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American poker players struggling after April 15
9 May 2011
By Jennifer Robson
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- It's a standard recession-era tale of woe: A company closes and workers lose their income.
But there's little else conventional about what has happened to North Las Vegan Mike Ziethlow.
Ziethlow earns a living through Internet poker, playing for cash on websites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and selling poker-training software.
It all came crashing down on April 15, when federal prosecutors in New York indicted those sites' founders for fraud, money laundering and operating illegal gambling businesses.
The sites ceased U.S. operations immediately. Caught in the legal crossfire were the bankrolls of thousands of online players. Take Ziethlow, who said he has roughly $9,000 tied up in the sites. That's 75 percent of the 30-year-old's life savings.
"My money is all locked up," he said. "I have no money."
So Ziethlow has taken to the Strip with his guitar, strumming and singing for donations from passers-by outside casinos. He's gone from making $20 an hour online to earning $40 playing for four hours on the resort corridor on a recent Friday night.
"Now that they've taken my money, I can't do anything else. I can't even go play live (poker). And I moved to Vegas just in case they did something with online poker, so at least I could still play live," he said
Read entire article here.
9 May 2011
By Jennifer Robson
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- It's a standard recession-era tale of woe: A company closes and workers lose their income.
But there's little else conventional about what has happened to North Las Vegan Mike Ziethlow.
Ziethlow earns a living through Internet poker, playing for cash on websites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and selling poker-training software.
It all came crashing down on April 15, when federal prosecutors in New York indicted those sites' founders for fraud, money laundering and operating illegal gambling businesses.
The sites ceased U.S. operations immediately. Caught in the legal crossfire were the bankrolls of thousands of online players. Take Ziethlow, who said he has roughly $9,000 tied up in the sites. That's 75 percent of the 30-year-old's life savings.
"My money is all locked up," he said. "I have no money."
So Ziethlow has taken to the Strip with his guitar, strumming and singing for donations from passers-by outside casinos. He's gone from making $20 an hour online to earning $40 playing for four hours on the resort corridor on a recent Friday night.
"Now that they've taken my money, I can't do anything else. I can't even go play live (poker). And I moved to Vegas just in case they did something with online poker, so at least I could still play live," he said
Read entire article here.
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