No Active Investigation Into Merge Poker Network by Baltimore

[Zab]

The Baltimore US Attorney’s Office is not actively pursuing the Merge Poker Network contrary to reports that surfaced on Thursday. Merge Gaming has temporarily stopped accepting new US customers and is expected to re-enter the US market shortly. They will not be accepting new customers from the state of Maryland upon resuming business in the US.

The Baltimore Office was responsible for the seizure of several domain names belonging to online gambling websites back in May. They also orchestrated an elaborate sting operation over a two year time frame by setting up their own payment solutions company, Linwood, which Gambling911.com has since learned was set up by one of the first individuals (a payment processor) named in the early stages of the Baltimore investigation nearly four years ago (see report here)

The May action also resulted in the shutdown of BetED.com while other businesses including two online poker sites continued to operate without skipping a beat.

The state of Maryland has a history of aggressively going after online gambling establishments, particularly those that process funds. Popular payment solutions company Neteller was forced to shut down all Maryland accounts in 2004 after that state threatened legal action against them.

The Baltimore US Attorney’s Office recently filed a civil forfeiture complaint for the forfeiture of the value of all e-metal accounts recorded and maintained by e-gold, Ltd (EGL ), which at one time conducted business with some Internet gambling establishments.

[Flyby123]

I am not holding my breath on any thing when it comes to US players

[gefishy]

I'm not sure how I feel about the precedent Carbon is setting. Basically they are saying, "If you give us enough problems, we'll leave you alone." That would be incredible motivation for the DOJ to simply say officially "We are going after any Merge network that decides to accept new U.S. players."

Makes sense on Merge's part though. There is no reason to run the risk of one little state being obnoxious if you can get the rest of the states anyways.

[MIGO14]

Hmm, only time will tell the truth I guess...

[Drywallman3]

Everything is so shaky right now, sad part is there is more severe problems in our country other than on-line poker. Do you really think the guy living in the homeless shelter is worrying about on-line poker?? Do you think the single mother with 2 kids trying to keep her part time job to pay the bills is worrying about on-line poker???? This just goes to show where our government's priorities are at.

[Flyby123]

I think it is a smart move on there part

[fluffypuppy]

I am glad that this was a false alarm about the DOJ going after Merge.

[Poof]

This is great news! I was pretty sure even if they were investigated, they would be okay, but I also expected to be back on Full Tilt within a week of Black Friday.

[Dalsue214]

Yeah poof i was thinking the same thing with ftp

[Vince1980]

does this mean no US players can deposit on Carbon?