FBI takes over online poker website?

Frightened online poker players advised to contact the website PokerHost.com to retrieve their account info, upon submitting their personal information were welcomed by the following message....

"Thank you for your cooperation.....Poker Host has been caught taking illegal wagers for United States citizens..... residing in jurisdictions with laws prohibiting such activities. As well as these suspicious gambling activities, other charges include tax evasion and racketeering.

Your data, including phone number, address and IP location, has been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to check if gambling is legal in your jurisdiction.

If you think you have been a victim of fraud or identity theft by PokerHost please contact your local chapter of the FBI."

FBI or elaborate hoax?  Impersonation of FBI agents could yield severe penalty if that later

Pokerhost.com, owned and managed by online sportbook SBG Global has been allegedly seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or so the message says.

Upon further investigation, however, Gambling911.com has learned that PokerHost.com was in the process of severing ties with SBG Global.  In fact, the DNS and URL information remains unchanged since January. 

FBI agents are also required to attend law suit.  The message appearing on the SBG Global website is written in poor English (i.e. "Thank you for your cooperation.....Poker Host has been caught taking illegal wagers for United States citizens....."; "For" should be "From").

A representative of PokerHost.com had been in attendance at CAP Spring Break in Miami Beach two weeks ago (The Casino Affiliate Conference). 

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Christopher Costigan, www.gambling911.com

Originally published May 8, 2006 10:32 am EDT