Michael J. Garcia: Online Poker Player Enemy #1 - Again.

It was recently discovered that Michael J. Garcia (pictured Left), U.S. District Attorney for the state of New York, was the man responsible for putting pressure on popular gaming wallet ePassporte - subsequently resulting in it’s recent pullout from the U.S. market.

If the name sounds familiar, well then it’s probably because it should be. You might recall that it was Mr. Garcia’s office that was the main reason NETeller was forced to shut its doors down to United States online poker players early in 2007.

During the Department of Justice’s investigation, thousands of innocent American gamblers’ accounts were frozen. Now while the NETeller situation was eventually resolved without going to court, it has and always will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those that were affected.

In a situation that is looking eerily similar to NETeller, it looks as if ePassporte is buckling to Garcia and U.S. pressure to pull the plug on any “aiding and abetting” of online gambling in America. This gambling news source posted a letter that ePassporte issued to online poker room Pitbull Poker, which clearly states that the company doesn’t wish to be apart of “anything illegal” in the eyes of the U.S. government - even though ePassporte doesn’t fully believe they’ve done anything wrong in the first place.

It is unclear at the moment whether there will be a full-scale audit of the company, but sources close to the industry say it may not be as bad as it seems. Cashouts seem to be going through just fine at the present moment, and it doesn’t look as if accounts will be frozen any time soon.

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