[robocop]

so for anyone who doesn't know what actually has happened:

1.A few years back the States made online gambling illegal, sort of. The gambling sites weren't technically supposed to operate but the laws were very unclear and there was no enforcement of the laws.
2. The major banks didn't want to do transactions with the major sites so they figured out a way to prop up small local banks around the country that were willing to do the online transactions with the agreement that the poker sites would invest in and support the banks.
3. The big sites set up a bunch of accounts with all these little banks and did the transactions under fraudulent terms (e.g. claiming a deposit was from selling golfballs online, no joke).
4. These kind of tactics were deemed as fraudulent and money laundering (among other things) and the FBI allowed it to go on long enough for them to cement a case that will stick to the major sites and their owners so that the laws created a few years ago that were unenforceable are now put into action. The main guy who was behind the scenes who came up with the idea of using small banks for the transactions basically worked for both Stars and FT and about 3 weeks ago he ratted out the owners of both to save his own neck.
5. Who knows what the hell happens now.

There is a good chance the sites will go down globally in the next few days if the FBI manages to gain control of the servers, whether the money is save or not is unclear. the sites have said it is, obviously, but if the FBI does get to the Isle of Man anything could happen. There is going to be some serious jailtime handed out, online poker may be legalized or completely shutdown in the US.