American State in direct mail campaign to warn online players
Wednesday 8th August 2007
In America, the western state of Utah has been posting letters to online poker players warning them that they could be in violation of State laws.
This stems from a grand jury in the State capital of Salt Lake City charging seven people and four companies in the spring with multiple felonies relating to processing credit cards for gambling websites. The defendants in this case are accused of helping gambling sites process $150 million in payments from American bettors, according to the US Department of Justice.
Companies facing charges in the case include CurrenC Ltd, Gateway Technologies LLC and Hill Financial Services Inc and, as part of the case, these companies handed over to the State customer names and addresses for online poker players living in Utah.
Utah does not permit any forms of gambling or operate a state lottery and, in 2005, the State’s Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, was one of 28 other attorneys general that wrote to the US Trade Representative Rob Portman calling for a greater states' voice in future trade talks following a ruling that favoured the Caribbean nation of Antigua's policy on Internet gambling.
'Antigua has no business trying to write Utah's gambling laws,' said Shurtleff. 'The Trade Representative needs to know that we have too much at stake to remain silent.'
In America, the western state of Utah has been posting letters to online poker players warning them that they could be in violation of State laws.