Firepay and Citadel funds seized by DOJ

by mitchell posted May 16th 2007 at 22:00PM

It appears that both Firepay and Citadel, two prominent payment processors to the online gambling industry have joined Neteller in having their funds seized by the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

This story was submitted to us by the guys from AlwaysBluff.com with credible links and sources to back it up. Although this story is still developing, it is hard to say what the repercussions will be to the overall industry.

Here is the complete story compliments of PAW contributing writer Paul (Beanie) Nobles:

Firepay and Citadel funds seized

Firepay, an internet payment processor for online gambling who no longer does business in the United States is cooperating with the Department of Justice according to this article. I will cut to the chase on what this article means; there are two reasons why they would have interest in this, to get people who cheat on their taxes or to find people who collaborated with SportsBooks.

Up to this point that is what the DOJ has been interested in arresting agents in the U. S. who issue credit to sports bettors. The DOJ has a long history of attacking organized crime and more sports betting on credit grows organized crime. That is what I believe most of this is about. Sites that make customers post the money like poker or casino don’t grow organized crime and therefore they have not been attacked. Which is just an opinion based on evidence.

Also Citadel had over 9 million dollars seized by the DOJ recently. Citadel is most well known in the industry as a check processor and does a lot of business insuring instant checks.

Even as new legislation is coming out, the U. S. continues to enforce their prohibition on gambling attempting to cut off the money supply.

Sources:

Official Firepay DOJ (Optimal) Announcement

Official Citadel DOJ Announcement