accepting US players after the UIGEA was signed into law, have responded by increasing their signup bonuses in an attempt to entice the non-US players, who have been scared away from the affected sites, into switching.
Players from countries where gambling is both legal and regulated (such as the UK) shouldn't have anything to worry about, although it is advisable to play at sites which do not accept US players and who are appropriately regulated. All poker sites seen on goodbonusguide.com are regulated in accordance with the UK Gambling Act - this has been our policy from day one. Click here for a list of trusted poker sites.
