Federal prosecutors in the USA have asked four US banks to freeze tens of millions of dollars in payments owed to online poker players.
The frozen payments are estimated to amount to more than $33 million, and around 27,000 poker players are affected, spread across four different offshore poker sites.
John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Player’s Alliance, said that in the last two weeks federal prosecutors have asked Citibank, Wells Fargo and two other banks to freeze funds in accounts belonging to two companies; Allied Systems, and Account Services, that process payouts on behalf of poker sites.
Mr Pappas said that the government action was noticed after checks issued to poker players began bouncing. He added that the online casinos affected have assured him that they will pay players what they are owed.
Stephen Cohen, a spokesman for Citibank, has confirmed that the bank has received a request from prosecutors. He said that as a matter of policy Citibank complies with such requests. Wells Fargo said that they had a policy to comply with “valid instructions to seize funds”, but declined to make any further comment.
A spokeswoman for the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York - the district where the legal action originated, declined to make any comments on the matter.
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