DOJ acts on pokerstars.com fulltiltpoker.com gambling sites

Red Dwarf · **Joined:** Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:01 am **Posts:** 9227

Yesterday
ub.com [66.212.231.205]
pokerstars.com [77.87.179.116]
fulltiltpoker.com [91.211.98.20]
absolutepoker.com [66.212.244.175]

Today, all these are on 50.17.223.71 (Amazon Web Services) and displaying a warning notice from the Dept of Justice -

The .com sites are gone, but the .net sites remain untouched
ub.net has address 66.212.231.203 = eWorldHoldings, Inc, Quebec
fulltiltpoker.net has address 91.211.98.22 = Filco Ltd, British Channel Islands
absolutepoker.net has address 66.212.244.186 = eWorldHoldings, Inc, Quebec

EG, pokerstars.net still shows what was taken down
pokerstars.net has address 77.87.180.156 = Rational Services Ltd, Isle of Man

Actual site before take-down (click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)

After it was seized

WHOIS before a site was seized
Domain Name: POKERSTARS.NET
Registrar: NOM IQ LTD (DBA COM LAUDE)
Whois Server: whois.comlaude.com
Referral URL: http://www.comlaude.com
Name Server: UDNS1.ULTRADNS.NET
Name Server: UDNS2.ULTRADNS.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 14-mar-2011
Creation Date: 11-mar-2001
Expiration Date: 11-mar-2021

WHOIS after a site was seized
Domain Name: POKERSTARS.COM
Registrar: NOM IQ LTD (DBA COM LAUDE)
Whois Server: whois.comlaude.com
Referral URL: http://www.comlaude.com
Name Server: NS1.CIRFU.NET
Name Server: NS2.CIRFU.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Status: serverDeleteProhibited
Status: serverTransferProhibited
Status: serverUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 15-apr-2011
Creation Date: 11-mar-2001
Expiration Date: 11-mar-2021

Red Dwarf · **Joined:** Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:01 am **Posts:** 9227

Typical of the uninformed comment in the support forum

Quote:

bye_stars_tilt

Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 7

Re: fulltiltpoker.com & pokerstars.com domain names confiscated by FBI
folks,

they confiscated the domain names, not the servers or the databases. the games are still going on as usual. all they did was force the registrar to hand over the domain names. when uncle sam and the fbi knock on your door, you better bend over.

A quick scan through the Department of Justice Press Release of April 11 shows that in fact assets including bank accounts have been seized and frozen. Of particular relevance:

DOJ PR wrote:

The United States
also filed a civil money laundering and in rem forfeiture
complaint (the "Civil Complaint") against the Poker Companies,
their assets, and the assets of several payment processors for
the Poker Companies. In addition, restraining orders were issued
against more than 75 bank accounts utilized by the Poker
Companies and their payment processors, and five Internet domain
names used by the Poker Companies to host their illegal poker
games were seized.

Gamblers are gamblers, but continuing in the expectation of payouts looks pretty foolhardy to me.

NotBuyingIt · **Joined:** Sun Jun 13, 2010 5:22 pm **Posts:** 528

Viewing the site hXXp://www.PokerStars.com with anonymous web proxies:

On the anonymouse.org network in the EU, I see the FBI notice;

on the Google network in the USA, I see the PokerStars.com web page;

on both the FDCservers.net (USA) and Steadfast Networks (USA), I see a PokerStars.eu web page.

kabo0m · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2010 4:36 pm **Posts:** 155

NotBuyingIt wrote:

Viewing the site hXXp://www.PokerStars.com with anonymous web proxies:

On the anonymouse.org network in the EU, I see the FBI notice;

on the Google network in the USA, I see the PokerStars.com web page;

on both the FDCservers.net (USA) and Steadfast Networks (USA), I see a PokerStars.eu web page.

I still see it as well.

Red Dwarf · **Joined:** Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:01 am **Posts:** 9227

Yawn. Internet DNS and site caching is grand, eh?

Sleep on it another 24-48 hours and see if any caches are still holding it.

What is interesting is that the DOJ didn't seem to notice the ,net or .eu domains, making their actions to date ineffectual.

spamislame · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 9:18 am **Posts:** 5022

This is actually a bit of a surprise, especially given how much these sites spend on marketing and advertising.

One guy is responsible for this shut down: Daniel Tzvetkoff

http://slatest.slate.com/id/2291466/

Interesting.

SiL

spamislame · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 9:18 am **Posts:** 5022

Wired's Threat Level blog has a pretty decent overview:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/0 ... orfeiture/

SiL

Red Dwarf · **Joined:** Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:01 am **Posts:** 9227

Who can locate the total list of aliases still running, which the DOJ failed to find? eg

http://fulltilt.com (which redirects to..)
http://www.fulltiltpoker.co.uk/

spamislame · **Joined:** Tue May 09, 2006 9:18 am **Posts:** 5022

This guy seems to have access to a list of thousands of domains registered by Full Tilt Poker but he never lists them:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61/mt ... es-362484/

SiL

AlphaCentauri · **Joined:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:01 am **Posts:** 5915

spamislame wrote:

This guy seems to have access to a list of thousands of domains registered by Full Tilt Poker but he never lists them

He may have a membership level at DomainTools that allows him to get reports of all domains with the same registrant. It doesn't sound like he was doing anything serious enough to have specifically paid for the report.

Red Dwarf · **Joined:** Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:01 am **Posts:** 9227

Weird. Despite the apparent shut-down, some of these sites are back up and running again

and it's business as usual.

These still display the seizure notice

NotBuyingIt · **Joined:** Sun Jun 13, 2010 5:22 pm **Posts:** 528

From some localities, this notice appears upon the PokerStars.com homepage:

Quote:

PokerStars statement on the blocking of players from the United States
20 April 2010 - On 15 April 2010, PokerStars ceased providing real-money poker to residents of the United States and related territories. Real money play and deposits by US residents are strictly prohibited.

An agreement has been reached with the US Department of Justice to allow United States PokerStars customers to cashout their funds. PokerStars will work diligently to expedite those withdrawals. All PokerStars player deposits are completely safe. More information here.

Players from the United States can continue to play on our site for play money only. New players who wish to create an account will need to do so using our play-money-only software, available at http://www.pokerstars.net.

Red Dwarf wrote:

Yawn. Internet DNS and site caching is grand, eh?

The cause is cloudy

— but maybe the variations by geographical location is not caching, but a distributed network of servers.

Red Dwarf wrote:

Weird.

________________________________
Couldy or foggy, take your pick.

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