Disclaimer: The following are my opinions on the crackdown of online poker that occurred on April 15th, 2011 as someone who has been around online poker for several years. Any references to past events have not been officially factchecked, and any advice herein is to be taken at your own risk.

First if you're saying "what's this shutdown?" Check www.pocketfives.com or search on google news.

The next, and most important step is...

Don't freak out!

Seriously.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Besides smaller periodical crackdowns that have happened over the years aimed at the people "laundering" your money, there was a similar largescale crackdown in 2006 or so when the FBI shutdown Neteller, a major eWallet providing payment processing for the gaming sites at the time.

This seizure resulted in a bunch of people involved with the sites and Neteller being arrested, funds being seized and some major gaming sites shutting their US traffic down, most notably PartyPoker and the iPoker network. While I don't know the outcome of the arrested, you may have noticed that before yesterday we still had a bit of site selection. As far as the funds go, after 6-9 months all payments in process were released and returned to the sites and players. I personally had a payment in process due to bad timing and eventually got my money. Long story short, the poker world and its money is not coming to an absolute end, but more on that in a minute.

What has changed?

The previous action was based on a very open ended law from the 80s banning placing bets over the telephone and was very much a gray area of how it applied to internet gaming. In 2007 or so Congress passed the first part of the UIGEA bill then a couple years later finalized it. In a nutshell, the final UIGEA bill explicitly stated that US banks could not accept transactions to or from online gaming sites. It did NOT state that the act of playing poker is illegal (more on this later). So, as you may have noticed, the online gaming world didn't end.

But, it did make it much tougher to transfer funds.

You need to understand that past this point, any money you have transferred to or from a poker site has essentially been LAUNDERED if you had a US bank account. Because of enormous business available from the US market, the sites accepted the risks and costs and unbeknownst to most users, set up a system of smaller "payment processors" that were really just the go between between the users and the sites so that they weren't technically doing business with each other. I won't pretend to know all the ins and outs of it, but essentially people were running shell businesses doing nothing but withdrawing/depositing into US bank accounts and cutting checks. Unfortunately for everyone involved, this is again called money laundering, and is frowned upon by the US government who has now seen it fit to shut everything down and seize funds.

So...what should you do?

The first thing I WOULD NOT do is attempt to withdraw right now. This is exactly opposite of what you want to be doing. Why? For one you're not getting your money any time soon, and im pretty sure its blocked by the sites anyways at this point. Second, if your funds were to make it out, they'd be seized and who knows when and if you'd get them back.

Believe it or not the sites don't want to screw you out of your money. It's simply not in their best interest if they want to ever continue doing business here.

Your unwithdrawn funds are SAFE. The funds are stored in non-US accounts that TECHNICALLY the US can't touch. This hasn't stopped them before but that's a different story.

Again, what should you be doing? Sit tight. Don't freak out. I don't see this as the end of online poker, but it will likely change things. I foresee options being made available in the future to at the least empty your accounts. In my opinion I see the sites partnering with non-US banks to set up accounts for us to use as the go between to and from US bank accounts or to have a debit card that you could use like any other card.

But...that's stills sounds a bit like money laundering.

It is. That's the state of online gaming in the US. The cold hard fact is that it is currently explicitly illegal to make these transactions. Until the law changes, this cat and mouse game will be the norm for online gaming.

What else should you be doing? The Poker Players Alliance, PPA, (http://theppa.org/) constantly lobbies on behalf of all poker gaming, including online. Get involved with them, even if it's just with a donation. With the help of the PPA (they offer templates) or not, you can write your elected officials to tell them your feelings on the matter. Second, and nearly as important, spread the word. Playing poker online is NOT currently illegal, just making transactions with US bank accounts. Obviously people are going to know that you play, and they almost ALWAYS have misconceptions about the ins and outs and legalities of online gaming. Set them straight. Don't allow misinformation to be spread.

Cliffs: Don't freak out, this has happened before, but is a little more serious this time. There should be options to get your money in the future, and this probably isn't the end of US online gaming.