Over the weekened a large group of online poker rooms were shut down by the US government. DoylesRoom.com was among the group targeted. The rest of the poker rooms included the following: Truepoker.com, Betmaker.com, Betgrandesports.com, Betehorse.com, Beted.com, Bookmaker.com, 2Betsdi.com, Funtimebingo.com and Goldenarchcasino.com. All of these poker rooms were named in indictments that accused them of operating illegally and being a source of money laundering for illegal activities, including terrorism. The indictments were issued by representatives from the IRS, Homeland Security and Immigrations, as well as U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein

In a continuation of the attacks on online poker by the US Government, a Credit Union with ties to payment processing for poker rooms was recently taken over by the Federal Government. Online poker sites such as PokerStars have to use financial institutions to process payments, something that was made illegal in 2006 when the US passed the UIGEA, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Vensure FCU has been put in a conseratorship after a US Judge gave the credit union a restraining order in conjunction with its alleged practices of working with online poker rooms.

After the US government rocked the online poker world by shutting down certain poker rooms, the land based casino industry is set to appeal for some new poker legislation. The AGA has released information that some thousand websites are eying the US poker players market. The AGA is the American Gaming Association, which said that the websites are all based off shore. Poker rooms experienced a boom a few years back, and if the US eventually does legislate online poker, it could experience a boom yet again.

The PPA has the backing of Nevada Casinos in the fight for legal online poker in the US. Poker sites in the US have come under fire in the last month and the PPA wants to help. Now a recent announcement shows how much support the Poker Players Alliance is getting from land based casinos. The relationship between land based casinos and online poker rooms have always been hot and cold, but it seems that solidarity is the theme in recent weeks. Casinos such as Caesars recognize that if they could help create a legal online poker environment in the US they stand to profit by entering the market themselves.

In the wake of poker's “Black Friday” poker advocacy group the Poker Player's Alliance is pushing for the legalization of online poker. Poker players that make up the group include big name pros as well as celebrities. Black Friday was when the US Department of Justice grabbed the domain names of three major online poker rooms and started arresting people connected to their operations. In the last two weeks the PPA has pushed their agenda of legalizing online poker via emails and phone calls, attempting to use the attention Black Friday gained for their industry to their advantage.

Recently federal prosecutors in the US seized multiple homes as part of their crackdown on online poker sites. The homes belong to a former Playboy Playmate who married one of those online poker room employees who were indicted. Destiny Davis, Playboy Magazine’s Miss January in 2005, saw her Las Vegas mansion seized because she married Chad Elie, who was charged with conspiring to commit bank fraud by processing online poker site payments. One of the Full Tilt Poker founders, Ray Bitar, also had homes seized.

In a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing the U.S. Attorney General spoke about the online poker crackdown of April 14th. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday that the actions take by the US were appropriate. He took the stand that because there are laws governing online poker rooms they should be enforced, and thus the action of seizing the domain names belonging to several large online poker sites was appropriate. His position is solely from a logic standpoint and does not deal with if he feels that the laws that exist are appropriate in and of themselves.

The Czech Government may want to act against online poker rooms, but the Czech police keep saying no. More than once the police have been approached by the Czech Government to shut down foreign poker sites. The police rebuff each attempt with the same response, that no crimes are being committed. According to Czech law online betting is legal as long as the it is fixed-odds style, and the five regulated and licensed companies that operate in the country do so. While no poker rooms are operating in country, those five betting companies are looking for the opportunity to do so.

After a number of online poker rooms became blocked to US players some land based casinos are moving to fill the gaps. A number of casino executives have spoken recently that they are ready to receive poker players who can no longer play online. While online poker is not stricktly illegal in the United States, certain elements of the industry are, making it a moot point to the players when the poker rooms start blocking them. PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UB.com and Absolute Poker are among those sites blocked to US players. The site owners are the ones who did the blocking, after members of their companies were arrested by US officials.

In a recent article the head of the Poker Players Association makes the claim that online poker in the United States is already legal. Al D’Amato, a former US Senator, lays his cards on the table in the Washington Post article. He talks about his love for the game and how he wound up heading the grass roots organization PPA and championing its mission to protect the game he loves. He goes on to outline how poker is a game of skill and how the recent attack by the US Justice Department on three major online poker rooms is really an attack on American poker players.