ITH Poker Forum

[Doc T River]

There have been allegations that online poker has been used to launder money. Has anyone who ever made that claim provided proof or are they saying it because it sounds good?

[nsidestrate]

If you accept that poker itself is illegal under US law, then pretty much every transaction to/from banks is money laundering. Both Neteller founders plead guilty to money laundering charges in 2007. Any US citizen who performed money exchanges on poker sites in order to facilitate sports betting transactions almost certainly committed money laundering under US law.
<br />

<br />
Money laundering the sense that most of us think of it, a way to channel proceeds from drug deals is probably rare to nonexistent. Channeling proceeds from illegal sports betting probably happens quite often.

[nsidestrate]

Money Laundering laws, like the RICO statutes are thought of as meaning something they don't. They can be used quite effectively as a law enforcement tool to attack a wide variety of activities. I strongly fear that many of the anti-terrorism laws will ultimately be used much more broadly as well. There is some evidence that they already are being used to prosecute activities that have nothing to do with terrorism.

[Doc T River]

I was thinking in terms of the classic definition of money laundering. That is using an activity (for lack of a better word) to "clean" money made through an illegal operation.