US Government Claims $13 Million In Online Gambling Funds

The US government continues to focus their efforts on investigating payment processors that handle transactions for the gambling industry. The UIGEA was implemented in June and it gave the US government the power to go after anyone that knowingly handles transactions for any of the offshore online gambling operators. While the UIGEA did not make online gambling illegal, it did make it illegal to knowingly process transactions related to online gambling within the US.

Ahmad Khawaja ran two payment processors that processed gambling transactions and just recently forfeited $13.3 million that was seized by the FBI in 2009. The agreement that was made by Khawaja and the US government will keep Khawaja from experiencing more legal troubles. These payment processors were being used to process transactions at PokerStars, a popular online poker room, and other gaming sites. Since the UIGEA was implemented in June, the US government has focused entirely on payment processors instead of going after the operators.